Echo & the Bunnymen is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Echo & the Bunnymen, their last with drummer Pete de Freitas, who died in 1989 in a motorcycle accident, aged 27. The album was produced by Laurie Latham; the sessions took place in Germany, Belgium, London and Liverpool, following an aborted attempt at recording the tracks without de Freitas and with producer Gil Norton. With Latham being an exacting producer, and lead vocalist Ian McCulloch receiving star treatment and drinking heavily, the recording was more difficult than the band had initially hoped. The album made more use of keyboards than their previous studio albums, which had been string-heavy. Three singles were issued: "The Game", "Lips Like Sugar" and "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo".

Although Echo & the Bunnymen was successful in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, the United States, it received mixed reviews from the music press following its release on July 6th 1987. The album reached number four on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In North America, it reached number 51 on the United States Billboard 200 and number 51 on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums. In Europe, it stayed in the European Top 100 Albums for eight weeks, peaking at number 36 on its fourth week.

Background

Echo & the Bunnymen took time off from touring, writing and recording after the release of the critically acclaimed Ocean Rain in 1984, because the band's manager, the fabled prankster Bill Drummond, felt that a year off would help the band write different kinds of songs in preparation for the next album. During the time off, drummer Pete de Freitas travelled through Spain and France on his motorcycle, bassist Les Pattinson worked on his new boat, leaving guitarist Will Sergeant as the only band member to spend the time doing nothing.

Under the new management of Mick Hancock, Duran Duran's tour manager, Now ready to start recording, they entered the studio with Clive Langer and their former producer Ian Broudie to record the songs they had played at Glastonbury, as well as "Like a Rollercoaster" and "Jimmy Brown". Not liking the results of this session, the band considered Eddy Grant and ABBA's production team before settling on Laurie Latham as their producer. McCulloch had been impressed by the sharp quality of Latham's production on the Stranglers' single "Skin Deep". The band met with Latham in Brussels, Belgium and recorded "All in Your Mind", "Like a Rollercoaster" and "Jimmy Brown", Hence, the band faced 1986 with a commitment to record an album, but without their drummer—a musician who was considered fundamental to the band's creative success. They hired former Haircut One Hundred drummer Blair Cunningham for the spring 1986 tour of the United States; however, he did not fit in, and, after the tour, left to join the Pretenders. The band then hired former ABC drummer David Palmer, and recorded a few sessions with producer Gil Norton for the new album. However, Palmer decided by July 1986 that he did not want to remain with the band.

Recording, production and music

Recording of the tracks that were to appear on Echo & the Bunnymen began at Conny Plank's studio in Cologne, Germany. Both Echo & the Bunnymen and their label, Warner Bros. Records, were unhappy with the results of the Norton sessions with Palmer playing drums. Keen to record again with de Freitas, the band decided to scrap the Norton sessions and to start recording a new album with Latham who had previously worked with the band on their 1985 single "Bring On the Dancing Horses". The sessions moved from Cologne to ICP Studios in Brussels, Belgium before returning to Cologne and finishing off at The Workhouse in London and Amazon Studios in Liverpool. The band hoped that the album would be a collection of simple songs; however, Latham was very specific and exacting, and he would work on one song for as long as a month. | width=17% | align=right

While making the album, the band recorded a cover version of the Doors' 1967 single "People Are Strange" for the soundtrack of the 1987 film The Lost Boys. Ray Manzarek, former keyboardist with the Doors, was brought in to provide keyboards on the song. While in the studio, he also contributed keyboards to a re-recording of "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo", which had previously been the B-side of the 12" single version of "Bring On the Dancing Horses".

Latham moved the band away from the use of strings, which featured heavily on Ocean Rain and to a lesser extent on Porcupine (1983), and introduced keyboards to the melody of the tracks. De Freitas's drumming was contained and discreet and McCulloch's vocals were more restrained. Although the album contained hook-heavy tracks such as "Lips Like Sugar", the guitars on tracks such as "Lost and Found" are more representative of the album as a whole.

The resulting album was disliked by the entire band. Describing in 1987 what he thought of as the over-production of the album, Sergeant described it as "an overcooked fish"; bassist Les Pattinson said "I like the songs, just hated the mixes"; and in 1995, McCulloch said "It still sounds crap."

Release

After previewing the album with a short concert on top of the HMV shop on Oxford Street in London, Echo & the Bunnymen was first released on 6 July 1987 as an LP and CD, by Warner Bros. Records in the United Kingdom and elsewhere and by Sire Records in the United States. The album reached a peak of number four on the UK Albums Chart. The album became the band's most successful in the United States where it reached number fifty-one on the Billboard 200. The album also reached number fifty-one on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums chart and number twenty-two on the Swedish Albums Chart. It also entered into the top 30 albums chart in the Netherlands and New Zealand. The album has also been certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for having shipped more than copies.

Three tracks from the album were released as singles. The first of these was "The Game", which was released on 1 June 1987. This was followed by "Lips Like Sugar", which was released in August 1987. The final single to be released from the album was "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo", which was also released before the year's end in the United States and Germany. "The Game" and "Lips Like Sugar" reached numbers 28 and 36 respectively on the UK Singles Chart.

In his 1987 review of the album for Rolling Stone magazine, music journalist J. D. Considine described Latham's production of the album as "ineffectual" and "well mannered". Taking a more positive stance in a retrospective review, David Cleary for AllMusic describes the album as "the hookiest and most memorable the band would ever write".

| 70

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)

| align="center"| 36

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Certifications

References

;Sources

  • Adams, Chris (2002). Turquoise Days: The Weird World of Echo & the Bunnymen. New York: Soft Skull.