Dark, exotic, gorgeous

Review Score: (10/10)
Looking back from the distance of nearly 20 years, a lot of '80s music doesn't hold up very well. (That's probably true for any decade, actually.) But this album, along with "Heaven Up Here" shows that Echo and The Bunnymen were way out ahead of most of their contemporaries. And while a number of other bands of that time (Talking Heads, Joy Division, Elvis Costello) were also superb, I don't think Echo and the Bunnymen ever got the recognition they deserve.

I owned the original vinyl LP when it first came out and I have the CD. The sound is gorgeous - layer upon layer of dark guitars, effects laden drums, and resonant singing make this a sonic feast. "The Cutter" has an exotic, almost Middle Eastern quality to it, while "Back of Love" is laced with dark irony. But the one song I find myself playing over and over, for nearly 20 years now, is "Gods Will be Gods". It builds to a ferocious intensity with a killer backbeat and brooding vocals. Just as the song reaches an intense climax, the guitars come roaring through in a gorgeous cathedral of sound. Its a lot fun ot play it on a good car stereo or a pair of headphones, where you can really get the spatial effects. Highly recommended

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