Echo & The Bunnymen

Heaven Up Here

Refreshingly down

Review Score:

(10/10)
This is, in my opinion, pretty much what U2 were trying to sound like on their first two albums, before they upped their game. They didn't manage it: Bono was too pompous and couldn't really sing, the rhythm section was sloppy and Edge didn't have Will Sergeant's finesse. Interestingly enough, Simple Minds were trying to ape U2 at around the same time - the less said about them the better.
On to the album itself. I've got Show of Strength blasting out of my computer speakers at the moments. It sounds as fresh as the day it was made. Will Sergeant's guitar is simultaneously hooky and melancholy, a difficult thing to pull off, Les Pattinson and Pete De Freitas make the whole thing funkily danceable and McCulloch's voice reverberates above the mix in a strangely disembodied manner. I was -3 years old when this came out, so I can only imagine what the tour for this album must have been like. Probably quite intense. I wish I'd been there. I don't really have any favourite songs, but there are standout moments on the record: the ARP Odyssey chiming out in Over the Wall, the suddenly hushed atmosphere ushering in The Disease and the Closer-era Joy Division-esque rhythmic damped guitar on Turquoise Days being just a few. If you don't have this album, buy it. Then get Crocodiles, Porcupine and Ocean Rain. These four albums, all of which have their adherents, are the Bunnymen classics. You won't regret it.

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