Album Review: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Mike Scott’s latest outing under The Waterboys banner is a bold, conceptual tribute to the life and mythos of Dennis Hopper. Life, Death and Dennis Hopper moves chronologically through time and space, soundtracking the maverick actor’s journey from Kansas to Hollywood, New Orleans to Easy Rider-era America, and into the fog of his final years. It’s an album made up of stylistic vignettes—short, place-and-time-specific tunes that evoke rather than explore, more cinematic postcard than soul-searching biopic.

Stylistically, Scott has abandoned the Celtic gospel sound that once defined The Waterboys, opting instead for a chameleonic production that tries on genres like costumes. From Bo Diddley rhythms to psychedelic rock, chicano balladry, and lounge jazz, Hopper is a musical collage of mid-20th century America, earnestly adopting each style without a trace of irony. The approach is admirable in theory, but often leaves the listener longing for more substance beneath the stylistic flourishes.

Many tracks are carried—or rescued—by high-profile guests. Steve Earle’s unmistakable outlaw twang anchors “Kansas,” the album’s opener, while Fiona Apple’s haunting performance on “Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend” is a rare emotional gut-punch, delicate and harrowing. Bruce Springsteen lends his presence to “Ten Years Gone,” and though he barely sings, the track is among the album’s best, recalling the yearning grandeur of The Rising. Taylor Goldsmith shines on “I Don’t Know How I Made It,” a country-soul ballad that manages to be both elegiac and hopeful, the album’s most complete and affecting moment.

Elsewhere, though, the record stumbles. Tracks like “Hollywood ’55,” “Freaks On Wheels,” and “Transcendental Peruvian Blues” sound more like audio sketches than finished songs, their reliance on spoken-word narration and half-formed melodies rendering them forgettable. Scott’s penchant for talk-over vocals becomes a recurring crutch, one that drains energy from otherwise promising compositions like “Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper” and “Hopper’s On Top Genius.” There’s a sense that the concept dictated the music, rather than the other way around.

Several instrumentals offer atmospheric interludes—“Brooke 1712 North Crescent Heights,” “Daria,” and “Katherine”—but they rarely build to anything memorable. “Venice, California Victoria: The Passing Of Hopper” fares better, a cinematic blend of ambient textures and funeral march that captures the sentiment the album so often reaches for but rarely lands.

Despite standout moments, the album never quite coheres. Its patchwork of eras and genres creates a sense of disjointedness—too modern to feel truly retro, too retro to resonate as a present-day statement. It aims for the surrealism of a Lynchian fever dream, but the result feels more like a mood board than a movie. The production often outshines the songwriting, which suffers from a lack of compelling vocal lines and melodic hooks, a recurring issue in recent Waterboys releases.

Only in “Golf, They Say” does everything finally click. The melody, the slow build, the tension and release—it all works. It’s the one track where concept and craft truly come together, and it shows what this album could have been.

Life, Death and Dennis Hopper is an intriguing failure, or maybe a successful sketchbook. Either way, it’s more compelling as an idea than as an album. One wishes Scott had started not with the story, but with the songs

Genre: Rock
Release date: April 4th, 2025
Produced by: Mike Scott with Famous James and Brother Paul
Label: Sun Records
Rating: 6/10