So happy to see a couple of my favorite Echo & The Bunnymen records available again as reissues. If you don’t know this band from Liverpool, they are the definition of “Post-Punk” with some “Gothic Rock” elements thrown in. Their music has an atmosphere of melancholy, depression, and gloom. But in the the most beautifully poetic way.

Porcupine was their 3rd album, from 1983. “Describing the album cover, journalist Dave Rimmer wrote in British music magazine Smash Hits, “Iceland does seem an appropriate location for this group. It’s isolated, cold, bleak and fits perfectly with the moody image they’ve attracted to themselves.” – Wikipedia
I would have to save among the many memorable songs on this record, “Heads Will Roll” may be my favorite.

Ocean Rain was their very next record and I remember being blown away by the full-on orchestral turn they took. With the addition of a 35-piece orchestra, these amazingly scruffy goth-rockers evolved into regal beauty queens.

On AllMusic, Jason Ankeny rates it 5 stars saying it’s “dramatic and majestic” with “sweeping string arrangements and hauntingly evocative production.” “Echo & the Bunnymen’s most beautiful and memorable effort”.

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