New Song Snippets on Myspace

[Kounelaki]

Please bear in mind that the average sentence length should be no longer than twenty words.

Sez who?

[withahip]

Hey! I just heard EATB on the local college radio station!
They played Silver!
It is alumni weekend! The dj graduated college in 1986!

[Candleman]

There's a massive brilliant album followed by a mediocre one (Flowers), then there was Siberia, a masterpiece, and now we have something that again sounds mediocre. I can't tell you how much it hurts to type these words. I'm from a younger generation of Bunnymen fan and I will love Ian as long as I live. I've clued into them in 1994 as a young teen and I loved his solo stuff and Electrafixion probably more than I did the old Echo stuff although that's what got me started loving them. Flowers is probably my least fav album but I'll buy all they put out because with the record industry as it is we should feel obligated to support them no matter what after all they have given us. If I had Ian's home address I'd send him checks directly because they should rightfully be multi-millionaires by now and it is a serious injustice that they aren't . But even their less inspired albums I've found after some time always grow on me. So even if this isn't a Siberia or Burned or Mysterio it'll be a part of my life and I know it will grow on me. But please Ian, take care of your health. Start using some nicotine patches ( I have ), because I need for you to be here as long as possible. I've lost my father and Ive had my heart broken and I know what it will feel like to loose you. I can't stand to think of the day that you are no longer with us. So please please do take care of yourself, least of all of course for us.

[fat cherry]

just noticed, the website describes it as the tenth studio album, so presumably, the grey album has at last been downgraded to minor hiccup. oh alright, I'm assuming it the one without the self appointed head honcho guy on it. singers eh? didn't les say one of the reasons he left was the rewriting of history. if i could get on the other forum i'd give them a piece of my mind.

[Dr Evil]

I know what it will feel like to loose you...

Mac has already lost his self.

[happy_loss]

Ok, after much debate I finally listened to the snippets. I've set my Bunnymen bar so low that not much phases me anymore. I've tried to stop comparing anything from Evergreen to present day with the Bunnymen of old (despite how hard that is) b/c nothing will ever measure up. They really are two separate entities. The new stuff is "ok". Nothing that completely offended me, but nothing interesting or inspiring either. I wish I could be as passionate in my disapproval as some of you are, but I think I've just stopped caring. I wish the boys the best of luck, but it was time for me to leave the train several stops back. I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but even the Grey Album has started to sound better to me recently. Hey, we'll always have the first five albums and whatever gems they uncover from the 80s.

[happy_loss]

PS: Mac's voice sounds the shittiest I've ever heard on these new songs.

[withahip]

there was Siberia, a masterpiece,

[black francis]

SIberia does have "All Because of You Days"

Unfortunately it also suffers from "Parthenon Drive"

[withahip]

Good or bad it ain't no masterpiece. Even the cover lacked any effort. Let's stand by this mold infested buidling.
(I ams ure I will be told the window has some cultural signifigance like Glenn Miller's band took a shit there once.)

[black francis]

Siberia is half a masterpiece. Every song is half a great song. Either a great chorus or a great verse but never both. Except for Parthenon Drive. I think I've mentioned I don't like that song.

[withahip]

Half a masterpiece ain't a masterpiece. It is the epitomy of frustration.

Now Curvature of the Earth - there is a masterpiece.

[Dr Evil]

In the Margins and Of a Life are great songs, even Mac's voice seems revived, though to what extent technical trickery was involved I don't know.
Is it seriously true that Mac is STILL smoking? Whilst I haven't listened to the new tunes yet, there will come a point when Mac no longer qualifies as a singer. He is under the delusion that he's going to end up with a deep mature voice like Leonard Cohen-not to everyones taste, but Cohen does have a romantic vibe. But thats NOT the way it's going to pan out-he's going to be left with a harsh nasal whine. The young version of Mac was the sound of a beautiful man in love with himself and the world, you could hear the health, vigour and limitless potential in every note. He could have sung the telephone directory and still been great, but this was allied to an intelligence and depth comparable to Mark Burgess or Ian Curtis -though both these singers didn't have his natural talent or range. It made him seem almost superhuman or alien-there was a time I really thought he was from another planet. And of course, he had the best band in the world.
That intrinsic beauty has been replaced by a real bastard of a voice, and whilst he does make the occasional superhuman effort and overcome all these limitations (Supermellowman, In The Margins) it's an uphill struggle. I have never smoked, so I am not going to criticize him for not giving up smoking, because I don't know what its like to give up-obviously he is in the grip of a demon beyond his control.

[withahip]

A vocal coach and some effort would serve him as well as quitting the cigs.

Sometimes I think Ian suffers from depression. Or just outright boredom with the song writing process.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Siberia was a good album, half way to a masterpiece. Some of the best songs they have written since getting back together and, at last, it sounded more Bunnymenish than anything done since 97. I couldn't grumble about that album other than being too loud - and still have the same feeling about it as I did when I did a review of it on amazon as strings99 (other than praising Parthenon Drive, but hey we can get carried away in the moment).

As for Mac, he is like the male version of Marianne Faithful. A drug-fuelled period and fags fecked up her vocals, and she sounds like an old husky lady now, who should have packed it in years ago. Although, credit where credit is due, Mac is not as appalling.