Siberia
Echo & The Bunnymen
Engineer: Hugh Jones, Matthew Edge, Andrea Wright,
Producer: Hugh Jones
Cooking Vinyl Records (USA), 2005
1 CD
Catalogue #: COOKCD297
EAN: 0711297469721
UPC: 711297469721
Echo & The Bunnymen: Ian McCulloch (vocals, guitar); Will Sergeant (guitar); Paul Fleming (keyboards); Peter Wilkinson (bass guitar); Simon Finley (drums).
Recording information: Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, England.
On SIBERIA, Echo & the Bunnymen's first studio album since 2001's FLOWERS, the brooding Liverpool band reunites with producer Hugh Jones, who worked on the post-punk group's revered early-1980s records CROCODILES and HEAVEN UP HERE. Collaborating with Jones, vocalist/guitarist Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant avoid the pomp and circumstance of outings such as OCEAN RAIN, giving these new songs a welcome immediacy, most notably on the chiming, poppy "Stormy Weather" and the dreamy "In the Margins." Although McCulloch's deep voice lacks its former range, time has given it a charmingly raspy quality that plays nicely off of Sergeant's signature swirling guitar lines. Easily one of Echo & the Bunnymen's best latter-day albums, SIBERIA wisely nods to the band's classic early output without attempting to duplicate it.
Tracklist
Echo & The Bunnymen
Along with Teardrop Explodes and Wah! Heat, Echo & the Bunnymen were part of the early-1980s Liverpool scene that was somewhat misleadingly dubbed "neo-psychedelic." While the Bunnymen bore elements of the Doors' dark, mysterious sound and decidedly abstract lyrics, punk played as much of a role in the development of the band's music as anything else. What marks their sound more than anything else, though, is a soaring, anthemic quality that can be quite affecting. After a lengthy hiatus, the band reunited in the early 2000s to tour and record.
