Dream Harder

Dream Harder is the sixth studio album by the Waterboys, released by Geffen Records on 24 May 1993. Led by Scottish singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Mike Scott, the album features none of the earlier UK-based band members and instead finds Scott backed by American session musicians. It was the last Waterboys album before Scott spent seven years pursuing a formal solo career, with Bring 'Em All In (1995) and Still Burning (1997). The album reached position 171 on the Billboard Top 200 charts, surpassing the previous Waterboys album Room to Roam, in spite of a less-than-enthusiastic response from critics to the album's sound. The album art was provided by the photography of Michael Halsband and John Hardin and the painting of Pal Shazar, under the direction of Frank Olinsky and Tom Zutaut. Dream Harder was a return to a rock, or even hard rock, sound after the traditional Celtic-influenced preceding two albums. It did, however, continue the Waterboys' tradition of arranging a William Butler Yeats poem, in this case "Love And Death". "The Return of Pan" is the Waterboys' second ode to the Greek deity, and the album contains a number of references to the romantic Neopaganism of Dion Fortune and the mystical Christianity of C. S. Lewis, as well as a tribute to guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Background Shortly before the release of the Waterboys' fifth studio album, Room to Roam, Mike Scott and his long-time band member Anthony Thistlethwaite decided they wanted to change the band's musical direction by returning to their rock-orientated sound. As a result, the "Magnificent Seven" line-up parted ways before the album's tour and a new four-piece version of the band toured with a rock-dominated sound. Scott then looked for fresh inspiration by relocating from Ireland to Greenwich Village, New York, in September 1991. While most of the songs which appeared on Dream Harder were written when Scott was still living in Ireland, work on recording the album did not begin until January 1992, after Scott had signed a new record deal with Geffen Records. The label's A&R man suggested that Scott collaborate with producer Bill Price and they produced Dream Harder together. Scott told Melody Maker in 1993, "Geffen knew I wanted to do a gung-ho rock 'n' roll album and they suggested him. I like Bill, the decision made itself." He went on to summarise the material on Dream Harder, "The record reflects what I was going through in 1991.