Mike Scott's strength has always been his strong sense of independence. After the Waterboys disbanded, he's always been brave enough to choose his new paths without conditioning, always taking full responsibility for his music, writing his own songs and producing them, together with Niko Bolas. Still Burning comes as his second record under the name of Mike Scott, and follows the magnificent Bring 'Em All In, an acoustic effort made up of fierce guitars and celtic potions. The title of the new album clearly stigmatizes Scott's lyrical and musical urgency, emphasizing his will to stand in the breach after all these years. Actually, this is what 'Sunrising' seems to be all about. After all this time I'm still on the line / With a case to prove and a public to move, sings Scott, as if he wanted to prove (to himself or to the audience?) that a lot of water must pass under the bridge, before the pop muse leaves him. Alas, this is exactly what makes the album redundant, at times, and a bit too self-congratulating on its own authenticity of old, just like a suit that never goes out of fashion. Yet the album never sounds like a nostalgic Big Chill and brings together old sounds with brand new shapes. Some of the tracks blink at the not so old times of Dream Harder, but those heavy guitars have at times been replaced by these cold strings. Alas, both the famous Kick Horns and the Memphis Horns sound quite disoriented and puzzled. It's the case of 'Questions', the opening track. The arrangements sound slightly prepacked, and the riffs are often quite predictable. Not in the slow ballads, anyway, which are Scott's real speciality. So 'Open', 'Personal' and the closing 'Everlasting Arms' (which goes back to the Bring 'Em All In sessions) come as pure and bright gems, intimate excerpts from Scott's personal diary. The great Pino Palladino's bass guitar and Ian McNabb's backing vocals are a powerful frame for ten vigorous songs that Mike moulded in his own image and likeness, without frills and with 'bucolic' pride. Yes, because Still Burning is a good album, even if it's neither as biting as Dream Harder nor as inspired as Bring 'Em All In. But this is not a problem for the brave Mike, whose passion for his own music is - would you believe? - still burning. One thing is certain: he knows the road he means to walk along, and he will not stop to read the signs. Not even if they're bringing him back to an undying… pagan place.