I Think I Like The Echo & The Bunnymen Record Without Ian

Dan Gibson | July 15, 2008 3:30 am
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In my quest to get rid of the giant box of cassettes jammed into a box in the back of my closet, I decided to give Echo and the Bunnymen’s Reverberation another shot, even though some would argue that the band shouldn’t have even continued to soldier on after Ian McCulloch left.

Somehow I had missed the news that Ian had left the band and picked up the album in 1990, only to be shocked when neither Ian or drummer Pete De Freitas were in the group. (British music news traveled slowly to Arizona pre-Internet.) Still, I spent a few months enjoying the Geoff Emerick-produced tape and its truly ridiculous use of fake Indian embellishments on nearly every track. Listening to it again 18 years later, it’s definitely dated beyond belief, and the lyrics to “Enlighten Me” are idiotic despite an attempt to display some sense of emotional exploration. But it’s not like the band made much sense when Ian was in charge either.

Replacement singer Noel Burke went on to rejoin his pre-Bunnymen band St. Vitus’ Dance last year after spending time as a teacher. Meanwhile, Reverberation is out of print, and right now it’s possibly best known for Johnny Marr’s dismissal of the album as being by “Echo and the Bogusmen”. At very least, the artwork is kind of cool, even if the music’s not.

Echo & The Bunnymen – Reverberation [All Music Guide]