Echo & The Bunnymen – Reverberation

 

Echo & The Bunnymen – Reverberation

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

You’ve hailed from Liverpool. You and three of your mates have formed a successful group. You’ve toured the world and put out classic records. Then one of you decide to leave, and the status of the group is in question.

You are not The Beatles. You’re Echo & The Bunnymen. The Liverpool quartet had hit their artistic peak in 1984 with the lush, mostly acoustic Ocean Rain. They followed it up with the single “Bring On The Dancing Horses” in 1985.

The song was written for the John Hughes film Pretty In Pink. And it was a success. So, they recorded their next album – 1987’s self-titled Echo & The Bunnymen – with the same producer Laurie Latham. And it was successful, especially the single “Lips Like Sugar” – still the best known Bunnymen song by neophytes to this day.

But beyond the reverberated gloss, tensions were building within the band. No one was entirely satisfied with the sound of the album, and singer/lyricist Ian McCulloch was beginning to feel the band was a spent force. So, following his father’s untimely death in April of 1988, he announced he was leaving the group.

Expecting that the group would disband, McCulloch soon began working on solo material. However, the rest of the band – guitarist Will Sergeant, bassist Les Pattinson, drummer Pete de Freitas – met up, and privately decided to carry on. When Sergeant informed McCulloch of this in September 1988, he was stunned. The pair would not speak for several years.

Soon after, auditions began for a new singer. After a period of a few months, they settled on Noel Burke. Hailing from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Burke had frontman experience leading St. Vitus Dance. But they had split up around the time McCulloch left the Bunnymen, and Burke was looking for a new gig.

According to Burke, he was approached by Will Sergeant because he sounded different from McCulloch, but just similar enough to blend in with the style of music. Tim DiGravina of Allmusic has compared Burke’s voice to that of Mark Burgess, and it’s an apt description.

Burgess was mining similar territory with his post-Chameleons outfit The Sun and The Moon to what Burke did with St. Vitus Dance. Things were looking up for The Bunnymen again. Until tragedy would befall them.

While travelling on his motorcycle to the first rehearsal for the new Bunnymen, Pete de Freitas was killed in an accident. He was 27. The Bunnymen were able to withstand the loss of their lead singer. But the actual death of a founding member?

The Bunnymen made a quick decision to soldier on. According to Burke, there was no discussion of whether they would continue. They just carried on. Future Spiritualized drummer Damon Reece was called up for the task. His choppy Madchester influenced fills were an apt replacement for de Freitas’ lightning in a bottle approach.

Around this time, the Bunnymen added another official member to the group. Jake Brockman had played keyboards with the band on their 1987 tour. He proved to be a stable influence on their stage show, faithfully recreating the sounds of the albums.

Not wanting to recreate the mistakes of the last album, The Bunnymen went with a new producer. He was none other than Geoff Emerick. The famed producer had over 20 years of experience at that point, working as tape operator under George Martin with The Beatles on Abbey Road.

He introduced The Bunnymen to new ways of working, adding psychedelic sounds like autoharp, sitar, and backwards guitars. The Bunnymen also used new technology to demo their songs. According to Burke, several songs had their origins in sessions with Sergeant and Pattinson utilizing the new computer recording software Cubase.

This allowed the Bunnymen to add digital sound effects and loops without having to splice recording tape. The resulting album Reverberation was finally released in late 1990. But questions still remained. Could the Bunnymen recover from their recent losses? And with all these changes, were they even still The Bunnymen?

Ironically, album opener “Gone, Gone, Gone” sounds like a psychedelic rewrite of “Lips Like Sugar!” The main riff could easily be played as a counter melody to what Sergeant plays here. Emerick’s touches are subtle – he pans Burke’s voice from left to right, but generally keeps a light hand.

“Enlighten Me” is where the real psychedelic action starts. Layer upon layer of sitar and bongos introduce the track before Reece’s Madchester drums and Pattinson’s funky bass lock into a groove. Sergeant enters – heavily chorused – before a multitracked Burke introduces the verse.

The guitars in the chorus jangle and chime like The Smiths before an even more psychedelic build up to the verse riff. For completists, the single has an extended remix which sharpens the bassline and fades the guitars in and out.

“King of Your Castle” and “Senseless” both call back to The Bunnymen’s past. “King of Your Castle” has the stop-start loud/quiet dynamic of Ocean Rain, while Burke actually sounds like McCulloch on “Senseless.” His slightly raspy voice is now flanked with the drama of his predecessor. Sergeant is also in full jangle mode, making it sound like a song from the previous record with better production.

“Devilment” was a song written at the Sergeant/Pattinson Cubase pre-session. It builds from a tightly locked groove and Burke’s signature rasp into a glorious chorus of multitracked vocals, and Sergeant’s e-bow guitar. Emerick again plays his hand on the track.

He weaves sitars in and out of the mix and pans a “whooshing” sound left and right during the bridge, giving the track a spooky feel. It makes the listener feel as if they are flying through a cloud.

Perhaps the strongest of the bunch is “Flaming Red.” The track opens with the sound of thunder, and a gently arpeggiated Rickenbacker guitar. The song continues to build until a fiery solo from Will Sergeant, which is among the best work of his career.

One has to wonder if he felt the need to prove himself after the events of the previous two years. And prove himself he does, leaving a wake of embers in his trail. A second guitar break and a fadeout close the track, solidifying its place in Bunnymen history.

The loss of a lead singer is enough to kill of even the greatest of bands. To lose the singer and have the drummer perish would surely be the final nail in the coffin. But on Reverberation, Echo & The Bunnymen prove that they were not just a band, but an idea. The changes to their sound were dramatic, but they still managed to sound like themselves.

Sire/1990