The cover of this one made me realised that there’s an ongoing theme to Echo & the Bunnymen album covers, with the band stood in some strange incongruous natural feature – twisted trees, frozen waterfalls, and here in an underground cavern that reminded me of The Deck level in Tomb Raider III. At times, McCulloch and co. get a bit more commercial compared to prior albums, not least on the track Silver Seas which is familiar “My face among them, kissing the tortoise shell”. This features some vague raga soloing, but it’s good to see the inexplicable animal imagery continuing. Nocturnally Yours is a bit of art rock with strings and an ominous paso doble style beat that reminded me of The Last Dinner Party; the influence of the likes of Sparks on that band are obvious, but listening to this, they’ve definitely taken some of the baroque elements of Echo And The Bunnymen.
Silver, Killing Moon and My Kingdom are also somewhat more commercial, the sound just a bit less darkly gothic compared to the lush Eastern strings of Porcupine. It somehow doesn’t feel quite right for the band, much like a cheery song like Friday I’m In Love by The Cure doesn’t feel right to me. However, dark imagery is maintained in tracks like The Yo Yo Man with lyrics about “waiting for the ice to turn green”, and “collecting the bones of my friends tonight”. Not so great, lyrically, are the utterances of “C-c-c-cucumber, c-c-c-cabbage, c-c-c-cauliflower" on Crown Of Thorns. While McCulloch is constructing a salad, however, he gives some very Jim Morrison guttural utterances, losing control within the music in a very pleasing fashion.
This is another I had to listen to again, and it’s another whose finer points need some teasing out. I think I still prefer Porcupine though.
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