Echo and the Bunnymen - 'Apples for Issac' Album Review
Tracklist:
1. Take Me By The Hand
2. Can't Be Sold
3. Brussels Is Haunted
4. I'll Be Your Sunshine
5. Hijacked
6. The Honey
7. An Unstoppable Force
8. The Light That Surrounds You
9. Lab Rats Ran
10. Asimov
11. We Prayed In the Dark
Echo and the Bunnymen are going to release their first album of new material on the 18th of September, and I was lucky enough to get an advance copy.
If I’m honest, I did put the album on with some trepidation. Listening to a new album by a band you have a lot of affection for who haven’t released new music for 10 years always feels like a game of Russian roulette. Will it be good or bad? Will it tarnish what you feel about them or enhance it? Will you find yourself wishing they had just stuck with what they have and not damaged their reputation or think wow, I can’t wait to hear this live? What also makes this record more poignant is that Clem Burke plays extensively on it, some of his last work, and you can’t help but think about that when you listen to it.
What this very much isn’t is a band treading water, they are not just rehashing what came before but at the same time they stay true to who they are. They have reinvented themselves while staying true to their roots. It is a triumph!
It’s not Echo and the Bunnymen from 40 years ago (has it really been that long) but that is very much a good thing. This is an older, more mature band who still contain the beautiful, almost ethereal, guitars, the strangeness in their lyrics and a swagger that other bands must hate them for but Ian’s voice has changed from those early days, it sounds more lived in, more worn but also more mature and the voice of a man who is very much of his time.
It’s not prefect but it’s a brilliant record, 'Brussels is Haunted' may be the best song they’ve written since the 80’s and 'Hijacked' just made me want to bounce about a dancefloor but also has some hints of classic Primal Scream.
Are they listening to classic 90’s indie rock? Yet 'Lab Rats Ran' has a very Bowie feel about it which suggests they may have had Ziggy Stardust on at some point. Who knows what they’ve been doing but something works here in an unexpected way. My trepidation disappeared on the first song and turned into excitement. I got that feeling again that I couldn’t wait to hear what they were going to do next!
There isn’t a weak link and the newfound maturity in Ian’s voice just works so well, it’s like listening to a band at peace with themselves, who know what they are capable of and are going to give it to you both barrels.
The guitars transported back to the days when I first heard the Bunnymen, they sounded strange, different, like nobody else in the 80’s and they wrote music that had a darkness in it that intrigued and drew me in.
The tour de force of the album for me is 'An Unstoppable Force', it’s one of those songs that you just know is going to be amazing live, I really hope they tour this album and play it, it’s one for them to be very much proud of. I just hope I’m there!
Review - Iain McClay
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