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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. The Cutter |
| 2. Back Of Love |
| 3. My White Devil |
| 4. Clay |
| 5. Porcupine |
| 6. Heads Will Roll |
| 7. Ripeness |
| 8. Higher Hell |
| 9. Gods Will Be Gods |
| 10. In Bluer Skies |
| 11. Fuel |
| 12. The Cutter |
| 13. My White Devil |
| 14. Porcupine |
| 15. Ripeness |
| 16. Gods Will Be Gods |
| 17. Never Stop |
Product Description
Digitally remastered! Reissued with 7 BONUS tracks and expanded artwork.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Echo & The Bunnymen: Masters of the sacred art of album making.
Porcupine is volume 3 in the possibly greatest succession of albums ever... Crocodiles to Echo & The Bunnymen... and it is a worthy installment.
Following 81's dark and atmospheric Heaven Up Here, Porcupine is ready to progress accordingly and shows the growth of the Bunnymen as artists. In Crocodiles the sound was aggressive with a focus on drums. Heaven Up Here put the guitar in the spotlight with better (and quite frankly awesome) pipes from macca. Porcupine takes this and, looking back, bridges the gap from Heaven Up Here to Ocean Rain, whilst still being a quality record on its own. There are times where you can really feel the cold of its predecessor (with appropriate artwork), paticularly on Higher Hell, Porcupine and The Cutter with familiar lyrics and vocals. Difference comes with the sound which has been refined from the rawness of the two albums before, incorporating a greater range of instruments like strings and various percussion, whilst flexing some serious production muscle. However its important not to get carried away with Porcupine being a paticularly dark record as its just not. It is, like the cover, reminiscent of a snowy, blizzardy day (paticularly with the xylophony-bits) that is magical and wondrous but not exactly heart-warming. The songs are stuctured with real Bunnymen sophistication and mystery, but at the same time retaining just the right amount of accessibility as displayed on Back of Love. Its easy to see where they went from here, taking a little bit of the chilliness into 'Nocturnal Me' and twisting into a bit of eccentricity with 'Thorn of Crowns' on the following album.
Porcupine is solid and sophisticated. It is chilly and cool without being morbid or depressing. The instrumental arrangements are spot on without being showy or extravagant. This repackaged issue is actually pretty good, with polished sound and, interestingly, alternative versions of tracks which in some cases are better than their album equivalents. Not to mention Fuel and Never Stop which have typical Bunnymen quality all over them.
Despite all of this goodness... its still fourth in the pecking order. Never mind that though, just buy it anyway.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Ian McCulloch's tendency to christen everything that Echo And The Bunnymen released as "The Greatest Album Ever By The Greatest Band Ever" is the sign of a man with supreme confidence in his own ability or a masochist begging for a beating.
Porcupine is the album where the Bunnymen finally got around to defining their style and sound - For all McCulloch's prior braggadocio there is something much more confident and assured here. There is something of the Middle East about the music, conjuring up visions of crowded souqs and bazaars.
After "My White Devil", "Clay", "Porcupine" and "Heads Will Roll" the album trails off slightly, but not to any major detrimental effect.
Echo And The Bunnymen may be something of an acquired taste but, once acquired, that taste is very addictive
Porcupine is the album where the Bunnymen finally got around to defining their style and sound - For all McCulloch's prior braggadocio there is something much more confident and assured here. There is something of the Middle East about the music, conjuring up visions of crowded souqs and bazaars.
After "My White Devil", "Clay", "Porcupine" and "Heads Will Roll" the album trails off slightly, but not to any major detrimental effect.
Echo And The Bunnymen may be something of an acquired taste but, once acquired, that taste is very addictive
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When I first bought this album in 1983 I was struck by how unmemorable the songs were. Don't misunderstand me - I loved hearing the album but it was the uncatchiest record I had ever heard, apart from the two obvious singles, Back Of Love and The Cutter, which still sound superb and fresh in 2008. The Bunnymen had expanded their instrumentation beyond the basic guitar, bass and drums set up and this is captured brilliantly in the production. There's a clarity, edginess and impact to the recording which in later years was lost, never to return.
Ian's vocals soared and dived, Pete and Les were as solid as ever on drums and bass and Will's guitar alternated between soft and crashing. I love the acoustic opening of Heads Will Roll, followed by loud electric guitar and strings. Ripeness is a corker of a song but took a lot of listens before I could remember any of it. Clay and Gods Will Be Gods are slightly catchy but Higher Hell and My White Devil are dark and moody though still great songs. The title track, Porcupine, is the most unusual song with its change of tempo and dark (again), mysterious feel. In Bluer Skies begins and ends with the sound of waves and is another gloomy, introspective song but is brilliant for it.
This album, to me, represents the Bunnymen at the peak of their creativity. Later albums had catchy songs but smooth, slightly bland productions. Listen to the raw impact of this album and enjoy Ian's powerful vocal at its best.
Ian's vocals soared and dived, Pete and Les were as solid as ever on drums and bass and Will's guitar alternated between soft and crashing. I love the acoustic opening of Heads Will Roll, followed by loud electric guitar and strings. Ripeness is a corker of a song but took a lot of listens before I could remember any of it. Clay and Gods Will Be Gods are slightly catchy but Higher Hell and My White Devil are dark and moody though still great songs. The title track, Porcupine, is the most unusual song with its change of tempo and dark (again), mysterious feel. In Bluer Skies begins and ends with the sound of waves and is another gloomy, introspective song but is brilliant for it.
This album, to me, represents the Bunnymen at the peak of their creativity. Later albums had catchy songs but smooth, slightly bland productions. Listen to the raw impact of this album and enjoy Ian's powerful vocal at its best.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gods will be Gods....and the Bunnymen are Gods.
Rating: 9/10
Best tracks: `Clay', `Porcupine', `My White Devil', 'Fuel', `Heads will Roll', `Back of Love', `The Cutter', 'Never Stop'
I first listened to... Read more
Best tracks: `Clay', `Porcupine', `My White Devil', 'Fuel', `Heads will Roll', `Back of Love', `The Cutter', 'Never Stop'
I first listened to... Read more
Published 22 months ago by New Gold Dreamer
Isn't it nice when your heart is made out of ice?
I bought 'Porcupine' the day it came out, spurred on by the 2 excellent singles that preceeded it. I think I played it twice, thought it was a dirge, and put it back in my L.P. Read more
Published on 23 April 2010 by Echoroom
3 and a half stars
As one of the reviewers has pointed out, this is the least essential of the Bunnymen's classic period. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by Steve
My God forgot
Its easy to review Albums when they start off with such a blast as this. Quite simply 'The Cutter' and 'The Back of Love' are two of the best songs written by the Bunnymen. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2008 by awol37
freezing cold!
Never has there been an album whose title or cover were more appropriate...porcupine is by far the most difficult, claustrophobic bunnymen lp to listen to, but that doesn't mean... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2006 by jenny
Great album, extra tracks detract more than they add
PORCUPINE is a masterpiece of early-80's alternative, with epic songwriting and production that any of todays mysteriously popular bands like COLDPLAY would love to be able to... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2005 by Simon Booth
Brilliant Album
I got this album again recently after having owned the original when it came out. My memory was that it somehow fell between the sound of Crocodiles/Heaven Up Here and Ocean Rain... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2004 by J. Mann
bunnymen at their best
In my opinion, this album represented the bunnymen at their best.
I wasat college around this time, and remember putting loads of money in thebar juke box to play the glorious... Read more
I wasat college around this time, and remember putting loads of money in thebar juke box to play the glorious... Read more
Published on 24 April 2004
P-P-P-Porcupine
I remember clearly going to see the Bunnymen in Leicester during the Porcupine tour. I had been unimpressed with their Top of the Pops outings but seeing this album reproduced... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2004 by Neil
1983's messy album.
I've never been very keen on Porcupine, which does at least move away from the miserablism of Heaven Up Here- most of the songs sound curiously formless and it all comes across as... Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2003 by Jason Parkes
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