Having brought a close last week to my three part mini-series of fire songs, and before the start (next Tuesday) of my seasonal sets, I was wondering what I could do for just one week. So I took a look back through my notes and found that I played a set of water songs two years ago, and had some more ready for the theme, so it seemed like a plan to go with that. And it is also the perfect companion piece to this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme – my offering for that is here, if you missed it.

As usual, these are a bit of a mixed bag, with some you may know and at least one which I expect will be new to most. But that’s why I do this – to introduce you to songs I like! I’m starting with a band I expect you’ll know, but this isn’t one of their best known songs:

Down to the Waterline was the opening track on Dire Straits’ eponymous debut album, which was released in June 1978, peaking at #5 in the UK and #2 in the US. It went Double Platinum in both countries, for 2 million sales in the US and 600,000 in the UK – not bad for a band we had hardly heard of! Like most, I guess, I bought the album on the strength of its big hit single, Sultans Of Swing, and I wasn’t disappointed – it is a great record, with loads of good songs. I remember that a guy I worked with was also a fan of the album, and we used to entertain (i.e. annoy) our co-workers by singing bits of it to them. The fact that neither of us could hold a note didn’t dissuade us, though maybe it should have done!

I was intending to play this next one anyway, but the recent death of a band member has turned this into a kind of tribute:

The Stone Roses were an indie rock band, formed in Manchester in 1983. They weren’t the most prolific of acts, only releasing two albums in their time, in 1989 and 1994. They were together until they split in 1996, reforming in 2011 but without releasing any further albums – just a couple of singles. Waterfall is a track from their debut album, The Stone Roses, which came out in May 1989, reaching #5 in the UK and #86 in the US, going 5x Platinum in the UK for 1.5 million sales. The song was released as a single in December 1991, reaching #27 in the UK but managing to sell more than 600,000 copies in the process, and thereby going Platinum. They were one of those bands that I never got around to buying but always liked when I heard them on the radio – this song is a particular favourite of mine. The band’s bass player, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield died last week, at just 63 – it’s always sad when we lose another musician, and that is no age, is it.

My next tune for today is the one I’m expecting to be the least well known – go on, surprise me! You may know the band, but how about this song and its remarkable video:

The band is Of Monsters and Men, who are an English-language indie folk/rock band from Iceland, formed in Garðabær in 2010. They are lead singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, singer and guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, lead guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. That song is Black Water, a track from Beneath The Skin, their second album, released in June 2015, and peaking at #1 in Canada, #3 in the US, and #10 in the UK. The track wasn’t released as a single, though as they made a video for it I imagine that might have been considered. The actor is a lady called Guðrún Gísladóttir, and I think she is amazing. I love the song, and her heartfelt performance raises it to a higher level. And you have to love the way Nanna sings of the ‘wicious, wengeful sea.’

This next one is a fairly recent release, from September this year:

That was Passenger, with Walk Upon The Water, a track from his new album One For The Road (Songs from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry The Musical). I haven’t seen the musical, but I’ve read the book by Rachel Joyce and seen the movie that it is based on, and if it is anything like as good as those it will be worth seeing. I won’t spoil your enjoyment by telling you the story, but trust me, it’s good and heartwarming! The movie stars Jim Broadbent as Harold Fry and Penelope Wilton as his wife, Maureen.  The musical was first performed in May this year in Chichester and will be moving to a West End run next January, with songs like this one written by Passenger, aka Mike Rosenberg. His album was released in September, but I can tell you very little about it, as it seems to have bypassed Wikipedia and hasn’t entered the UK charts. I have it in my Apple Music library and it is as lovely as all of his other records, and getting The Kingdom Choir to accompany him on this song was an inspired move.

In case you’re wondering when you might find something familiar in this set I thought I’d close with one of my usual suspects:

Jackson Browne, of course, with Rock Me on the Water, a track from his debut album, released in January 1972. It is officially called Jackson Browne but has become known as Saturate Before Using, after the wording at the top of the sleeve picture. Whatever it is called, it peaked at #53 in the US and #20 in Australia, but didn’t make the UK charts – he was four albums in before we caught up with him. I had been a fan since this first one, though, which went to uni with me and was played a lot. Rock Me On The Water was the second single taken from the album, in July 1972, and it reached #48 in the US. And on this you saw Craig Doerge on piano, David Lindley on guitar, and Doug Haywood and Rosemary Butler on backing vocals.

That’s it for today, and as I said at the outset they are the usual mixed bag, so I hope you found something to enjoy in there. I’ll see you again in a couple of days, so until then stay well and happy. Take care 😊