Ocean Rain

Porcupine Deleted in the U.S., the band's third album. Originallyreleased in 1983, 'Porcupine' reached #2 in the U.K. &features the top 10 U.K. hit 'The Cutter' & the top 20 U.K.hit 'The Back Of Love'. 10 tracks total, also featuring'Heads Will Roll', 'Clay' and 'My White Devil'.	CROCODILES Along with the Teardrop Explodes's Kilimanjaro and the Psychedelic Furs' self-titled LP, Echo and the Bunnymen's Crocodiles was one of several debut releases in 1980 that ushered in the U.K.'s neopsychedelic movement. Darker and less reliant on typical pop conventions than the w...	Heaven Up Here	Songs to Learn and Sing Songs to Learn and Sing is a staple in the collection of post-new-wave rock. It was an era when the term progressive had just replaced the word alternative to describe music that was just too cool for American radio. This album is a compilation of Echo and the Bunnymen's British ...	Closer In retrospect, the second and final album by this Manchester postpunk band seems to point straight at singer Ian Curtis's suicide, which happened a few months before it was released. The band's reverberating mesh of minor-key lines and Curtis's tremorous bass voice are doomy enou...
Unknown Pleasures	Starfish	Doolittle Yeah, Kim Deal made a big splash of her own, and Frank Black is still holding his own. But as any Pixies fan will tell you, and as Doolittle suggests (like "ten million pounds of sludge" to the head), the Pixies rocked harder than the sum of their parts. They were masters of dyna...	Vampire Weekend It would take a lot for Vampire Weekend's debut to rise above the stench of privileged hype that surrounds it. A bunch of kids who formed the band in their Columbia dorm room borrow wholesale from Afrobeat and angular '80s stuff, and they quickly become an online buzz band before...	Forth Something happens when the Verve are together that none of them experience when they are apart. Individually, the Verve are all highly-accomplished players. Singer Richard Ashcroft has been called the greatest singer in the world by no less a peer than Coldplay s Chris Martin. Li...

When I was 16 Years Old....
The first time I heard "Echo & The Bunnymen" was in the 80s when I was a 16 year old. To this day , I have the vinyls of their records. This album, is, in particular, one of their finest works, and one takes pleasure in each song as it is with most all of their albums. Now... many years later, I find this album in a CD and not in Vinyl, so I bought it. I do recommend it. Enjoy!

Beautifully dark chamber pop.
Echo And The Bunnymen are a gravely underrated post-punk band from Britain, alongside better-known contemporaries such as Joy Division, The Cure, The Smiths, and U2. Their albums had a great deal of influence on the alternative genre, starting back in 1980 with the excellent debut Crocodiles and continuing throughout the '80s. 1984's Ocean Rain was perhaps one of their best releases. Similar to its predecessor Porcupine (which is now back in print as a remaster), Ocean Rain features a gorgeous string section that serves to bolster the four-piece band's sound. Compared the more insular and dark, occasionally bleak previous albums, Ocean Rain is brighter and more expansive (dare I say poppier) yet still cryptic and mysterious. It doesn't "rock" as much as some of their previous work, but Ocean Rain still offers plenty of ear candy. The lyrics are full of dark romanticism and ambigious imagery, sung to great effect by Ian McCulloch. His voice recalls the deep, brooding timbre of Jim Morrison (The Doors). Will Sargeant's shimmering guitarwork places him in the echelon of excellent post-punk guitarists such as U2's Edge and Joy Division/New Order's Bernard Sumner, while the rhythm section of Les Pattinson (bass) and Pete de Freitas (drums) is tight and fluid. The strings and other instruments (piano and the occasional woodwinds) are beautiful yet never overwhelm the other instruments in the mix. Some of the Bunnymen's most notable songs can be found here. Silver, Crystal Days, and Seven Seas are all glorious pop gems, while Yo-Yo Man and Nocturnal Me are ominous and memorable. The title track and The Killing Moon rank among the best post-punk tracks ever cut (the latter was featured recently on the Donnie Darko soundtrack, which by the way is an excellent movie). Not all is bliss, however--Thorn Of Crowns is junk, with goofy lyrics and some annoying vocal theatrics by McCulloch, and My Kingdom is a little better but suffers from similar faults. Also the album runs on the short side--skipping over Thorn Of Crowns (like I do) leaves you with only 33 minutes or so of music. Still, this is a classic album that makes a fine introduction to an overlooked and great band. I reccommend it highly, along with Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, and Porcupine.

Exhilarating...
... not an adjective that can really be applied to any other Bunnymen album. Whereas its predecessor, Porcupine, had been turned in upon itself, the huge sound and sweeping strings of Ocean Rain are suggestive of wide open spaces. Silver is one of the best album openers ever, warm, exhuberant and inviting. At one point Ian McCulloch, in love with his own tune (wasn't he always?) simply sings 'la la la la la la la la la la la la la', and it's great. Similarly joyful-sounding, Crystal Days, My Kingdom and Seven Seas remain the best upbeat songs this band have ever done, although sometimes the lyrics don't seem to quite match the tunes. Enough has already been written about The Killing Moon. Suffice to say that although it's not, as McCulloch claims, the best song ever written, his authorial pride is entirely justified. The title track is of similar quality, featuring perhaps McCulloch's best ever vocal performance, swelling from a subdued introduction to an impassioned climax so naturally that you don't even notice the introduction of individual instruments, which seems to have been done purely to underscore the vocal.The real star on this album is the overall sound, though, sweeping and magnificent, with the best use of strings I've ever heard in popular music. It's just great. What's fantastic about the first four Bunnymen albums is that each has a unique atmosphere - not just unique in the Bunnymen canon, but in the wider context of pop music itself. They've never been able to come close since, but Ocean Rain stands out as one of the best albums ever made.

Oceans and Mountains
Out of my 600 plus albums, this is one of my top 20 of all time. Edging out their other albums as the best, Ocean Rain is a well-crafted masterpiece by a unique talent at their creative hieght. The rich atmosphere rivals any great modern record (OK Computer, A Northern Soul, Achtung Baby) while predating them by many years. Echo had a distinctive moody that must be heard to be appreciated, best described by frontman Ian McCulloch:"We're a mountains and oceans band". Ian was a huge Frank Sinatra fan, and brought one of the most powerful and beautiful baritones ever heard in rock. The album flows from start to finish effortlessly. Their isn't a bad song on this record. The title track is haunting with perfectly crafted lyrics-"now your hurricanes/have brought down this ocean rain/to bathe me again/my ship's asail/can you hear it's tender frame/screaming from beneathe the waves". Seven Seas is a classic staple of alternative pop, as is The Killing Moon. Thorn of Crowns is one of the best song titles I have ever heard, and shows off what made Echo so special: they were alternative when alternative meant doing something no one else had ever done. An evocative, mystical masterpiece.

Screaming from beneath the waves....
Ocean Rain is, in my opinion, the best Echo & The Bunnymen album. When you listen to it, it's hard to believe that it was originally released in 1984. Even more difficult to believe is that this album is every bit as cool today as it was almost 20 years ago. The lyrics, coupled with the music, lead the listener on a journey that takes them to strange and beautiful places. The album as a whole is beautiful, ethereal, melodic, original, and poetic. What is amazing is that it manages to be all of these things without sounding pretentious. The absence of synthesizers sets it apart from other new wave albums. You can actually hear instruments being played--like the cello, piano and drums. Anyone familiar with music from this era knows how impressive that, in and of itself, is.I really love the lyrics on this album. For example, there is Silver-- "Just look at you, with burning lips, you're living proof of my fingertips" Another great line, "Take me internally, forever yours, nocturnal me" (from Nocturnal Me) And, one of my favorite's, "Froze to the bone in my igloo home, counting the days till the ice turns green."There are good albums and then there are great albums. This is one of the great ones because it excels on many levels. It has strong lyrics, catchy melodies, appropriate vocals and of course originality.I highly recommend it to anyone who used to own this album and sort of remembers liking it, anyone who enjoys 80's new wave music, or anyone looking for a truly great album that will transport their soul every time they play it. Incidentally, if you want to purchase an Echo & The Bunnymen album and you're not sure which one to get, get this one! :)