REVIEW: Echo & The Bunnymen, Evergreen (London)

- Joe Silva

Throughout their career, various stops on the Bunnymen rollercoaster have included cult-like stardom, potential mega-band, born again retro-heroes, and plain dead boring. After having spent a couple of years promoting their brilliant re-incarnation as the horridly-titled Electrafixion, Ian "Mac" McCulloch and Will Sergeant egos have apparently given in to the lack of attention the project received and opted to recoup what's left of their fan base (and their original lineup) and put together a proper comeback album.

Despite having made some rather not-so-pleasant comments about bass player Les Pattinson during the Electrafixion era, Mac has talked up much about their combined return to Bunny-form since Les' return to the camp. Outside of McCulloch's hair-teased reality, what the Bunnymen have managed to return to is the lackluster output that comprised much of the initial swan song LP. The U.S. success of their weakest single "Lips Like Sugar," seems to have prompted towards a stylistic return to that bland but lucrative period. Even the Brits themselves (in this case the NME) could not have hit the head of the nail any squarer when they said: '...many more than the few thousand Anglophiles who worshipped them last time round - will probably lap it up, too. McCulloch, Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson may well make, at last, serious money. And the precious artistic reputation of Echo & The Bunnymen will be soiled just a little bit more.' Maybe not a little.

Content-wise, the blame could probably be shifted largely to McCulloch himself. While the Edge and/or Johnny Marr will probably tussle it out through history as to who's more deserving of the 80's Guitar God trophy, Sergeant is a massively overlooked contender. And even when he's only in mid-soar as he is here, he still has the ability to come up sounds that passages that shimmer and sounds that have a unique eerie-ness all their own. But McCulloch's art-school literacy has left him virtually wordsworth-less. The melodies that attempt to prop up said-lyrics are even more limp than practically anything he's committed to tape. Yes yes, Liam Gallagher mumbles something into the backdrop of "Nothing Lasts Forever," but not even the aid of a mediocre yet happening rock star can salvage these offerings.

While the Electrafixion leftover "Baseball Bill" gets a decent Bunny-fied reworking here, you're left otherwise with only stray hooks here and there and a decided hankering for some of the sonic ferocity and dreamy psychedelic prose they have mastered many times over. This LP combined with the whole PopMart fiasco could drive a generation to drink.