Reverberation

Echo & The Bunnymen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 8, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000008FB4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,998 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic on par w/ Ocean Rain, April 4, 2005

By 

Dar Clove - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reverberation (Audio CD)

After Ocean Rain, released in May of '84, I couldn't imagine Echo & The Bunnymen putting together another album with such an amazing array of strong tracks. Their self titled album, released in July of '89, had some good tracks, but most of them ended up sounding more like pop rock than the edgy, alternative style that defined the band's earlier work (New Direction is a wonderful exception). So when Ian McCulloch left the band, there was absolutely no reason to believe that the next Echo & The Bunnymen album would be of any consequence whatsoever. I bought Reverberation anyway, more out of curiosity than anything else. Just how far had the band sunk, I wondered?

Well let me tell you, I was blown away, utterly. First and foremost, who could you get that could possibly match the haunting and hypnotic vocals of Ian McCulloch? Well, Noel Burke, that's who. Yes, I listened to this new voice and could not believe how good it was and how it interweaved with the music to brilliantly capture the 'essence' of the Echo & The Bunnymen sound. He didn't try to sound like Ian, he sang with his own voice that was deep, resonant, and every bit as haunting and hypnotic as Ian's.

But as staggering as that discovery was, I was completely bowled over by the depth and sensitivity of the new songs that, combined with Noel's voice, ensnared my attention like a siren's beckon. The lyrics were every bit as moody, brooding, evocative, and brilliant as the music that carried them. My favorites? 'Senseless', 'Freaks Dwell', 'King Of Your Castle', 'False Goodbyes', 'Flaming Red', 'Thick Skinned World', and 'Gone, Gone, Gone'. Damn, that's almost the entire album, isn't it?

The benchmark of Ocean Rain had been met, I thought. Reverberation does not exceed Ocean Rain, mind you, but they meet as equals, and that itself is an amazing accomplishment for a band who had previously been floundering with their sound and whose lead singer had left them to pursue a solo career.

Reverberation is one of the greatest albums to ever be released without attention, fanfare, or acclaim. Such a shame, but we few holders of the work know how lucky we are. If you like the unique sound of Echo and the Bunnymen, then you must seek out Reverberation. You will be rewarded.

Now if it were up to me to pick the lead singer of Echo & The Bunnymen to be either Ian or Noel in their prime...well christ, I'm just glad I don't have to. They are both simply incredible.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars **FAR** Better Indie/Alternative Acid Rock Than The Purists Give It Credit For, March 26, 2007

By 

S. Nyland "Squonkamatic" (Six Feet Of Earth & All That It Contains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reverberation (Audio CD)

First off, I've had this CD since the week it was released, an acquaintance who works at a record store flipped me a promo copy because nobody else who worked there wanted it. That is because they were FOOLS and bought into the conventional wisdom which stated that Echo & the Bunnymen without Ian McCulloch was not Echo & the Bunnymen. Their loss, my eternal gain: From the first instance I played this CD it earned a place of respect even if I really had no idea what was going on here.

I had heard of Echo & the Bunnymen during the 80s when some of their cuts turned up on post-punk compilation records (anyone remember "Life in the European Theater"?) but to my credit or shame was unable to distinguish between the voice of McCulloch and surrogate Echo, Noel Burke. I also had no idea the drummer had died in a motorcycle accident, that the keyboard player was more of a hired gun who had augmented their live sound and been a session guest in the past, and could have given a rat's rear end that McCulloch's solo work from this period was where the "purists" leant their approval. After playing it for a few people I was informed that the record was "bogus", that it represented a "sell out" and that I was "stupid" for liking it. People ...

This is a FABULOUS collection of alternative pop songs tinged with a not so subtle psychedelic flavor that was quite the rage at the time thanks to the explosion of Manchester pop/punk pre-rave music headlined by Happy Mondays, The Farm, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Stone Roses, etc. It was danceable punk lite that you listened to while you were tripping, essentially, and unlike some of the garbled babblings of Sean Ryder or the trite simplicity of The Farm, there is actual substance to these songs. Even with oblique stream of consciousness lyrical content that perhaps defies specific discreet meaning -- the only song I have figured out the meaning of to this day is "King of Your Castle", which believe it or not is a party song about domestic abuse. Go figure.

The rest of it is pleasingly open to interpretation, mood or temperment, and while the musical structure is unrelated to their work the lyrical content is actually quite reminscent of art rock demigods Yes: Imagine "Starship Trooper" as a new wave song and that's more or less what's going on here. The lyrics paint verbal pictures, with the selection of individual phrases that are evocative over specific content -- "Strawberry Feilds Forever" or "Penny Lane", with lots of reverb twanging guitars (VERY accurately titled album here), upbeat drumming that never gets overbearing, a pulsating bass that always contributes rather than distracts, all of it floating on top of a wafting sea of mellotron passages, channel switching phase shifts, flange effects, echos and washes of strings, Eastern culture instruments, tabla drums, feedback loops, and half-whispered backing choruses welling up out of nowhere. It's one of the most universally appealingly psychedelic albums of the 1990s, bettered perhaps only by Happy Mondays' "Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches" only because of that album's somewhat more sophisticated use of dance rhythms.

And now in retrospect, 17 years later, it actually holds up better, resisting some of the cliches of club rock that Happy Mondays made part of their schtick. This is very much an alternative rock album by comparison, tinged by lyrics of wistful introspection ("Gone, Gone, Gone"), searches for personal identity ("Enlightened"), social observation ("Freaks Dwell") and social critique ("King of Your Castle"), admonishments againts personal apathy ("Devilment", always my favorite track) and commentary on the aloof impersonal nature of pop culture ("Thick Skinned World"), relationships gone amiss (the marvelous "Cut and Dried"), peans to mis-spent youths ("Flaming Red") and all of it climaxing -- on CD, at any rate -- with the bone chilling anthem "False Goodbyes" which never fails to raise goosebumps on the skin of anyone who's perhaps seen a few too many friendships go by the wayside over nothing.

To tell the truth I am not a real huge fan of Echo & the Bunnymen's more well-known work. Stuff like "Sugar Kisses" always rubbed me the wrong way, and one of the things that makes this collection of work so remarkable is that none of the songs ever got much radio play, no doubt in part due to industry indifference over having anyone but McCulloch as the focus of the band's presentation. All I can say is that such was an unfair conclusion and this remains one of the great unheard albums of the pre-alternative club rock era, when anything other than AOR friendly stuff like Led Zeppelin or The Doors could be considered "alternative" or indie rock.

The preferred way to experience it at the time was to eat a tab of doseage, pick up a six-pack and head for the studio for a session of repeat play feuled painting or drawing. The nature of the album always seemed to bring out a kind of cheerful introspectiveness that loaned itself quite readily to the creative process. Never becoming overbearing and filled with memorable quotes that defied some coehsive, arbitrary meaning. Now that I'm hitting 40 and perhaps more inclined towards sobriety the one thing that strikes me the most hearing it again after 15 years or so is how well it all held up: It wasn't just "fad" music, a criticism justifiably heaped on the Manchester raver rock scene that now comes off sounding so silly.

Here by comparison is a statement about culture, identity, social consciousness and artistic invention that has managed to stay fresh & insightful for nearly two decades. It was way ahead of it's time: Easy listening acid rock for the alternative indie sect, a genuine sleeper mini masterpeice that deserves to be heard again. And again.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately, people are shallow, December 10, 2005

By 

Steven E. Wilson "plasticsoul2001" (San Gabriel, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reverberation (Audio CD)

One of my favorite things about this album is that it pisses off Ian McCulloch so much. It's too bad that people couldn't get over the fact that they didn't change the name after Ian left. Who the hell cares what their name is if the music is good?! Why should Will and Les give up the name recognition that they spent years building up when they were just as entitled to it as Ian?

This is a fantastic, creative album featuring some of Will Sergeant's finest guitar work to date. McCulloch's replacement, Noel Burke, did a fine job in the face of a near impossible job, writting clever lyrics and melodies, and certainly delivering the goods live. The psychedelic sound that the B-Men played with during their early years is cranked up on Reverberation, which features sitars, tablas, farfisa organs, and wonderful production by Geoff Emerick (who recorded a little band known as The Beatles).

It's truly unfortunate that so many people chose to ignore this fantastic album over something so petty. And the truth is, if you corner most Bunnyfans, they will admit to loving it just as much as I do.

Do yourself a favor and buy this album. And if you can find the two singles that they released independently, "Prove Me Wrong" and "Inside Me, Inside You", get them too. Not only are they excellent, they are super collectable since they only made about 500 to 1000 of each of them.

And if Noel Burke ever sneaks a peak here at Amazon to read the reviews of Reverberation...it was a short ride, but it was fantastic! I wish you would have made more music. Cheers!