Echo And The Bunnymen: Crocodiles 1980 + Ocean Rain 1984

 

Echo & the Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of gloomy post-punk and Doors-inspired psychedelia is

driven by the majestic voice and outsized persona of singer Ian McCulloch and the frequently brilliant guitar work of Will Sergeant. The band started off as an angular post-punk group on their first album, 1980's Crocodiles, but by the time of 1984's Ocean Rain they had become cinematically Baroque.
                

After stripping their sound down to basics for 1987's self-titled album, which produced the deathless hit "Lips Like Sugar," the band ran into problems and experienced tragedy (like the death of drummer Pete

de Freitas), but eventually McCulloch and Sergeant cemented a musical bond that cracked but never shattered over the course of a lengthy careers -- leading them to release introspective gems like 1999's What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?, 2014's Meteorites, and 2018's The Stars, the Oceans & the Moon) that illuminated their mysterious, dramatic spark.
                           

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN - CROCODILES 1980

                

Inspired by psychedelia, sure. Bit of Jim Morrison in the vocals? OK, it's there. But for all the references and connections that can be drawn (and they can), one listen to Echo's brilliant, often harrowing debut album and it's clear when a unique, special band presents itself.

Beginning with the dramatic, building climb of "Going Up," Crocodiles at once showcases four individual players sure of their own gifts and their ability to bring it all together to make things more than the sum of their parts. Will Sergeant in particular is a revelation -- resplendently delicate and full of inventive, unexpected melodies. More than many before or since, he plays the electric guitar as just that, electric not acoustic, dedicated to finding out what can be done with it while never using it as an excuse to bend frets.
            

His highlights are legion, whether it's the hooky opening chime of "Rescue" or the exchanges of sound

and silence in "Happy Death Men." Meanwhile, the Pattinson/De Freitas rhythm section stakes its own claim for greatness, the former's bass driving yet almost seductive, the latter's percussion constantly shifting rhythms and styles while never leaving the central beat of the song to die.
             

"Pride" is one standout moment of many, Pattinson's high notes and De Freitas' interjections on what

sound like chimes or blocks are inspired touches. Then there's McCulloch himself, and while the imagery can be cryptic, the delivery soars, even while his semi-wail conjures up, as on the nervy, edgy picture of addiction "Villiers Terrace," "People rolling round on the carpet/Mixing up the medicine." Brisk, wasting not a note, and burning with barely controlled energy, Crocodiles remains a deserved classic.
                 

Echo & The Bunnymen – Crocodiles
Label: Sire – 2564-61161-2, Rhino Records – 2564-61161-2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered Jan 27, 2004
Country: US
Released: 1980
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, New Wave

                

TRAXS

01. Going Up    4:02
02. Stars Are Stars    2:48
03. Pride    2:41
04. Monkeys    2:49
05. Crocodiles    2:41
06. Rescue    4:29
07. Villiers Terrace    2:47
08. Pictures On My Wall    2:55
09. All That Jazz    2:48
10. Happy Death Men    5:00

BONUS TRAXS        

    
11. Do It Clean    2:49
12. Read It In Books    2:34
13. Simple Stuff   2:38
Engineer – John Brierly/Producer – The Bunnymen
14. Villiers Terrace (Early Version)    3:08
15. Pride (Early Version)    2:54
16. Simple Stuff (Early Version)    2:37

SHINE SO HARD EP        

    
17. Crocodiles (Live)   5:09
Producer – Bill Drummond, Hugh Jones
18. Zimbo (Live)   3:36
Producer – Bill Drummond, Hugh Jones
19. All That Jazz (Live)   2:53
Producer – Bill Drummond, Hugh Jones
20. Over The Wall (Live)   5:28
Producer – Bill Drummond, Hugh Jones

LINE - UP

Vocals, Guitar – Ian McCulloch
Bass – Les Pattinson
Drums – Pete De Freitas
Keyboards – David Balfe
Lead Guitar – Will Sergeant

Flac Size: 470 MB

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN - OCEAN RAIN 1984

               

Channeling the lessons of the experimental Porcupine into more conventional and simple structural parameters, Ocean Rain emerges as Echo & the Bunnymen's most beautiful and memorable effort.

Ornamenting Ian McCulloch's most consistently strong collection of songs to date with subdued guitar textures, sweeping string arrangements, and hauntingly evocative production, the album is dramatic and majestic; "The Killing Moon," Ocean Rain's emotional centerpiece, remains the group's unrivalled pinnacle.
             

Echo & The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain
Label: Sire – 2564-61165-2, Rhino Records (2) – 2564-61165-2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2003
Country: US
Released: 1984    
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Alternative Rock

TRAXS

             

01. Silver    3:20
02. Nocturnal Me    4:57
03. Crystal Days    2:24
04. The Yo-Yo Man    3:10
05. Thorn Of Crowns    4:55
06. The Killing Moon   5:47
Producer – The Bunnymen/Recorded By – David Lord
07. Seven Seas    3:20
08. My Kingdom    4:05
09. Ocean Rain    5:24

BONUS TRAXS        

    
10. Angels And Devils   4:24
Engineer – David Frazer
Harpsichord – Will Sergeant
Producer – Alan Perman, The Bunnymen

THE LIFE AT BRIAN'S SESSIONS        

    
11. All You Need Is Love (The Life At Brian's Sessions)   6:45
Written-By – John Lennon/Paul McCartney
12. The Killing Moon (The Life At Brian's Sessions)    3:27
13. Stars Are Stars (The Life At Brian's Sessions)    3:05
14. Villiers Terrace (The Life At Brian's Sessions)    6:00
15. Silver (The Life At Brian's Sessions)    3:25            
16. My Kingdom (Live - A Crystal Day - 12 May 1984)    3:58
17. Ocean Rain (Live - A Crystal Day - 12 May 1984)    5:18

LINE - UP

Bass – Les Pattinson
Clarinet – Luvan Kiem (tracks: 11 to 15)
Drums – Pete De Freitas
Guitar – Will Sergeant
Harpsichord – Alan Perman (tracks: 11 to 15)
Sitar – Will Sergeant (tracks: 11 to 15)
Vocals, Words By – Ian McCulloch

NOTES

Tracks 10 to 17 are bonus tracks.
Track 10 recorded at The Automatt, San Francisco, CA (18/3/84).
Tracks 11 to 15 recorded at Liverpool Cathedral, Liverpool for the television program Play At Home - Life At Brian's (7/83).

Flac Size: 615 MB

Echo And The Bunnymen on Urban Aspirines HERE

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

Echo And The Bunnymen: Heaven Up Here 1981

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, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas joined as the band's drummer.

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 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.

Their album, Heaven Up Here (1981), was a big critical and commercial success, reaching the UK Top Ten (No. 10), although a single lifted from the album, "A Promise", could only reach UK No. 49.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios near Monmouth in Wales, Heaven Up Here was co-produced by Hugh Jones and the band. A generally well received album by fans in the United Kingdom and by critics, Heaven Up Here won the "Best Dressed LP" and "Best Album" awards at the 1981 NME Awards. The album has also been listed at number 463 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

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 been touring since, releasing several albums since the late 1990s, to varying degrees of success.

[Following their more psychedelia-based debut, Crocodiles, and subsequent "Puppet" single, Echo & the Bunnymen returned in 1981 with the darkest and perhaps most experimental album of their career. Heaven Up Here lacks the signature hooks and melodies that would make the Bunnymen famous, showcasing instead a dirge-like songwriting approach built around the circular rhythms of bassist Les Pattinson and drummer Pete DeFreitas.

In this setting, the band remarkably flourishes, although they would go on to greater heights by scaling back the album's extremism. Heaven Up Here's strength is the way in which the Bunnymen seamlessly work together to shape each song's dynamics (the tension underlying the crescendo of "Turquoise Days" being a prime example).

Ian McCulloch, having found his trademark confidence, sings with soaring abandon and passion throughout the album. Similarly, Will Sergeant's guitar playing, notably freed from verse-chorus structure and pop riffs, is at its angular finest; his playing on "No Dark Things" is pure Andy Gill-esque skronk. The album's opening troika of "Show of Strength," "With a Hip," and "Over the Wall" (the latter with its jarring, direct invocation of Del Shannon's "Runaway") are particularly effective, establishing the theme of distrust and restlessness which continues throughout the album. Indeed, even the album's lone single, "A Promise," is hardly light, pop material.

But the message underneath that darkness, especially in McCulloch's lyrics, is a call to overcome rather than wallow, as the album ends with the relatively euphoric "All I Want." Sitting comfortably next to the pioneering work of contemporaries like Joy Division/New Order, and early Public Image Ltd. and Cure, this is a rather fine -- and in the end, influential -- example of atmospheric post-punk.

Having reached the British Top Ten, Heaven Up Here is highly regarded among Echo & the Bunnymen's fans precisely for the reasons which, on the surface, make it one of the least accessible albums in the band's catalog.
AllMusic Review by Aaron Warshaw]

Personel

Will Sergeant – lead guitar

Ian McCulloch – vocals, rhythm guitar, piano

Les Pattinson – bass

Pete de Freitas – drums

with:

Les Penning – woodwind

Tracklist

01. Show Of Strength     4:50

02. With A Hip     3:16

03. Over The Wall     5:59

04. It Was A Pleasure     3:12

05. A Promise     4:08

06. Heaven Up Here     3:45

07. The Disease     2:28

08. All My Colours     4:06

09. No Dark Things     4:27

10. Turquoise Days     3:51

11. All I Want     4:09

    Bonus Tracks

12. Broke My Neck (Long Version)     7:22

13. Show Of Strength (Live)     4:41

14. The Disease (Live)     1:53

15. All I Want (Live)     3:09

16. Zimbo (Live)     3:52

Tracks 1 to 11 were recorded at Rockfield Studios March 1981. Track 12 was recorded at Tistedal Studios, Norway on 7th June 1981. Tracks 13 to 16 were recorded live at the Manley Vale Hotel, Sydney, Australia on 11th Nov 1981 and were previously unissued.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 150 MB

Flac  Size: 441 MB