Last Updated on April 18, 2017 by Dave Farquhar
Hey, this is cool! After the last couple of weeks, I just felt like listening to Echo and the Bunnymen. I like them when I’m down, because their recent stuff is good to listen to when you want to feel less alone, but it’s not like listening to Joy Division or Sisters of Mercy, which can drag you down further. And Ian McCulloch isn’t afraid to turn to God in a song, sometimes for comfort but often to ask a really tough question. And of course I like that for some reason.
I knew they got dropped by their label last year, after releasing two albums that sold poorly and critics seemed to misunderstand–maybe you had to be like me to understand them, and nobody wants to admit to being what I am. I could listen to 1997’s Evergreen over and over, while the best moments of 1999’s What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? were better, I thought the predecessor was the better album overall.
Now, it’s 2001, they’ve signed with Spin Art in the States (the biggest name on their roster is ex-Pixie Frank Black) and with Cooking Vinyl in the UK (dunno anything about that label), and the new album comes out May 14. I haven’t heard any of it–RealAudio won’t cooperate with me… figures–but I read the lyrics and I’m excited. They’re a little gloomy. OK, sometimes they’re a lot gloomy. Ian McCulloch seems a little down on himself, and he’s asking questions of God, and he’s asking questions of his wife or maybe an old girlfriend.
And there’s the token love song in there–seems like that’s obligatory–but the words are sincere, not sappy. This one’s just pledge of loyalty and a thank-you for a compliment, worded simply and repeated a couple of times.
It’s gonna be a good year.
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David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.