Mike Scott is back this summer with a new album from The Waterboys, the 14th full-length LP from the group, called Good Luck, Seeker, that is preceded by what he’s calling a “seven-minute mash-up manifesto” of a single, “My Wanderings in the Weary Land.” Hear it right here.

Mike Scott returns with a new album by The Waterboys this May, a 10-song collection entitled Where the Action Is — the title is inspired by the chorus to Robert Parker’s northern soul classic “Let’s Go Baby” — that follows up the band’s hip-hop inspired double album Out Of All This Blue. Details here.

The Waterboys have debuted the first single off the band’s upcoming double album, an upbeat, 3 1/2-minute track called “If the Answer is Yeah!” that delivers on bandleader Mike Scott’s promise to employ more modern production values and styles in his new music. Hear it right here.

The Waterboys will release their 12th album, a double record entitled Out of All This Blue, in September, a collection of 23 new songs that bandleader Mike Scott says show influences of soul, hip-hop (yes, hip-hop), R&B, funk and swamp-rock. Scott also confirmed The Waterboys will tour the U.S. in 2018.

The Waterboys have a long history of covering Prince’s epic “Purple Rain” in concert, and here’s another great take on that classic: Mike Scott and Co. on Friday performed a stripped-down cover of the song live on the air during the BBC’s “Chris Evans Breakfast Show” — which you can watch in full here.

This week’s new releases include the slightly slimmed-down 6CD version of the new Waterboys’ ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ box set of demos and unfinished tracks, plus a reissue of Soulsavers’ album with Dave Gahan and the belated CD release of Tears For Fears co-founder Curt Smith’s new solo album.

The Waterboys continue to add dates to the band’s first full North American tour since 2007 — which bandlander Mike Scott has promised will be “the longest Waterboys American tour ever” — with five more concerts, including one at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, being added this week, with more still to come.