Echo & The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)

Across to Newquay, and another raid on a charity shop netting me another half dozen discs for a quid each, including this 1984 Bunnymen album.

I did own this on vinyl, although I don't think I bought it on release, rather picked it up cheap a little later. I didn't listen to this as much as the Heaven Up Here album, which disappointed on revisiting, so let's see.

It's a cracking start with the hit single Silver, certainly one of the band's high points, followed by the Kurt Weill influenced (McCullough was to record Weill's September Song soon after) Nocturnal Days. Crystal Days is solid, a fine song which deserves more love in the Bunnymen catalogue, followed by The Yo Yo Man, a fantastic post-punk sea shanty feeling song, with the first half ending with the bizarre yet compulsive (Doors influenced?) Thorn Of Crowns.

The second half starts with top ten hit The Killing Moon, a great song, followed by the final single taken from the album, Seven Seas, another fine tune. Perhaps the ending isn't as strong as it might be - My Kingdom is a reasonable listen, but I find the title track Ocean Rain, a bit syrupy as a ballad with overlaid strings, not my thing at all.

This being the 20th anniversary re-release, there's a plethora of bonus tracks. There's the decent enough Angels And Devils, followed by The Life At Brian's Sessions (a Channel 4 live performance) - five tracks including a grim version of The Beatles All You Need Is Love, solid versions of Killing Moon and Seven Seas, as well as (from the Crocodiles album) Stars Are Stars and Villiers Terrace and live versions of My Kingdom and Ocean Rain.

It's a very good album indeed, in my humble opinion the strongest of their albums, well worth revisiting.

Link to full album

4* - probably the Bunnymen's most consistently good album, still a great listen 40 years on