Echo And The Bunnymen: Porcupine 1983 (Reissue, Remastered, Released: Nov 3, 2003)

 

Echo & the Bunnymen are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up

consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. By 1980, Pete de Freitas joined as the band's drummer. One of the most influential British bands in modern history, Echo & The Bunnymen, have today announced a 16 date UK tour for May 2021. The tour, which opens at Sheffield City Hall on Friday 7 May, will celebrate the songs that have brought the group twenty top 20 hits and nine top 20 albums so far during their incredible 40-year career.                                                                                                 

Frontman Ian McCulloch said “Well then, here are the dates for our 2021 U.K. tour! I can’t wait to be out there with the band on all those stages in all those cities and towns, doing what I love most, playing our magical songs to our brilliant fans and, hopefully, making all our lives a little bit happier along the way”.
                                                                                             

The Liverpool scene at the interface of the 70s and 80s was the proving ground for a trio of singers

that are among the most mercurial ever to emerge from the Merseyside metropolis. Ian McCulloch, Julian Cope and Pete Wylie actually started out together as The Crucial Three in 1977, before Wylie quit (going on to The Mighty Wah!) and McCulloch and Cope went on to form A Shallow Madness, an early incarnation of The Teardrop Explodes.
When Cope sacked McCulloch, the self-styled ‘Mac The Mouth’ hooked up with Will Sergeant, Sergeant’s school buddy Les Pattinson, and a drum machine. The latter was replaced by Trinidadian Pete de Freitas on their debut album, Crocodiles, in 1980. The second album, Heaven Up Here, released a year later, was more expansive, more experimental than its predecessor, and broke the Top 10, despite the single, A Promise, only registering at No. 49.
                                                                                           

       
The band’s third long-player, Porcupine, was initially rejected by WEA for not being commercial enough. The Bunnymen agreed to re-record it, recruiting Indian-born American violinist L Shankar to

add strings on a number of tracks, including The Back Of Love and The Cutter, their first Top 10 hit in 1983. Fast-forward a year to what is arguably Echo & The Bunnymen’s magnum opus, Ocean Rain – indeed, the promo campaign was anchored by a quote from McCulloch, never a master of the understatement, describing it as “the greatest album ever made”. Most of it was recorded with a 35-piece orchestra in Paris, augmented by further sessions in Liverpool and Bath.
                                                                      

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.
                                                                   

 
Of course, it couldn’t last. After releasing a self-titled album in 1987, McCulloch left the band and was

replaced by former St. Vitus Dance 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.
                                                 

The band’s seminal albums ‘Crocodiles’, ‘Heaven Up Here’, ‘Porcupine’ and ‘Ocean Rain’ have been a

major influence for acts such as Coldplay, The Killers and The Flaming Lips, whilst later albums ‘Evergreen’ and ‘What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?’ and ‘Siberia & Meteorites’ demonstrate what an amazing body of work the band have. Their latest album ‘The Stars & The Oceans & The Moon’ was released in Autumn 2018 with Q Magazine calling it “Magical”.
                                                                    

Their 1980 debut album, Crocodiles, went into the top 20 of the UK Albums Chart. After releasing their

second album, Heaven Up Here in 1981, the band's cult status was followed by mainstream success in the UK in 1983, when they scored a UK Top 10 hit with "The Cutter", and the album which the song came from, Porcupine, hit number 2 in the UK. Ocean Rain (1984), continued the band's UK chart success with its lead single "The Killing Moon" entering into the top ten.
                                                                

PORCUPINE 1983

                                                                      

Porcupine is the third studio album by the English post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen. First

released on 4 February 1983, it became the band's highest charting release when it reached number two on the UK Albums Chart despite initially receiving poor reviews. It also reached number 137 on the American Billboard 200, number 85 on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums and number 24 on the Swedish chart. In 1984 the album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. Porcupine included the singles "The Back of Love" and "The Cutter".
                                                              

WEA rejected the original version of Echo & the Bunnymen’s third album for being “too

uncommercial”. Despite Will Sergeant’s objections, they returned to the studio and re-recorded it. These sessions spawned hit singles The Cutter and The Back Of Love, both featuring American violinist L Shankar on strings (Sergeant had Shankar suggest the melody from Cat Stevens’ 1967 hit, Matthew And Son, on The Cutter).
                                                                            

Reflecting on the saga years later, Ian McCulloch claimed the band were “pissed off” when Bill

Drummond “went in and sneakily remixed The Back Of Love and (Dave) Balfe put a keyboard thing on The Cutter”. Whatever their retrospective reservations, there were no objections from the Bunnymen when they were flogging 45s by the shedload. McCulloch claimed Porcupine was “a classic autobiographical album, the most honest thing that I’d ever written or sung”.
                                                       

Though he did go on to say: “I found the material really heavy to play – really oppressive. That’s the

only reason I didn’t like the album. The songs were great, but it didn’t make me happy.” A No. 2 placing on the UK chart undoubtedly proved a balm to Mac’s woes.
Echo & The Bunnymen continue to record and tour, though only Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant remain from the original line-up. Their last album, 2014’s Meteorites, was very much McCulloch’s project – he contributed guitar, bass and percussion on the recordings, and also worked on the song arrangements.

Label: Warner Strategic Marketing – 2564-61163-2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Released: Nov 3, 2003
Country: Europe
Released: 1983
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Indie Rock

TRACKS

 

01.    The Cutter    3:54
02.    The Back Of Love    3:15
03.    My White Devil    4:40
04.    Clay    4:16
05.    Porcupine    6:00
06.    Heads Will Roll    3:33
07.    Ripeness    4:50
08.    Higher Hell    5:01
09.    Gods Will Be Gods    5:26
10.    In Bluer Skies    4:37

Bonus Tracks

11.    Fuel    4:05
12.    The Cutter (Alternate Version)    4:08
13.    My White Devil (Alternate Version)    5:03
14.    Porcupine (Alternate Version)    4:04
15.    Ripeness (Alternate Version)    4:42
16.    Gods Will Be Gods (Alternate Version)    5:31
17.    Never Stop (Discotheque)    4:45

25th Anniversary release of the 1983 LP with 7 bonus cuts, including a 12 page booklet. Released in a jewel case and slipcase.

Personnel

Ian McCulloch – vocals, guitar, piano
Will Sergeant – lead guitar
Les Pattinson – bass
Pete de Freitas – drums
with: Shankar – strings

MP3 @ 320 Size: 183 MB
Flac  Size: 519 MB