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50 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Career high from 1984., December 11, 2003
While Crocodiles (1980) remains my personal favourite Bunnymen album, it is without a doubt that Ocean Rain remains their most accomplished album and their career high. The albums that had followed Crocodiles had been miserable (Heaven Up Here) & messy (Porcupine) though there had been a wealth of great songs: Never Stop, Back of Love, Zimbo, Show of Strength, Clay, The Cutter...Recorded mostly as Studio Des Dames in Paris (the location of The Cure's Lovecats recording also), it found the Bunnymen with Gil Norton, Adam Peter & Jean Yves crafting an orchestrally-accompanied classic. Probably the best Scott III influenced album till Suede's Dog Man Star! The strings & experimentation of the flawed Porcupine pay off here, as they pretty much deliver the proposed 'greatest album ever made' (this statement has worn thin with overuse by McCulloch to every subsequent release, no matter how mediocre). McCulloch's lyrics are suitably nonsensical, the right balance between Lear and Le Bon- Crystal Days is gorgeous stuff, though the opening single Silver has a breezy quality that suggests seasons other than the autumn or winter that dominated the feel of the early recordings. Nocturnal Me ("bury me internally") is the miserablism of Heaven Up Here given a more original direction- this is the greatest night-time music! Pity this edition doesn't get across the greatness of the album cover- this & Porcupine need to be owned on LP just for the brilliant covers which perfectly render the contents of the recordings in visual form. It's the latter four songs of Ocean Rain that really stand out, often cited by journos as the greatest album side in history (fair enough I suppose!), what's left of The Bunnymen still play all four of these songs in a row live. Pity the extra tracks at the end don't have all four songs in a row/live (just My Kingdom & Ocean Rain). The Killing Moon is probably the greatest Bunnymen song, later covered by Pavement on Major League & featured in the cult classic Donnie Darko (as well as so so nostalgia flick Grosse Point Blank). The third single Seven Seas is a breezy acoustic driven slab of beauty- this would be the template for the disappointing Bunnymen album that would follow in 1987. It was not bettered. My Kingdom explores a sound that recalls and advances on Love's timeless Forever Changes; but it's the title track that blows the mind:"All at sea again/and now my hurricans bought down this ocean rain...screaming from beneath the waves/all hands on deck at dawn/sailing to sadder shores/your port in my heavy storms/harbours the blackest thoughts..." Quite simply this song, and this side, need to be heard- listening to them makes clear what words don't seem capable of: this is godlike stuff! The extra tracks are pleasant- classic b-side Angels & Devils, a few live takes and alternate versions of songs from the 'Life at Brians' sessions that preceded the 'Crystal Days' series of gigs where the Bunnymen decided they were The Beatles (an idea ripped off by Oasis later...) Hence the cover version of All You Need is Love- though to be fair the live medley of Do It Clean/Ticket to Ride etc found on The Cutter 12" is much better! The alternate versions of Killing Moon & Silver are fine, though don't touch the album originals; nice to see some old Crocodiles songs- Villiers Terrace & the sublime Stars are Stars are returned to- almost suggesting that the band cite Crocodiles as the closest album to this in terms of quality (which it is). Ocean Rain is a fantastic album, one of the greatest albums ever made- up there with any candidate you could name (e.g. Sulk, Closer, Low, 154, The Queen is Dead, Dust, For Your Pleasure etc); it's hard to work out what went wrong- surely global domination should have beckoned? Like The Smiths, the Bunnymen fell by the wayside & U2 ended up taking it all with The Joshua Tree. After this, the Bunnymen would release the dire eponymous album of 1987 (from which De Freitas went absent to form the Sex Gods- see Julian Cope's Repossessed), then McCulloch would leave the band. Then De Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident. Then McCulloch released the rather good Candleland solo album (which would have been better had it been a Bunnymen album) as Sergeant & Pattinson ploughed on with a new line-up from Irish band St Vitus Dance (a bad idea in retrospect) The Bunnymen could never get close to this again- the reformed Bunnymen (which featured the Electrafixion duo of McCulloch & Sergeant, alongside Pattinson- who would leave after 1998's Evergreen) did some nice stuff, but not great stuff. & it was demeaning to see them have to accept the patronage of mediocre bands like Coldplay, Fun Lovin Criminals & Oasis in order to get noticed. Hopefully this set of reissues will get them noticed for the right reasons- for being one of the greatest bands of the 80s and producing two of the greatest albums ever made...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
They called it "The Best Album Ever Made.", May 2, 2004
Like the placid water and serene blue of the album's cover photography, the fourth recording from Echo and The Bunnymen conveyed a retreat into a calmer space. After the relentless aggression on "Porcupine," the change in direction to midtempo, texture heavy songs on "Ocean Rain" was a surprise to those who came to the table once they'd heard "The Cutter." Gone was the brute force, and in was a sudden rush of romanticism. It made for an intriguing set of songs, and certainly for a major shift in the perception of the band (and in leader Ian McCulloch).It also lead to a batch of incredible songs. "The Killing Moon," "Crystal Days" and "Silver" are awash in strings and romantic allusions. In the liner notes, McCulloch recalls that he "fell in love with Paris" while the band was recording there, and the spirit of "Ocean Rain" reflects that. The tones are often muted - DeFreitas uses brushes and other odd percussion to spectacular effect. On the other hand, McCulloch was still not beyond self-aggrandizing overstatement. His "Thorn of Crowns" will prove that. "Ocean Rain" also sports some of the Bunnymen reissue series' better bonus selections. The five songs from "Life At Brian's" are interesting in that the band sounds loose and relaxed, and the recording of The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" show a sense of humor. There's also a pair of live cuts (including Mac's comment about "the greatest album ever made") that shows E&TB as a first class concert act. While I am hard pressed to decide which Echo album I like more, "Ocean Rain" or "Porcupine," the days I give the nod to "Ocean Rain" are when I listen to "The Killing Moon," which I consider to be one of the finest songs to emerge from the whole 80's liverpool scene. This album is worth having for that one song alone.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"80's music" that doesn't sound dated, December 15, 2004
Yes, this was in many ways a classic 1980's 'new wave' type band. The name and Ian's hairdo certainly were of the time period. But this album truly stands the test of time and contains some of the best songs the band ever wrote, sterling production, and now the reissue makes available some very interesting material that has long been out of print.
"Ocean Rain" finds Ian, Will, Les and Pete in full command of their craft, offering one excellent guitar-based piece after another, most with elegant, understated enhancement courtesy of hired symhony musicians. These songs could have been recorded using just acoustic guitars, and the album would still be fantastic. The outstanding production simply enhances what are already outstanding songs.
I could rave about the individual songs, but why bother? The album is great, start to finish. I will comment a bit on the bonus material:
"Angels & Devils" was always my favorite b-side from these guys. Although it's quite simplistic in that it only has two parts, verse and chorus, each consisting of only two chords, the lyrics and the arrangement keep it engaging throughout.
The five acoustic cuts come from a special "Seven Seas" ep. They are quite enjoyable, although I don't think any of these versions surpasses the original. As a matter of fact, I gotta admit that Ian's voice sounds pretty bad on the acoustic version of "Silver."
The two live cuts are awesome. However, as is often the case with live recordings, the sound is not as full and rich as the studio versions. I happen to love a good live version, so I am keen on these, but again, I don't think either one of these tops the studio version.
This album, along with Crocodiles, represents the peak of this band's creative achievement, and one of the best releases of the 1980's. And this reissue is great for bringing back some long out-of-print material!
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