Flowers

Echo & The Bunnymen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 22, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cooking Vinyl
• ASIN: B00005BCD9
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,834 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Flowers, the third creditable installment of Echo and the Bunnymen's second honeymoon period, finds the stylish, duopolistic musical nucleus of Ian McCulloch's vocal somnolence and Will Sergeant's Eastern guitar mystique newly augmented by the work of bassist Alex Gleave, drummer Vinny Jamieson, and keyboard player Ceri James. Subtle psychedelic touches of theremin, organ, and backwards guitar pursue the colorization of a few monochromatic areas but, for the most part, Flowers is less the work of a new broom and more the affirmation of the Bunnymen's vintage vibe. Therefore, the opening "King of Kings" (think the Doors' "When the Music's Over") wouldn't sound out of sorts on Ocean Rain, while the pronounced garage pop of "Make Me Shine" and "Life Goes On" both build on past endeavors with a newly insistent, radiant vitality. The album's centerpiece--the careworn, love-scarred lamentation of the title track--exudes hard-earned maturity. And maturity is beginning to suit Echo and the Bunnymen very well indeed. --Kevin Maidment

Product Description

Still clinging to the post-punk snarl that made them cult favorites during the '80s, Echo and the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant maintain a stunning inventiveness as they enter into the third decade of the band. They're older, but an ignited passion remains central. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flowers Grow, February 12, 2004

By 

Bryan Forbes (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flowers (Audio CD)

I only bought this beacause it was cheap and didn't expect much. I rate CDs on how much I play them and I havn't stopped playing this one yet. A lot of Cds last a week or so. It's been 2 months since I bought this. At first listen it seems pretty ordinary but it sneaks up on you and I found myself singing the tunes while I was walking around the house. I havn't done that for years. For me this makes Flowers one of the best CDs I've had in many years.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bunnymen Are Bloomin Back, May 22, 2001

By 

tex (Greenock Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flowers (Audio CD)

Flowers the third and without doubt best installment of the glorious return of Echo & The Bunnymen, is a stroll through the psycedelic garden that is the minds eye of messers Will Sergeant and Ian McCulloch. The boys are on familiar ground with a nod to the doors Through the opening track King of Kings and a wink to The Velvet Underground with Buried Alive all the classic hallmarks that make the Bunnymen tick are here. Mac really Flexes his vocal muscels with the gorgeous title track Flowers while Will has a ball with An Eternity Turns, finishing with the custumery haunting ballad in this case Burn With Me. Here is what all Bunnyheads have been waiting for the big sister to Ocean Rain, so if you want to tell someone you love them say it with flowers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intensely Aesthetic, Significant, Important, December 7, 2001

By 

David A. Brothers (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flowers (Audio CD)

The rare and underappreciated gift of Echo and the Bunnymen is their ability to conjure mind movies. You might not see ghost bicycles plying a silver dome-skied heaven like I do, but if you listen, you'll see something.

This new work, in particular, shimmers with aesthetic intensity. Even when you're tempted to write off a line here or there as trite or cliched, Ian McCulloch's resonant voice saves it. Will Sergeant's guitar bundles an immense array of melodic sound around the band's strong rhythms.

Everything is organically unified. The vocals and the guitar at times peer through cautious fingers into vaulting spanses of cosmic space that music has failed to probe for years or maybe forever. Songs like "SuperMellowMan" are as melodic as they are uncharted.

The themes, as usual, insinuate themselves onto an emotional plain dominated by the weight of mortality, especially on "Buried Alive," the spacey ballad "Burn for Me," and the title track.

The celebration of life is present, too, on energetic but melodic "Everybody Knows" and "Life Goes On," both of bear ties to earlier works.

This is a stunning album that deserves far more attention than it is likely ever to get. That in itself makes it not only significant, but important.

If you care to make a difference in a wasteland culture and an industry hell-bent for mindless, craftless idiocy, get this album.

And don't download it; buy it.