Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harbours their blackest thorns, 2 Aug 2008
"We wanted to make something conceptual with lush orchestration , not Mantovani , something with a twist". So said Echo & The Bunnymens guitarist Will Sergeant about their fourth album 1984,s brilliant Ocean Rain. I,d say they succeeded spectacularly well for Ocean Rain does indeed have lush orchestration, courtesy of a 35 piece orchestra ,and it,s definitely not Mantovani . Indeed it,s one of the great albums of the much maligned 1980,s a salty tanged windswept classic.
Recorded in such diverse locations as Paris, Bath and the bands hometown Liverpool it,s clear just from looking at the albums beautiful deep blue cover ( designed by Martyn Atkins) that this is an unashamed opulent production. As well as the spectacular sweeping string arrangements there are the bands usual chiming guitars and furrowed brow bass lines while singer Ian McCulloch while pillorying stadium embracing dullards like Bono and Jim Kerr seems to be making his own bid for mega-stardom with a series of epic vocal performances and some quasi-mystical vocal imagery.
The band produced the album along with Gil Norton and Henri Lonstan and i always thought Ocean Rain sounded just fine as it was but re-mastered it seems to explode from the speakers in a glorious swooping riot of vertiginous melody and admirable portentousness. Helped it must be said in no small measure by tremendous songs.
As well as the jaw droppingly gloomy hit single "The Killing Moon" -the indie equivalent of Led Zeppelins "Kashmir" i feel- there are the other two singles released off the album - the rather more upbeat "Silver" , a song indeed that verges on the ecstatic with it,s pirouetting strings , and the rustic shanty like called "Seven Seas" aptly enough. Thematically it,s nothing if not varied with the funereal "Nocturnal Me" leading into the jaunty lightweight "Crystal Days" ."Yo Yo Man " and "Thorn of Crowns" are the weakest songs on the album i feel, though still more than acceptable but this leads into the stunning side two of the vinyl version. "The Killing Moon"& "Seven Seas" are followed by the mid-tempo squally "My Kingdom" which again showcases McCulloch,s curious predilection for hiccupping his vocals ( see also "Crystal Days" and "Silver" with it,s "t, t, t, t, tips" line) Last is the awesome title track which is my favourite off the album. A desperately forlorn ballad with a wonderfully tender McCulloch vocal Ocean Rain creaks with the emotional weight of it,s nautical imagery. "All at sea again " , "Your port in a heavy storm harbours the blackest thorns".
I feel the extra tracks on this re-mastered CD sound awfully incongruous coming after the heavy and very final note of the title track so i would advise listening to them separately though this is , of course, up to the individual listener. The live versions are fine with the tile track again standing out and "Angels And Devils" -the b side to "Silver" is also passable but i do draw the line at the live cover of "All You Need is Love".
Ian McCulloch with typical lippyness called Ocean Rain the"greatest album of all time" and while no one would , i feel, agree with this i assume tongue in cheek assessment it is a great album, certainly the best Echo & The Bunnymen ever produced.Ocean Rain has a sweep and grandeur rarely matched in popular music. A delight to listen to - it thrills from the end of your toes to the tingling extremities of your finger t, t, t, t, tips.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the bunnymen's most beautiful, 17 Aug 2005
so different to the youthful, rocking crocodiles and porcupine, but beautiful in its own unique way. the imagery of skies, seas and ships is so powerful and pagan, it's like a dream and mc culloch sounds sexier than ever. includes the lovely killing moon, but its the final track, ocean rain that'll give you the shivers...reminds me of rain lashing the windoes at night--dark and romantic.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The pinnacle of a great band's career, 23 Nov 2003
“The Greatest Album Ever Made” advertising pitch would be laughable if it were not half true. The first side wavers (Eternal Me and the Yo-Yo Man do not quite cut the gourmet mustard) but there has never been what we quaintly used to call an album side to match the quartet of “The Killing Moon”, “Seven Seas”, “ My Kingdom” and “Ocean Rain”. They see off the competition in the form of the first side of “Revolver”, “Remain In Light”, “Blue Lines”, the second side of “Beatsongs” and either side of “Marquee Moon”, “What’s Going On” “The Heart of the Congoes” and anything else I’ve ever heard.“Angels and Devils” is revered by many but is, for me, their most overrated b-side. By comparison, the “Life at Brian’s Sessions” show the group at their most relaxed and dry, save for “Silver” which seems lifeless without the massed orchestral backing and was wisely not included on the “Seven Seas” single with the others. The live version of “My Kingdom” is blistering, Will Sergeant’s echo to Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel” a worthy tribute. The tragedy is that, 19 years (and a lengthy hiatus) on, the remaining members of the band have never come within a country mile of matching the album as whole and the 18 minutes of magnificence of the second side. This is all the more reason to enjoy now and for evermore.
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