a b Salewicz, Chris (22 November 1980). "Echo & The Bunnymen: Welcome To The Bunnyhouse". NME. ISSN 0028-6362. Sweeting, Adam (31 October 2003). "Echo and the Bunnymen: Various". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 October 2015. Crocodiles is the closest that the Bunnymen ever came to a "conventional" post-punk record. In particular, whereas the album repeatedly hints at the Neo-psychedelic ambitions that would soon dominate the band's sound, most of the record is far less lush than its successors. This is most obvious in Will Sergeant's guitar playing, which is more angular and less atmospheric than on subsequent releases. Crocodiles also places a stronger emphasis on Les Pattinson's pulsing bass and features a relatively straightforward production. As for the vocals, Ian McCulloch's wavering baritone is immediately identifiable for anyone familiar with the band. The only peculiarity here is a handful of energetic vocal melodies where McCulloch employs an unusually "shouty", punkish style. All things considered, nothing on Crocodiles is atypical enough to confuse newcomers in search of something resembling Ocean Rain, but the album clearly dates itself to the earliest years of the post-punk revolution. Want more from Classic Pop? Try a print or digital subscription for just 99p and access our exclusive perks and benefits. Find out more here.

On top of all this was McCulloch’s sombre, plaintive voice; a cosmic lounge style that owed plenty to Jim Morrison but also was perfect at delivering his lyrics filled with achingly romantic surrealism. “Villiers Terrace” uses such oblique poetry to give a perfect description of the hometown scene at the time. ‘There’s people rolling round on the carpet, mixing up the medicine’, indeed. Immediately before the release of the band's next album What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Les Pattinson quit to take care of his mother. [31] McCulloch and Sergeant have continued to tour and record as Echo & the Bunnymen, touring repeatedly and releasing the albums Flowers (2001), Siberia (2005), The Fountain (2009) and Meteorites (2014). The Siberia band line up was Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, Paul Fleming (keyboards), Simon Finley (drums) and Pete Wilkinson (bass), Hugh Jones produced Siberia after previously engineering early Bunnymen albums. Since August 2009 the group's touring incarnation has comprised McCulloch and Sergeant along with Stephen Brannan (bass), Gordy Goudie (guitar), Nicholas Kilroe (drums) and Jez Wing (keyboards). Ocean Rain proved difficult to follow up, and their only releases in 1985 were the single, " Bring on the Dancing Horses" (UK No.21), and a compilation album, Songs to Learn & Sing, which made No. 6 in the UK album chart. Of course, it's not as straightforward as its two predecessors, 1980's Crocodiles and 1981's Heaven Up Here. The Bunnymen hit the ground running, and their debut album is a stunning statement of purpose, with McCulloch already in full dramatic swing and the band at their most straightforward-- any band that uses as much reverb as this one is hard to label "raw," but "Pride" and "Do It Clean" nonetheless hit hard, and "Rescue", with Sergeant's massive opening riff, manages to turn a chorus that should sound like a plea into a rallying cry. Heaven Up Here ranges more widely, and makes motions toward the slightly funkier band that turned up on Porcupine on the aptly titled "Show of Strength" and "With a Hip", while also stretching out their theatrical side on the slow-burning, flute-laden "All My Colours" (also frequently referred to as "Zimbo" for McCulloch's weird, droning nonsense refrain).After they released a self-titled album in 1987, McCulloch left the band and was replaced by singer Noel Burke. In 1989, de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident. After working together as Electrafixion, McCulloch and Sergeant regrouped with Pattinson in 1997 and returned as Echo & the Bunnymen, before Pattinson's departure in 1998. The band has done some touring and released several albums since the late 1990s to varying degrees of success. [8] History [ edit ] Early years [ edit ] Children of Nuggets : Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1995 CD 3-CD 4 V.A (1) Matrix / Runout (Stamped & etched ("XX [D crossed] F") runout, side A - variant 4): R/S Alsdorf 58175 A4XX [D crossed] F The real gold on Ocean Rain can be found on The Killing Moon, the first single. Les Pattinson recalled, “Me and Will (Sergeant) had been in Russia for a holiday, and there was this band playing balalaikas in a hotel foyer, real cheesy cabaret. In 2018, Echo & the Bunnymen announced and released an album of reworked orchestral versions of older material and two new songs, titled The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon, to mixed reception. [44]

Crocodiles" is the debut album from Echo and the Bunnymen with two songs, "Pictures on My Wall" and "Rescue," on the album previously released as singles. This is quite an album. The music is described as post-punk and neo-psychdelic with imagery of darkness and sorrowfullness. Yes, that's all there. To me, the sound is sort of similar to Joy Division's "Closer" and Gang of Four. The band includes Ian McCulloch (singer), Will Sergeant (guitars), Les Pattinson (bass) and drummer Pete de Freitas whom they added after they signed to a label and were encouraged to add a drummer. One of the first things you notice is how prominent each of the band members are. They all make major to contributions to the songs and album as a whole. McCulloch's lyrics are dark and appear very personal. Given the imagery and personal nature leaves a lot of these songs open for interpretation. The lyrics and music match perfectly creating a great dark and somewhat haunting mood. On their 1978 debut at Eric’s Club in Liverpool, Echo & the Bunnymen played a 20-minute version of Monkeys, which was entitled I Bagsy Yours at the time. If you’re looking for meaningful lyrics, disciplined poetic cadence, creative melodies, elaborate chord structures, skillful performances, and fine vocals, you should look elsewhere. Fletcher, Tony (1987). Never Stop: The Echo & the Bunnymen Story. London: Omnibus Press (published 16 November 1987). ISBN 0-7119-1121-5. Re-released on super high material compact disc on October 22, 2013 in Japan (WEA, WPCR-15277) with a bonus single.Terich, Jeff (2 July 2015). "10 Essential Neo-Psychedelia Albums". Treble . Retrieved 24 April 2020. Echo & the Bunnymen: Meteorites on pledgemusic". Pledgemusic.com. Archived from the original on 18 June 2014 . Retrieved 13 March 2014. Ironically, Echo & the Bunnymen (frequently referred to as “the grey album”, though McCulloch prefers “the ‘loss of grey matter’ album”) gave them their biggest success in America. But Mac wasn’t alone in wondering, “Where was the Bunnymen we all loved?” According to Sergeant: “It’s all pretty dark”. He wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t matter – with Ocean Rain, the Bunnymen became music immortals, confirming their place in the gloomier recesses of British pop. a b Roberts, David, ed. (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). HIT Entertainment. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.