Album of the Year.

THE WATERBOYS - Universal Hall

The deafening drums of war that marked this year were no match for this quiet prayer for peace from the pouty lips of Mike Scott. With Fisherman’s Blues alum Steve Wickham flexing the fiddle’s bow, Scott has created a spiritual Celtic classic on par with Astral Weeks that feels like an amplified prayer. His collaboration with Hothouse Flowers on “I’ve Lived Here Before,” a song that describes the feeling he had when he first stepped on the shores of the Aran Islands, and emerges with an anthem for déjà vu that many Irish Americans can identify with as they recall their first time on Emerald Isle soil. “The short lyrics on these songs work like mantras or affirmations; phrases designed to be said over and over in order to inspire or transform a state of mind,” Scott explained in a recent interview. “Eternal Being of Love” is just one of the meditative songs that speak to the inner light that shines in all of us, one that burns brighter in the midst of this luminous masterpiece. 

Celtic rock just doesn’t get any better than this, which is why Universal Hall is our pick for disc of the year.