Echo & The Bunnymen – The Fountain (Mark’s take)
Having loved the Bunnymen since I saw them in 1978, I was excited to give the new album a whirl. I know Sean has touched on this and yes, I agree with his sentiments. However, I was lucky enough to see them last year in Liverpool and they still cut the mustard live. McCulloch has probably the best vocal delivery of any living artist of his genre! So onto the album…
Although it has that distinctly Bunnymen sound the freshness and relevance shines through. It’s a feisty offering with tracks like “Do You Know How I Am” and “Everlasting” – driving anthemic classic rock anthems in the best Bunnymen tradition. The whole album seems to centre around the reflective soulful ballad “The Idolness Of Gods”. As Ian McCulloch reflected recently:
“The last few years have been pre and post-renaissance years, and the Bunnymen because of this album and the Ocean Rain Shows feel more important than ever.” McCulloch points to the cathartic soul-bearing of ‘Idolness of Gods’ and ‘Do You Know Who I Am’, “as a phrase you daren’t ever say. It’s very tongue in cheek, but throughout the album I know exactly who I am. And I feel like rubbing your noses in it again, I know what I am on about now. It’s more like…..If I was an actor then I would be Jack Nicholson or De Niro, they just know what they are fuckin doing. But I’d like to think I choose my roles better than De Niro. I think that sense of confidence has been borne out of a natural habitat. Not that I’m looking down on an audience, but physically I am. I love it but then I also think, what the hell is all this about?”
Having listened through the album probably a dozen times over the last few days, I’m kinda in agreement with Ian that this is the best album since the iconic “Ocean Rain”. Don’t let that mislead you though, this is a far more guitar-driven offering, although title track “The Fountain” would sit equally well on that album. Many modern bands have aspired to be the new Bunnymen – notably Coldplay – but none can quite reach the melancholic irony of a book of McCulloch poetry set to the background of the Bunnymen sound.
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Hmm…I never got the Bunnymen back in the day (but I was born in 77, so…).
This is good enough to make me want to make up for the lost years and get aqquainted.