Echo and the Bunnymen are one of the UK’s most cherished indie bands. Combining post-punk guitars, new wave romanticism and psychedelic weirdness, they make a unique style of baroque pop, fronted by the enigmatic, sunglasses-wearing Ian McCulloch. A David Bowie obsession inspired the singer’s grandiose themes and mystical imagery, while his lyrics take influence from the darker canon of songwriters like Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen.
Hailing from Liverpool, the Bunnymen played their first gig in the city’s famous Eric’s Club in 1978, and built a strong following after releasing a string of albums in the ‘80s. While their early work was more straightforward and stripped-down, the band’s sound evolved as their ambitions grew. By 1984, they’d written what most fans consider the band’s magnum opus, Ocean Rain, a haunting collection of gloomy, existentialist, symphonic rock songs. Ever the modest musician, McCulloch, aka Mac the Mouth, has often described it as the greatest album ever made.
While the Beatles’ place at the top of Merseyside’s rock and roll podium won’t be budging anytime soon, Echo and the Bunnymen are widely regarded as being a close second. Here are 10 of their ethereal best.
Contents
10. Rescue
The second single from the band’s debut album, Crocodiles, is a jangly number that was the Bunnymen’s first to chart. British music magazine Smash Hits described the song as “attractive leftfield pop” when it was released in 1980, and its catchiness can’t be denied. The band always had an ear for crafting melodies, but ‘Rescue’ leans more into new-wave than the jagged post-punk found elsewhere on the album. It opens with a chiming, reverb-laced riff from Sergeant, and is met shortly after by a Les Pattinson bass hook that is possibly the closest the Bunnymen got to sounding like a funk band. McCulloch’s vocals are front and center, sounding more than a little like Jim Morrison as he asks “is this the blues I’m singing?”
9. People Are Strange
While maybe not as dolled up as their peers The Cure, the band embraced the arty, playful elements of New York punk far more than the politics of the British scene. McCulloch was also a huge Doors fan, so when asked to cover their haunting blues song ‘People Are Strange’ by film director Joel Schumacher, it was a no brainer. In sunglasses and a trench coat, glam-hair sprayed up, and skin as pale as anyone from North West England’s should be, McCulloch’s look was strikingly similar to the vampire stars of 1987’s The Lost Boys — it was a perfect fit. The warbling guitar of the opening riff plays before McCulloch sings “people are strange, when you’re a stranger” as the film’s final credits roll.
8. It’s Alright
Driven by a groovy Les Pattinson bassline, ‘It’s Alright’ was definitely a left turn for the band. By 2001, when Flowers was released, McCulloch’s voice was beginning to show signs of aging, if only subtly. That’s not to say it was getting worse – but there are subtle cracks to it on this single. By the turn of the century, the Bunnymen were reduced to the two members who have kept the band alive, Mac and guitarist Sergeant, with others filling in for live shows. That didn’t slow down their output or energy though – ‘It’s Alright’ is a steady rocker, with experimental production in the form of group chant vocals and swirling guitar noises. McCulloch somehow sounds more scouse than ever here, and the song has the spirit of The La’s, or their successors The Coral.
7. Nocturnal Me
Like all classic albums, the artwork usually captures something poignant about the music within. Take a look at Lou Reed’s Transformer sleeve, and you know you’re taking a walk through New York’s androgynous wild side. The same can be said for Ocean Rain — the front cover finds the band aboard a rowing boat, floating in a glistening, moonlit blue cave. It has a mysterious otherworldly quality to it, and ‘Nocturnal Me’ is the one song that reflects this surreal allure. “In an ice-capped fire of burning wood,” McCulloch sings, as the song marches forward like a battle-hymn of the cusp on the armageddon. The song is as beautiful as it is brutal — if Cormac McCarthy had written songs instead of books, they might sound something like this.
Recommended: Take a walk down the wild side with our pick of the best Lou Reed songs.
6. Lips Like Sugar
‘Lips Like Sugar’ is one of the Bunnymen’s most accessible songs; thanks to a video directed by Anton Corbijn (who went on to direct Nirvana’s ‘Heart Shaped Box’ and numerous films), it was played relentlessly on college radio in the US and featured heavily on MTV2’s ‘120 Minutes’. Taken from their self-titled 1987 album, its synth sounds eventually left a sour taste in McCulloch’s mouth, who has said it’s “an OK song, I suppose, but it didn’t sound like us. We just got sucked into a new mentality on that last album, the sound of Radio America”. The production is that of a pop song, and the late Pete de Freitas’ tight drumming gives the song a dancy, club-friendly feel.
5. The Cutter
“Spare us the cutter!” McCulloch cries during the chorus of this 1983 single from the band’s third album, Porcupine. What is a cutter, you ask? Anthony Burgess might be able to help. In the opening scene of his book ‘A Clockwork Orange’, a beggar asks “can you spare some cutters, me brothers?” This shorthand slang for change was the inspiration behind one of Echo & The Bunnymen’s biggest hits. The band were always fans of surrealism, and accepted their “stupid” name from a friend who was offering whimsical suggestions. Their urges to experiment were being realized around this time — while the song does have a post-punk feel, it was given its odd, Eastern feel thanks to L. Shankar’s modulated violin that buzzes around the guitars.
4. Nothing Lasts Forever
After a lengthy hiatus, McCulloch, Sergeant and Pattinson reformed the Bunnymen in 1997. Brit-pop had peaked about a year earlier, and the Oasis vs Blur rivalry that dominated the charts helped boost the profiles of groups like The Charlatans and The Verve. Maybe it was a bid for relevancy, or perhaps they just wanted to make less ornate music, but Evergreen ditched much of the Bunnymen’s atmospherics and they returned with a sound that borrowed from that era’s crop of guitar bands. While much of the album lacked their trademark dynamics, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ was a standout track that peaked high in the UK charts. Featuring uncredited backing vocals from Liam Gallagher and plenty of soul from McCulloch, it’s a comeback single welcome on any ‘indie hits of the 90s’ playlists.
3. Seven Seas
In the early days of their career, Will Sergeant was dismissive of the Beatles. He actually said he hated them. At some point he mellowed on this stance; ‘Seven Seas’ features a cover of ‘All You Need Is Love’ as its B-side, and wasn’t the only time they covered the Fab Four. It’s the Bunnymen’s irresistible melodies that probably brought the comparisons up so often — disguised among McCulloch’s elusive words, and Ocean Rain’s addition of harpsichords and cellos, are simple rock and roll chord structures and catchy rhythms. The nautical lyrics here allude to setting out in search of something new, or as McCulloch puts it, “a longing for some fresher feeling.”
2. Bring on the Dancing Horses
In 1985, the Bunnymen released Songs to Learn & Sing, a compilation album of their output up to that point. There was one new song on it, though, and that’s ‘Bring on the Dancing Horses.’ The band were asked to contribute another tune for a film soundtrack, this time it was American filmmaker John Hughes who wanted the Bunnymen’s services for his 1986 film, Pretty in Pink. It’s a lusciously produced track, with washes of synths, and a feel-good chorus of “first I’m gonna make it and then I’m gonna break it ’til it falls apart”, that feels weightier thanks to McCulloch’s double-tracked vocals. But what’s it all about? McCulloch has explained it’s about “the way people would sooner look at statues than themselves. We revere things that tell us about ourselves”.
Recommended: Check out the entire Pretty in Pink soundtrack.
1. The Killing Moon
The lead single from Ocean Rain is a timeless classic, and the Bunnymen’s most well known song. Remarkably, the iconic guitar intro, played on a 12-string, was discovered accidentally. According to Sergeant: “the producer had found this twangy thing on tape that I’d done tuning the guitar. He insisted it go in the song.” Less accidental were the lyrics — McCulloch isn’t shy of hailing their quality or how they came to him. Half crediting the words to God, the frontman claims the line “fate up against your will. Through the thick and thin” were sent to him while he slept. He also claims it’s the greatest song he ever wrote. The song has since become widely used in TV and film, the most notable being the opening scene of the 2001 sci-fi hit film Donnie Darko.
