Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the one for the money / This is the one for the tree, December 3, 2003
Building on the youthful vigour and dynamicism of 'Crocodiles', 'Heaven Up Here' is the Bunnymen's pinnacle of expression. On the cover the band are seen to walk on water, a miracle they achieve musically on each and every song. The record spawned only one single, 'A Promise', which can sound rather overbearing out of context. Here it is a glorious piece of the whole cloth.Starting with 'Show of Strength', the drums and bass form a solid mesh over which the foghorn guitar swoops and wails. Mac cries out for recognition, his glorious melody confident enough that we can believe his magisterial romanticism. The rhythm guitar magically binds all of this together into a seamless whole, as the song roller-coasters to a jagged coda. 'With a Hip' derives from sounds heard in the industrial wilderness, and ends with a commitment to greatness. In between guitars build a tension that's released through thunderous snare shots. 'Over the Wall' is a midnight trip up and down the hillside, while a fog sweeps in and the doubts gnaw beneath the skin. Drummer de Freitas is a minor deity, here and throughout the album. That's only three parts of the wonder here on display. The one b-side from this period, 'Broke My Neck', is thankfully included in its full version. Four previously unreleased live tracks are not up to the sound quality of 'Shine So Hard' but still beg for a full concert release, rather than being tacked on here. This is the one called "Heaven" / And this is the one for me.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Heavy Contender For Best Album of the 80's, September 18, 2004
After their raw, exuberant debut album "Crocodiles", Echo & the Bunnymen went back to the drawing board. They came back with "Heaven Up Here," and from the very first listen it's clear that this record is chock full of Ideas, man. It sounds a lot like four [possibly] naive young men trying to deconstruct rock as they saw it in the UK in the early 80's: all sleek, chic, and retro-redundant.
Punk arrived in 1975/76 to teach the dinosaurs a lesson, and while it quickly became a parody of itself, the movement galvanized the efforts (and turned the mental/emotional/spiritual wheels) of thousands of would-be musicians.
The Bunnymen, it would seem, took punk's lessons to heart, and although they dispensed of its machinations early in their career, "Heaven Up Here" could arguably be termed the best punk-influenced record ever made. While some of the sounds on the record seem dated and cliched by today's standards, it's important to listen to this music with one's mind attuned to the context of the Times in which it was released.
Guitars shimmer and glisten like raindrops falling into puddles, as the bass churns out hypnotic Nuggets/Krautrock-inspired riffs and the drums pound out cymbal-less, tribal rhythms. And then you notice the Voice: It soars, dives, drives, and fights with the music, sometimes all in the course of a single song. This Voice drips with drama and pathos, delivering cryptic lyrics that draw you into a strange internal logic that actually begins to make a lot of sense after awhile. After thirty listens, one begins to think, "Aha! This song really DOES mean something!"
Yes, you should probably buy this album. And once you do, remember this Tip: "Heaven Up Here" actually sounds even better on an overcast, rainy day.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite , June 27, 2005
Echo & The Bunnymen were the first "cool" band I fell in love with. The album art is incredible, the name was cool and "strange", and most importantly the music was awesome, from the lyrics to the atmosphere. I love all their work and this one took the longest to get into, but became my favorite, right next to the brilliance of Ocean Rain. Porcupine was my favorite on first listen and Crocodiles is always fun so there is a lot of competition. This is the darkest of the 4 and maybe that is why I love it. It also rocks out as powerfully as any album I own so maybe that is what pushes it over the edge. The CD starts with "Show Of Strength", edgy and powerful, setting you up for a fight with the outside world and personal demons, this song transitions to "With A Hip", a really cool song that carries the flag filling you with a rush of adrenaline. Next is "Over The Wall", a powerful song you can't escape, drawing you into a magical world and not letting you up. The next two songs do let you relax a bit until "Heaven Up Here". This is one of my favorite songs ever. Ian's demons are all exposed and he is giving everything to escape this world while at the same time giving into its dark pleasures. He fails to escape and acknowledges his pain in the truly sad "The Disease". One of the darkest tracks to be written about the futility of life. The Bunnymen aren't afraid to expose the pain of reality and this is another reason this CD is so powerful. This atmosphere builds until "Turquoise Days" where the tension builds to the most incredible adrenalin rush of all time recorded on CD where you feel like you can grab the world by the balls and crush it. The CD than lets up a bit allowing the listener go to a world where we must take pleasure in the simple things to find any comfort at all in "All I Want". A work of genius.
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