Songfacts®:

• The title track to the third Waterboys album, "This Is The Sea" is about leaving the past behind:
  
  Once you were tethered
  Now you are free
  That was the river
  This is the sea
  
  Lead singer Mike Scott wrote the song; he composed about 20 different verse lyrics, choosing the best five for the final product.
• Looking back on the song in 2017, Mike Scott isn't impressed. "Melodically, I think it's a very limiting song," he told Songfacts. "My abilities with melodies have improved a lot, have developed a lot since those days, and that song doesn't really make it for me."
• Horns, piano and a small string section were used to create this song, evoking an oceanside. The Waterboys rarely perform it live because it's very hard to replicate this atmosphere on stage.
• Tom Jones recorded this for his 2021 covers album Surrounded by Time. The veteran Welsh baritone did his version in the first take. He told HMV he listened to The Waterboys song, then went into the studio with the rhythm section and they hit it right away.
  
  Jones turned to his producer Ethan John and asked him, "you wanna go again?" Johns said, "No, we've got it."