WHAT you hear on an album can be several sound barriers away from the original recordings.

Arguably Paul McCartney’s most famous ballad, Yesterday, had the working title of Scrambled Eggs, while The La’s’ infamous eponymous release remains their lone record as writer Lee Mavers agonised for eons over the entire sound and then was not satisfied.

Now Mike Scott, leader of The Waterboys, has revisited their 1985 height-touching This Is The Sea release. In A Special Place features the original demos he set down before the album morphed into a modern classic. It’s just Scott and piano and it’s just... so tedious.

Hearing the genesis of ideas should be insightful, invigorating and intriguing. But this is sing-a-long Scott as he hammers the ivories like a typewriter-trained hack operating a laptop. File under dry curio strictly for Waterboys’ aficionados.