Porcupine

Ocean Rain	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	Starfish	Echo & the Bunnymen
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 ...	Evergreen Import pressing of Ian McCulloch & co.'s 1997 reunion album that is out of print domestically. This pressing features four bonus John Peel/BBC session tracks of, 'I Want To Be There When You Come', 'Bedbugs & Ballyhoo', 'Rescue' & 'Lips Like Sugar', 16 tracks total including the ...	Skylarking XTC's frothily Beatle-esque concept album about birth, death, and the passing of the seasons is hardly soft-headed: Its melodic inventiveness and lush orchestrations support bitterness ("That's Really Super, Supergirl"), displacement ("The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul"), and ag...	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...	Different Class Like the Boomtown Rats fronted by Martin Amis. Classic Britpop. --Jeff Bateman

A tense, atmospheric classic
Yet another classic by the Bunnymen, Porcupine has a tendency to be overlooked in favour of Crocodiles, Ocean Rain and Heaven Up Here. Listening to it, it's easy to hear why - much of the album is very claustrophobic, with thick, impenetrable production and gloomy lyrics. Max Bell, who provides the sleeve notes for the recent British reissue of the album, compares he band's experience making the album to 'spending a month in Das Boot'. A sense of tension and entrapment certainly shows in the music, creating a an atmosphere that is much denser than other Bunnymen albums. Personally, I think that it enhances the mood - although it can give you a headache.Porcupines kicks off with the two 'poppiest' songs on the album, The Cutter and The Back of Love, before plunging into the depths with My White Devil and the quite brilliant Clay, which features a particularly haunting moment with a reverb-laden McCulloch vocal singing 'when I was the Cain, you were the Abel' over some tribal drumming from De Freitas. The title track continues the mood, introducing a haunting synth line into the mix, and building to an energetically miserable climax with a worrying sense of dissonance that typifies the album. The second half kicks off with a lovely modal guitar lick before lurching into Heads Will Roll, which is the catchiest song on the album since The Back of Love, but much more twisted. Ripeness has a slightly repetitive tune, but makes up for it with a fantastically tight, funky rhythm. As always with Porcupine, though, there's more going on, with the subtle use of Eastern-tinged scales giving the song a darker twist. Higher Hell is a musical hybrid of the title track and Clay, and features a clever lyrical inversion of Heaven Up Here. Gods Will Be Gods is an undoubted standout, building to a furious climax over five glorious minutes before suddenly cutting out. In Bluer Skies is the calm after the storm, and a great, melancholy ending to what is possibly Echo & the Bunnymen's darkest album. This was as far as the band could go in this direction; Ocean Rain was a much lighter, airier effort and has had much more acclaim over the years than the more difficult Porcupine. Repeated listens, however, reveal that this album has just as much to offer as its successor. It was recently named on BBC radio as a 'great lost album'. I think that about sums it up: it's as good as any of their first four, and has an atmosphere all of its own that has never really been equalled.

almost Heaven
Not quite Heaven Up Here full-tilt boogie great but plenty of killer tunes on here for any Bunnies fan. The "go to Iceland" cover shoot reminds those of us who grew up in the '80s as a very bizarre period in Britrock (remember Killing Joke actually moving to Iceland where their career came to a frozen halt?) where bands had this pre-Bjork fascination with all things Icey.

'Tis A Pity
Without question my favorite Echo album, if only for the first three songs alone (although the rest are brilliant as well). What a rush. This is the quintessential Bunnymen sound, no holds barred and no waiting.While they are a great group, I have not liked their more recent reunion albums. This one, however, is one for the ages.

Ambitious, yet rises to the occasion!
This album, I believe, proved that EATB was one of the rarest of rare bands that could not be too ambitious. Just check out the album cover, my favorite cover of all time, and you'll see where their heads were at. I still remember hearing Clay and Heads Will Roll on headphones in a used record store back in 97 after being intrigued by Evergreen. This was made in '83? None of my friends have heard of these guys? It absolutely blew me away! It was so fresh. I honestly have never been "blown away by an album" like that. It had such a HUGE sound - all these crazy sounds coming from nowhere - strings, reverb, weird Eastern instruments, awesome.Porcupine is commercial AND experimental - making for a very interesting combo. Cutter, Back of Love, Heads Will Roll, etc. are straight-up pop songs but with such unique and LARGE ambitious production they sound like nothing you've heard. It has some of the highest, most impressive peaks I've heard on record, but it also unfortunately has some skippable tracks. I consider 3, 8, and the first 3:20 of the title track (the last bit is AWESOME)to be uninspired average dark post punk filler. I also don't like the last track, which I'm sure most people like but I find new wavey and too commercial.In short, you need to buy it to experience the peaks I've mentioned and to see just how incredibly uninventive bands have been in the last two decades!

excellent album
I didn't know what to expect when I listened to this album. I already had heard the band's first two albums along with Ocean Rain. Ocean Rain was their fourth album (came out in 84) and a lot different from the sound of the first two, and it turns out that Porcupine, which came out in 83, has a sound somewhere in between Heaven Up Here and Ocean Rain. Heaven Up Here is still my favorite from Echo & the Bunnymen. Its opening four tracks absolutely knock out the listener upon the first hearing. Although Porcupine generally doesn't offer such direct pleasures, I've gotten into it. The arrangements are more varied than the traditional Bunnymen line-up of bass, guitar and drums: incorporating sitar and orchestra and acoustic guitar and all manner of creative background effects, Porcupine may be their most ambitious creation. Its a must have if you're any sort of fan of E&theB's other early albums, even if like me you prefer the first 2.