The Post Punk Nightmare

Dark, lush, and angular my partly describe the symphonic zest that is Echo and the Bunnymen's music. At their height the band was lead vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sargeant, drummer Pete de Freitas, and bass guitarist Les Pattison.

The band shares beginnings with one other group group featured on this blog, The Teardrop Explodes, whose earlier incarnation A Shallow Madness exorcised McCulloch from the band as the result of animosity between the singer, and band's bassist Julian Cope. McCulloch would go on to form Echo and the Bunnymen and who in their own way would rivet music hungry eyes and quickly achieve mainstream success with a string of commercially viable singles and albums. The Liverpudlian band would take the alt rock world by force over a solid duration of the 1980's.

In July of 1987 Echo and the Bunnymen released their fifth studio album and final with their original lineup. The album simply titled Echo and the Bunnymen was a step away from an earlier dark and even gothic musical style into a warmer, breezier pop direction with a heavy melodic jangle. This album may lull and shake about its hooky lines of rhythm at its more upbeat side, while swaying you gently with the slower, string laden tracks.

The pop production may have originally averted some fans as early reviews lamented its lack of fire or punch, but belying the gloss is as sincere and intense a sound that formed the spirit of the Echo and the Bunnymen franchise as Sergeant's guitar still zig-zags through the grumbled yet mighty intonation of McCulloch while splitting through the manic beats of De Freitas with as fine a touch of psychedelia as any Echo and the Bunnymen release.

The download here is the 2003 reissue by Rhino Entertainment and features seven bonus tracks. Take and Enjoy.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Echo and the Bunnymen (1987)