Echo & the Bunnymen

 ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

I first saw this band while watching "Night Tracks" on Super Station WTBS. Anyone remember that show? It was like 3 hours of MTV on Friday and Saturday nights for people whose cable operator didn't carry MTV at the time, like ours.  

But I digress...the video was for their song "Seven Seas". It was cool and the music and visuals were way different than all the other popular videos on the show. The band had a kind of Cure-like, alternative vibe going on. I had to find out who these people were!

I went to the best local used record store, "The Record Exchange" to find out more about this band from the store owner, and music guru, Franklin. He sold me the album "Ocean Rain", and I was hooked.

The Stuff You Know: Echo & the Bunnymen are best known for their songs: 
"Sugar Kisses"
"People are Strange", a Doors cover from The Lost Boys soundtrack
"Killing Moon", a beautiful song featured in Grosse Pointe Blank and Donny Darko
"Bring On the Dancing Horses", an AWESOME song featured in Pretty in Pink.

The Stuff You May Not Know: Echo & the Bunnymen have released 12 studio albums from 1980 - 2014. They had several UK chart hits over the years, and a few songs which reached the U.S. Modern Rock charts.

 OCEAN RAIN (1984)

Ocean Rain, their 4th studio album, is my favorite of their releases. It is has a lush production, using a 35 piece orchestra, as featured in tracks such as "Seven Seas", "Killing Moon", "Ocean Rain", and "Crystal Days".

I love the song "Seven Seas". The quiet guitar strumming, the simple percussion, strings and other instruments, along with Ian McCulloch's voice, build this into a perfect song.

"Killing Moon" is the strongest song on the album. It is a beautiful, sweeping classic of a song that should be listed as one of the best songs of the 20th Century.

The weakest songs, are "Yo-Yo Man" and "Thorn of Crowns", which aren't too bad since I don't skip then when listening to the album. They just don't rise to the level of the rest of the album.

This album is worth getting if you want to hear an early Modern Rock bank at the top of their game. The singles from their other albums and soundtrack are worthy of listening to as well, but Ocean Rain is the best of their best work.