FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
Part Seventy-Three: Echo & the Bunnymen
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IT has taken me a while…
PHOTO CREDIT: David Hogan/Rex Features
to get around to Echo & the Bunnymen for A Buyer’s Guide. One of the defining bands of the 1980s,. they have released so many great albums. I am going to recommend the four essential ones, the underrated gem in the catalogue, in addition to highlighting their latest studio album. There is also a book about the band that I have mentioned. Before getting to that, here is some biography from AllMusic:
“Echo & the Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia brought the group a handful of British hits in the early '80s, while attracting a cult following in the United States. Driven by the majestic voice and outsized persona of singer Ian McCulloch and the frequently brilliant guitar work of Will Sergeant, the band started off as an angular post-punk group on their first album, 1980's Crocodiles, but by the time of 1984's Ocean Rain they had become cinematically baroque. After stripping their sound down to basics for 1987's self-titled album, which produced the deathless hit "Lips Like Sugar," the band ran into problems and experienced tragedy (like the death of drummer Pete de Freitas), but eventually McCulloch and Sergeant cemented a musical bond that cracked but never shattered over the course of two decades of albums -- some introspective gems like 1999's What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?, some like 2014's Meteorites that recaptured their dramatic spark -- and live dates.
The Bunnymen grew out of the Crucial Three, a late-'70s trio featuring vocalist Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, and Julian Cope. Cope and Wylie left the group by the end of 1977, forming the Teardrop Explodes and Wah!, respectively. McCulloch met guitarist Will Sergeant in the summer of 1978 and the pair began recording demos with a drum machine that the duo called "Echo." Adding bassist Les Pattinson, the band made its live debut at the Liverpool club Eric's at the end of 1978, calling itself Echo & the Bunnymen.
In March of 1979, the group released its first single, "Pictures on My Wall"/"Read It in Books," on the local Zoo record label. The single and their popular live performances led to a contract with Korova. After signing the contract, the group discarded the drum machine, adding drummer Pete de Freitas. Released in the summer of 1980, their debut album, Crocodiles, reached number 17 on the U.K. charts. Shine So Hard, an EP released in the fall, became their first record to crack the U.K. Top 40. With the more ambitious and atmospheric Heaven Up Here (1981), the group began to gain momentum, thanks to positive reviews; it became their first U.K. Top Ten album. Two years later, Porcupine appeared, becoming the band's biggest hit (peaking at number two on the U.K. charts) and launching the Top Ten single "The Cutter."
"The Killing Moon" became the group's second Top Ten hit at the beginning of 1984 and the album that followed in May, Ocean Rain, was released to great critical acclaim; peaking at number four in Britain, the record became the Bunnymen's first album to chart in the U.S. Top 100. The following year was a quiet one for the band as they released only one new song, "Bring on the Dancing Horses," which was included on the compilation Songs to Learn & Sing. De Freitas left the band at the start of 1986 and was replaced by former Haircut 100 drummer Mark Fox; by September, de Freitas rejoined the group.
Echo & the Bunnymen returned with new material in the summer of 1987, releasing the single "The Game" and a self-titled album. Echo & the Bunnymen became their biggest American hit, peaking at number 51; it was a success in England as well, reaching number four. However, the album indicated that the group was in a musical holding pattern. At the end of 1988, McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career; the rest of the band decided to continue without the singer. Tragedy hit the band in the summer of 1989 when de Freitas was killed in an auto accident. McCulloch released his first solo album, Candleland, in the fall of 1989; it peaked at number 18 in the U.K. and number 159 in the U.S. Echo & the Bunnymen released Reverberation, their first album recorded without McCulloch, in 1990; it failed to make the charts. McCulloch released his second solo album, Mysterio, in 1992. Two years later, McCulloch and Sergeant formed Electrafixion, releasing their first album in 1995. In 1997, the duo re-teamed with Pattinson to re-form Echo & the Bunnymen, issuing the LP Evergreen. Two years later, they returned with What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?
The new millennium brought Echo & the Bunnymen back to the basics. The British press touted the band's storybook flair found on 1983's Ocean Rain and figured such spark would be found on their ninth album, Flowers. Issued in spring 2001, it reflected McCulloch's dark vocals and Sergeant's signature hooks. Live in Liverpool, a concert disc capturing the band's two gigs at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts while on tour in support of Flowers, followed a year later.
For 2005's Siberia, McCulloch and Sergeant joined producer Hugh Jones for the band's most classic effort since their 1997 comeback. A second proper live album, 2006's Me, I'm All Smiles, captured the Bunnymen's gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire while on tour in support of Siberia. In early 2008, the band announced that they would be releasing their next album, The Fountain, as well as playing a show at Radio City Music Hall to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Late 2010 also brought a short run of equally interesting U.K. shows, when the band played both Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here live in their entirety.
For the next few years they continued to remain active on the live circuit, most notably playing as the touring support act for a re-formed James in 2013. They weren't strangers to the studio either, working with producer Youth on their 12th album, Meteorites. The record recaptured the majesty and mystery of much earlier Echo albums and was released in 2014 by 429 Records. It was the first album by the band in many years to crack the U.K. Top 40 album chart, peaking at number 37. The band continued to tour and their success caught the attention of BMG, who offered the band a contract. The first fruit of the partnership was 2018's The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon, an album of old classics redone, some with orchestras, some in stripped-down fashion. It also featured two new songs written by McCulloch and Sergeant”.
To celebrate and spotlight the great work of Echo & the Bunnymen, below are the albums that you will want to own. If you are a bit new to the band or have not listened to them in a while, then I hope that the guide below…
HELPS you out.
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The Four Essential Albums
Crocodiles
Release Date: 18th July, 1980
Label: Korova
Producers: Bill Drummond/David Balfe/Ian Broudie
Standout Tracks: Going Up/Crocodiles/Rescue
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=27552&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0TXcd8jwKkHP3IamgFHeRJ?si=_tu4v0leQ8ui85UmpDpCZg&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Inspired by psychedelia, sure. Bit of Jim Morrison in the vocals? OK, it's there. But for all the references and connections that can be drawn (and they can), one listen to Echo's brilliant, often harrowing debut album and it's clear when a unique, special band presents itself. Beginning with the dramatic, building climb of "Going Up," Crocodiles at once showcases four individual players sure of their own gifts and their ability to bring it all together to make things more than the sum of their parts. Will Sergeant in particular is a revelation -- arguably only Johnny Marr and Vini Reilly were better English guitarists from the '80s, eschewing typical guitar-wank overload showboating in favor of delicacy, shades, and inventive, unexpected melodies. More than many before or since, he plays the electric guitar as just that, electric not acoustic, dedicated to finding out what can be done with it while never using it as an excuse to bend frets. His highlights are legion, whether it's the hooky opening chime of "Rescue" or the exchanges of sound and silence in "Happy Death Men." Meanwhile, the Pattinson/De Freitas rhythm section stakes its own claim for greatness, the former's bass driving yet almost seductive, the latter's percussion constantly shifting rhythms and styles while never leaving the central beat of the song to die. "Pride" is one standout moment of many, Pattinson's high notes and De Freitas' interjections on what sound like chimes or blocks are inspired touches. Then there's McCulloch himself, and while the imagery can be cryptic, the delivery soars, even while his semi-wail conjures up, as on the nervy, edgy picture of addiction "Villiers Terrace," "People rolling round on the carpet/Mixing up the medicine." Brisk, wasting not a note, and burning with barely controlled energy, Crocodiles remains a deserved classic” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Pictures on My Wall
Heaven Up Here
Release Date: 30th May, 1981
Label: Korova
Producers: Hugh Jones/The Bunnymen
Standout Tracks: Over the Wall/Heaven Up Here/All My Colours
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/echo-and-the-bunnymen/heaven-up-here-rocktober-exclusive
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2jnfTHz4rKiOXbpU88TpNS?si=MXqa8wVFRYe4tDRzCLiDmg&dl_branch=1
Review:
“The most notable totem of Echo And The Bunnymen was the much-profiled frontman. Naturally, teenage me was fixated by Ian McCulloch. Here was a man who was so much more than a pop singer. He was an icon and a poet, a spokesman for a generation. Sure, he was dripping in confidence, brash, arrogant and absolutely certain of his genius, but aren’t your heroes supposed to be? You sensed that McCulloch had taken himself away and immersed himself in the works of Scott Walker and Baudelaire. For him, this was about so much more than pop music. It really mattered to him, it was life and death, and because of that we bought into it. He was our Jim Morrison, our Lou Reed. He truly believed that The Bunnymen were the greatest band on the planet and, for a few short years, he was absolutely correct. Ian McCulloch was everything that me and my kind always aspired to, but never actually believed we could be. His lyrics, mysteriously enigmatic, were pored over incessantly and, just like Dylan, much would be made of his words. I mean, who or what is “Zimbo” anyway? The music press leapt to the conclusion that because his words were hard to decipher, they must be drug-induced. They were described as “psychedelic”, with a knowing nod and wink. This infuriated McCulloch, who railed at the lazy journalism and informed the world that if the lyrics had a dream-like quality that was possibly down to the fact that he based them on his dreams. You know, the kind we all have.
As a frontman, he was peerless, exuding magnetism; all eyes on him. But musically, Echo And The Bunnymen were a band of equals. I’ve already mentioned de Freitas’s powerful drumming, providing a rolling and pounding foundation to the beautifully atmospheric All My Colours. Listen too to how he propels A Promise, driving it on relentlessly. To think they had initially tried to get the band off the ground with a drum machine (the famous Echo) in the seat ultimately taken by de Freitas. In absolute harmony with those beats, we had the incredibly underrated bass playing of Les Pattinson. His brilliance slaps you right in the face in the first five seconds when his bass line kicks into the opening track, Show Of Strength. And then again, immediately afterwards on With A Hip, when his riff coils around the entire song, transforming it into a glorious sliver of sheer funk. Together, de Freitas and Pattinson formed a rhythm section that were the nonpareil of their era.
However, brilliant as de Freitas and Pattinson are, stunning as McCulloch’s singing and lyrics are, the star of Heaven Up Here is guitarist Will Sergeant. There are certain guitarists who you know immediately, the second you hear them. Johnny Marr is one, Wilko Johnson another. Will Sergeant fits that epithet perfectly. Apparently, he substituted his plectrum for a pair of scissors at one point in recording. Imagine Salvador Dali had been a barber? There’s the sound. At other times he is incisive, like Errol Flynn with a rapier. Heaven Up Here is comprised of a plethora of sounds and textures that materialise from Sergeant’s six-string. There’s no question that his playing has evolved since their debut the previous year. He is no longer playing songs. Instead, he is creating vivid soundscapes out of complex layers. He soars in Show Of Strength and Over The Wall; manufactures gorgeously simple, yet memorable, solos like the one in With A Hip. He flits from the jangling treble of It Was A Pleasure to the distorted buzzsaw of the title track. Such incredible versatility. He is at his very best though when the distortion is minimised and he makes his notes ring out with the clarity of crystal. Do It Clean, Will.
Theoretically speaking, as a band, Echo And The Bunnymen were yet to peak. The follow-up to Heaven Up Here, Porcupine, is technically more accomplished. But despite many more highlights, and several hit singles, they never crafted an album quite like Heaven Up Here again. As great as Porcupine and 1997’s hugely underrated Evergreen are, they cannot match Heaven Up Here in terms of being such a coherent and impactful collection. That’s all down to the songs. With A Hip is as bold and innovative as anything the band ever did. The pop sensibility of A Promise is the equal of The Back Of Love or The Killing Moon and to this day I am astonished that it wasn’t as commercially successful. The intensely smouldering Over The Wall is pure melodrama, whilst All My Colours is unadulterated spiritual, handed down from the heavens on tablets of stone. We have the sublime, shimmering swagger of Turquoise Days and the brooding portentousness of Show Of Strength. In total, there are eleven songs. Eleven jewels in a sparkling crown. No filler.
For forty years, Heaven Up Here has been a constant companion. It’s an album that has lifted me up and laid me down again, so many times. Over the years, it has been relegated down the ranks in my ongoing mental league table of albums. Once dominant, from ’81 to ’86 when it was unrivalled, it became a top three album for about a decade. Today it has stabilised. Most of the time I would place it top six, comfortably. Somedays, another great album will challenge it, but it never drops out of the top ten. I doubt it ever will” – Louder Than War
Choice Cut: A Promise
Ocean Rain
Release Date: 4th May, 1984
Label: Korova
Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Gil Norton/Henri Loustau
Standout Tracks: Silver/Seven Seas/Ocean Rain
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=27874&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3V4j1tMdQqpq8nwW02UOiW?si=v0DoCc6yQIavqgb97IsABg&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Following the commercial breakthrough of 1983's Porcupine, Ocean Rain was both a consolidation and point of disintegration for the Bunnymen: the point where the cracks began to show, but were masked with such beauty as to hardly matter. Here you sense a pull in two directions. McCullogh's theatrics beg for widescreen setting yet Will Sergeant's fierce, jagged guitar pays homage to every proto-psych garage band that appeared on the Pebbles and Nuggets compilations that wormed their way through the record collections of a myriad music geeks in the late 70s. As a result Ocean Rain represents Liverpudlian psych at its absolute peak.
Both the album and the wondrous live bonus disc - recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 1983 - represent a glorious blend of vaulting ambition and limited ability. The Donny Darko-assisted ubiquity of The Killing Moon may have blunted its impact, but it's still a gorgeous sweeping romantic gesture. Likewise second single, Seven Seas. But Thorn Of Crowns, pushed the shamanic Jim Morrisonisms a little too far. And while the use of a 35-piece orchestra allows the songs like Nocturnal Me (brooding with Eastern European sang froid) and the title track to set sail, in other cases (The Yo Yo Man) songs can flounder under the weight of intrusive arrangements. Also the sheen obscures the thiness of opener, Silver; a song that, if closely examined, shows signs of the band covering old ground.
In retrospect it sounds as though their garage roots were withering in the harsh glare of success. Unlike, say U2, who could reinvent themselves as world citizens, the Bunnymen would always be a very English institution. Only Pete de Freitas, whose performance on the live disc is a testament to his place at the very heart of the band, sounds like an utterly confident world-beater” – BBC (Collector’s Edition review)
Choice Cut: The Killing Moon
What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?
Release Date: 5th April, 1999
Label: London
Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Alan Douglas
Standout Tracks: What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?/Get in the Car/Lost on You
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=29155&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5hY6V6zz940G2D8VVKkg6P?si=qn9HYww_RpuBA-D13gWJSA&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Echo & the Bunnymen made a dignified return in 1997 with Evergreen, but that record displayed some hints of rustiness and a desire to stay hip -- two things notably absent from its superb sequel, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? Trimmed to just the duo of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, Echo has succeeded where many of their peers have failed -- they have matured without getting stodgy, they have deepened their signature sound without appearing self-conscious. Indeed, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? feels of a piece with their earlier albums, not only sonically, but in terms of quality. Clocking in at just 38 minutes, the record is concise and dense with detail, finding the precise tone between the floating grandeur of early Echo and the timeless romanticism of classic torch songs. It's melancholy without ever being self-pitying and it never once sounds gloomy or depressing. The key is that McCulloch and Sergeant never push too hard. They never force themselves to play up-tempo, nor do they try to recapture their "edge" -- they settle into a sad groove and find all the possible variations in the sound, both sonically and emotionally. The perfect thing is, this is exactly the kind of record a post-punk band should be making as they reach their 20th anniversary -- it speaks to where they are now, and it speaks to their aging fans” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Rust
The Underrated Gem
Meteorites
Release Date: 3rd June, 2014
Label: 429 Records
Producers: Youth/Andrea Wright
Standout Tracks: Meteorites/Is This a Breakdown?/Burn It Down
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=691768&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6TCkv0NigYev4MOpz8tyOo?si=TDqhXtZkRUuO-r6_uNbpfQ&dl_branch=1
Review:
“After they reunited in the mid-'90s, Echo & the Bunnymen cranked out album after album of decent-to-good material, spotlighting Ian McCulloch's ageless vocals and the band's sure way with a dramatic hook. For 2014's Meteorites, the duo of McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant turned to legendary producer Youth to help guide the album, and came up with a record that compares favorably to the best work of their original run in the '80s. Where their previous effort, Fountain, was a big-sounding, very clean modern rock album that reduced the band to its essential core, this one aspires to more epic heights. Teeming with giant string arrangements, widescreen vocal production, and songs that hark back to the glory days of Ocean Rain, the album is a mysterious, murky, impressively nostalgic affair. With Sergeant providing his typically concise and perfectly complementary guitar lines and Mac digging deep to turn in one of his better vocal performances in a while, the duo give Youth a lot to work with and he spins it into some gauzy magic. Tracks like "Lovers on the Run" and "Holy Moses" have a dramatic intensity and sweeping power that their more focused and stripped-back songs of recent years have surely missed. When they go big, it works extremely well, like on the opening title track, a slowly unspooling epic with truly heart-rending string crescendos and some of Mac's most broken-sounding singing in a long time, or the huge-sounding "Market Town," which runs seven minutes, features a long Sergeant guitar solo, and doesn't flag at all. Even the simpler, more direct songs, like the quiet ballad "Grapes Upon the Vine," have a big sound, though not so big as to overwhelm the fragile emotions on display. Youth and the group walk the line between grandiose and epic throughout, never falling on the wrong side even once. Between the impressive set of songs, the totally invested performances, and Youth's brilliant production, Meteorites ends up as a late-in-the-game triumph for the band and a worthy successor to their finest album, Ocean Rain. It may be too late to really matter, and they may be doomed to be seen as a nostalgia act, but many of the bands in 2014 that are making neo-psychedelic albums would be well served to check with the Bunnymen to see how to go about things the correct way” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Lovers on the Run
The Latest Album
The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon
Release Date: 5th October, 2018
Label: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT GmbH
Producers: Echo & the Bunnymen/Andy Wright
Standout Tracks: Nothing Lasts Forever/Rescue/The Killing Moon
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1432666&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/194coQAsvAJhxlc8wdxewI?si=wGoRJxfHT2SiBsGccsX0dA&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Again and again on the release, I was impressed with McCulloch and Sergeant’s respectful treatment of their classics. Throughout the release it is evident they put tremendous effort into getting it right. This is really apparent on the tracks Stars are Stars and Ocean Rain which made me want to go back and listen to the originals and fall in love with both originals and their reinterpretations.
Seven Seas is slowed down reflecting the maturity the band has gained. The track is simpler in ways but still loaded with yearning and just as evocative. I totally love the addition of the accordion. I didn’t think the song could get more earnest but Ian and Will pull it off and deliver a dénouement of sorts for their discography. I paused when I saw that the band was taking on a reinterpretation of The Cutter which is in the pantheon of classic Post Punk songs. This was going to be a highwire act over a shark tank. The song made Echo and the Bunnymen who they are in music history, giving them their legendary sonic fingerprint. The original uncontrolled hysteria is now better controlled. It is not as murky and delivers more of punch lyrically as again the production is brighter and cleaner.
The final two tracks are a great contrast of the new juxtaposed against one of Echo and the Bunnymen's’ most unforgettable songs. How Far? is a touching tribute to their career and reviews the path they have travelled. There are music references to prior songs, ideas and lyrics. The “We are all astronauts looking for heaven” lyric cleverly refers to the universal quest for the meaning of life that the band has always sought and to the title of this release. The final track, The Killing Moon utilizes a piano ballad with orchestral strings rather than the keening synths and guitars that characterized the original. This song is as beautiful as the original and takes on another life. It is a stunning way to end a transcendent album. Many times during the release McCulloch challenges himself. He takes on the original tracks and his younger self and miraculously comes out unscathed taking nothing away from the first renditions and only adds illumination. That is not easy to do and everyone involved deserves praises for pulling it off.
The Stars, The Oceans and the Moon is an outstanding release that in inspired in it's retranslating of the Echo and the Bunnymen canon. In many ways, the album performs the same task as Songs to Learn and Sing did in the mid-eighties giving a shorthand version of some of the band’s most powerful songs. It is an excellent gateway into the discography of Echo and the Bunnymen for younger listeners and will provide endless interest for hardcore fans. For those fans, there are no disappointments to be found on the album and take that as a ringing endorsement from me, a gal who once had a treasured poster of the cover of Songs to Learn and Sing in her dorm room. The two new tracks are worthy to be placed with these long-standing classics. As anniversary/tribute releases go, Echo and the Bunnymen have successfully walked the tightrope between refreshing their classics and honouring them beautifully” – XS NOIZE
Choice Cut: Lips Like Sugar
The Echo & the Bunnymen Book
Turquoise Days: The Weird World of Echo and The Bunnymen: The Weird World of "Echo and the Bunnymen"
Author: Chris Adams
Publication Date: 1st July, 2002
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Synopsis:
“Echo and the Bunnymen combine the rawness and venom of New York punk with the moody textures of groups like the Doors and the Velvet Underground. A major force in English post-punk, the band remains an enduring presence on the music scene thanks to Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant’s exceptional songwriting skills and irresistible hooks. Turquoise Days covers the band’s entire career, from its inception in 1978 to the present. It documents in heady detail the forces that gave rise to the group, their early stumbles and successes, and the qualities that have kept them in the musical limelight. An exhaustive critical history and biography, this lavishly illustrated history, with 200 color and black-and-white photos, also includes the complete lyrics of Ian McCulloch; hundreds of quotes from the Bunnymen, their fans, and their critics; and numerous never-before-published photographs” – Amazon.co.uk