Echo & The Bunnymen

Ocean Rain

Excellence

Review Score:

(10/10)
My fellow bay-area banshee-esqe counterpart below hit the nail on the head with this one.

This is my favorite amongst favorites of Echo & the Bunnymen releases. It is completely beautiful, acheiving such incredible melodies and lyrics that it is almost beyond words.

I guess I can best sum it up in the following way: I remember, at the time, I was living in San Jose, Ca. I was watching MTV (remember when it was decent...Kevin Seal on 120 minutes and such?), and on came MTV news...the latest word...drummer Pete de Frietas of Echo and the Bunnymen was dead. Hit by a truck while riding to the market on his motorcycle. He is survived by his wife and child.

It cut like a knife. I was a (young) teen, hooked on Echo, Smiths, New Order, Cure and the like. These guys don't die...do they? Ah, there's the rub.

So, without further ado, I reached for my "Ocean Rain" cassette, temporarily passing up the poignancy of "All my Life" on the self-titled tape. The music and lyrics touched my soul at that moment in such a way that I can barely describe it. Yet, sitting here in my office, over ten years later, I can feel it and recollect it as if it was yesterday.

Get this beautiful cd if you don't already have it. You will love it.

In closing, and in effort to try to not make this review too much like something out of the "All Men Have Secrets" book on The Smiths, anyone remember seeing Echo and the Bunnymen with New Order and Gene Loves Jezebel? ....1987-ish....Berekly, CA? Amazing...

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