The Waterboys announce details of their 16th studio album

The Waterboys announce details of their 16th studio album, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper.

Out on Sun Records this April, it promises to be the most audacious Waterboys album yet and tells the epic story of the trailblazing American actor and rebel through a song cycle depicting not only Hopper’s story but the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture.

“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Mike Scott. “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol. He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the 60s. In the 70s and 80s he went on a wild 10-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

Life, Death And Dennis Hopper

Scott has worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks and traces the extraordinary arc of Hopper’s life. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.

Alongside Scott’s masterful songwriting, the album features a stellar lineup of guests including Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Steve Earle, Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, young English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s, and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.

Tracklisting

1 Kansas (featuring Steve Earle)
2 Hollywood ’55
3 Live In The Moment, Baby
4 Brooke / 1712 North Crescent Heights
5 Andy (A Guy Like You)
6 The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher)
7 Freaks On Wheels
8 Blues For Terry Southern
9 Memories Of Monterey
10 Riding Down To Mardi Gras
11 Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
12 Transcendental Peruvian Blues
13 Michelle (Always Stay)
14 Freakout At The Mud Palace
15 Daria
16 Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
17 Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple)
18 Rock Bottom
19 I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith)
20 Frank (Let’s Fu*k)
21 Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye)
22 Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
23 Golf, They Say
24 Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper
25 Aftermath

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