Does anyone care about Echo & The Bunnymen anymore?

[Scouser]

I'm telling you now dont get too excited about the RAH gig. If the Bunnymens "performance" with an orchestra at the Capital Of Culture launch is any sort of yardstick you are all going to be very let down.

Echo & The Bunnymen were a 4 piece. This version has had 50% of the creativity ripped out. Flowers and Siberia are depressingly functional. Id rather they stopped after Evergreen. Its not like you can even say they are a scintillating live act. Its the same old shit every time.

In fact all I feel for them now is contempt, which is saying something when I used to idolise the very ground they walked on (literally, coming from Liverpool). Then I listen to the first four albums (and parts of the 5th and 6th) and I get a jolt as to the sheer brilliance.

That, in turn, just makes listening to the two new tracks premiered at Christmas even more sad.

On a final note. If you want to blindly laud the Bunnymen - fine. But dont come here saying we all have to. We post here (as oppose to the official love in) because we have a brain and an opinion.

[moses (2)]

I'm telling you now dont get too excited about the RAH gig. If the Bunnymens "performance" with an orchestra at the Capital Of Culture launch is any sort of yardstick you are all going to be very let down.

.

If it is good then I will be happy -- for me the trip to the RAH is for the venue and the orchestra. - I am making the trip more than just to see the bunnymen.... it is a holiday for my wife and I ...

I dont know Mac personally so I cannot comment to much on the attitude he has - I have my suspicions but I will not present them in public.

[withahip]

Echo & The Bunnymen were a 4 piece. This version has had 50% of the creativity ripped out. Flowers and Siberia are depressingly functional. Id rather they stopped after Evergreen.

I can't help but get excited about each release. I think Evergreen was ok, but the track Empire State Halo makes the entire album worth waiting for.

[Mr. Brian]

Let's see, as far as comparing the post reunion output to the first four albums...

I've always wanted them to be different. I liked the lo-fi lullaby mix of A Promise, and SupermellowMan, I liked Fish Hook Girl, Evergreen was better than the Grey Album for the most part and unlike the first four, WAYGTD was certainly different than the first four, but when it came to Flowers, everyone was all giddy.."a return to form"..."kind of like Crocodiles",,,"a real rocker", this came from fans and critics, then the producer was announced for Siberia and again everyone got giddy, "could this be the new HUH?", "a return to form...again", etc. But looking back Flowers and Siberia, while having a few good songs, were just plain boring and the songs chosen as singles sounded more like a vehicle for Mac rather than a Bunnymen release.

As withahip pointed out there are many many folks over 40 putting out quality and exciting work. I just hate to see them tarnish their legacy with inferior albums and dull live shows with Mac honking through the classics.

I want them to do something different and exciting. I don't want a return to form and a rehash of the first four albums one bit.

[Mr. Brian]

I don't want to harp on about live shows but it baffles me why they refuse to play any newer material, I don't particularly like U2 but can you imagine them going out and playing a set taken almost exclusively from the first half of the '80's?

In pointing this out I am really hoping this doesn't veer off into a U2 hating thread......

The Bunnymen have not had a hit in over 10 years (Nothing Lasts Forever, ironically) while the last three U2 studio albums of new material since 1997 went platinum multiple times hitting at #1 on the UK charts and the top 5 on the US charts and spawed nearly 20 top ten singles in the UK in that same time period. Clearly people want the new stuff from U2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_discography

[Scouser]

Thats the same with Depeche Mode.

Last 4 albums have all gone top 5 in the UK and spawned a fair few hit singles. They still play arenas and the tours sell out. Plus, perhaps more significantly, there are younger and younger people turning up at the gigs.

Plus Dave Gahan's voice just keeps getting better and better. Unlike Macs.

I agree with those who would rather see the Bunnymen do death metal, disco or a prog rock opus with 15 min tracks. Just something bloody different. Why cant they do a Glide with lyrics trip hop type album - really break the mould. I bet it would re-energise them creatively taking such a risk.

I bet Will would love to...

[fat cherry]

hey mr brian! not a U2 hating response, but I think that is partly (and a large part) as a result of the consolidation process U2 have been through. having done the endless touring, BIG events and all that, they have more or less continued growing into that 'biggest band in the world' thing, so having reached some sort of critical mass they can still churn out whatever and enough people will buy it. I've always preferred them when they get a bit experimental but they always go back to that same stuff. Sounds familiar I know.

do i care about the bunnies? not really. just a band isn't it? I quite admire their insitence on doing things their way (still that small town thing that bloke mentions in the liverpool explodes book), but when Will or Mac says they do the 'hits' because most people only go to one gig and thats what people want to hear' or its a festival so its a 'hits set' it bollocks really isn't it. pipe and slippers time.

and no I dont have any passion whatsoever about the way I earn my cash either, but then again I dont do anything creative as such. but if I dont deliver I dont get paid. perhaps bands should work on a cash on delivery basis (yes I know they do, but if you paid to get out of a gig, well that might be different might it - plus it would get rid of the touts wouldn't it, hmmm strokes chin.).

chez.

[kook]

[quote="Fish Hook Girl"]But what exactly do you want from two guys pushing 50, who have been doing this 30 years?/quote]

That is one of the most patronising things I've read since the other forum went half dead.


"And forget about the angst thing. 50 year olds singing about angst?"

"Angst" is another one of those words whose meaning has been worn out by over- and improper use. I fail to see what age has to do with it.

"Move on."

What exactly does that really mean?

[fat cherry]

...... though as for the recent albums,I think 'what are you....' is the last good one (though I always skip history chimes and the last one, so maybe not), but its just one of those albums with its own identity and bunch of songs that go together. Still growing on me. And so what if will's not on it that much, what he does is just right for those songs - and is unmistakable. Flowers sounds more like a demo album to me, crap production, no consistency. Siberia has the production values but, well there are lots of good bits (mostly belonging to the sarge) but none of them gel into really good songs. and that last one (fast forward please!!!!!).

I have a feeling that the new one is going to come together, just at the right moment in a way we could never predict. gonna be awesome. And I'm going out on friday night and I'm definitely going to, not only pull, but get a grade 'A' shag. Its my new found positivity you know.

[JackT]

Wanna know what I think? I think the new album will be good.

I also think that there's no shame in showing a little reverence for Mac. I think he earned it long ago. Anything he is able to accomplish now is just gravy, IMO.

Like everyone else, I am grateful for the chance to discuss verboten topics pertaining to Mac and the band. I think they are very relevant, and as a fan I want to know those things.

I also agree that there are older acts who still manage to be productive artists and who still bring a certain amount of gusto to the proceedings. A few examples have already been mentioned; I will add Mark Burgess to the list as another.

But those other acts aren't Ian McCulloch or Echo & the Bunnymen, are they? THOSE other acts are not the greatest band that ever was, nor are they my favorite band. So while I don't mind other people acting if they know every filthy little secret about Mac's vices and shortcomings, I, for one, will maintain a little bit of the reverence. (PLUS, I'm skeptical that anyone here knows SHIT about what Mac does or does not do.)

Mac didn't strike me as a super guy 20 years ago, and he still doesn't. Still, his supposed sins are small potatoes in the arena of music, and artists who have done much worse managed to go down in history as the greatest of the great.

[blinkilite]

Why cant they do a Glide with lyrics trip hop type album - really break the mould. I bet it would re-energise them creatively taking such a risk.

I bet Will would love to...

that would be amazing. awesome. brilliant. i would be ecstatic for a release like that... but it will probably never happen

maybe someone somewhere in bunnyworld is reading this thread and can take some of the true suggestions to heart (amidst all the griping and complaining ). i know there are a lot of bad things said here, but we wouldn't be so passionate about it if we didn't love the band. so i guess i do still care about the bunnymen, and i always will.

i agree with jack and i think the new album will be good. i really did like siberia. sure it doesn't sound like 20 yrs ago and yes there are some songs that are a little boring... but i thought it was a good effort and i thought its lack of success wasn't the bunnymen's fault, but more that they have no marketing or advertising AT ALL (at least in the US)... and the music business isn't what it used to be. if they don't market the shit out of it, there is no success. i hope they get some more press with a major label backing them... they deserve better than they get...

[Fish Hook Girl]

In fact all I feel for them now is contempt, which is saying something when I used to idolise the very ground they walked on (literally, coming from Liverpool). Then I listen to the first four albums (and parts of the 5th and 6th) and I get a jolt as to the sheer brilliance.

That, in turn, just makes listening to the two new tracks premiered at Christmas even more sad.

On a final note. If you want to blindly laud the Bunnymen - fine. But dont come here saying we all have to. We post here (as oppose to the official love in) because we have a brain and an opinion.

Scouser, if you feel such contempt for the band (as it is currently configured and with its current output) then why put yourself through it? You seem like an intelligent, creative person. Why stick with something that makes you so sad? (And I'm not trying to be confrontional, just very curious)

My point (and has always been) is that all of this is just a diversion from our real lives and when the diversion no longers bring you joy then it's time to find another diversion. It's okay to do so.

No one is blindly lauding the group or its members. There's no asswiping going on here. Yet at the same time, when the same topic with the same sentiments is brought up every 6-8 weeks like clockwork, I can't stand it. Have you ever worked with someone who is negative all the time? Eventually the attitude gets tiring and boring and old and wears everyone out.

I am CLAMORING for some postitivity!

[Fish Hook Girl]

I find it a little disconcerting that one finds it necessary to be the censor on this forum for what can and can't be said about the band. It is fascist. If one can't handle the fact that not everyone is going to blindly love everything the band does, maybe that person should let go a little. Isn't healthy to take a message board so to heart.

I see your mother is letting you use the computer again.

[JackT]

I am CLAMORING for some postitivity!

Hey belay that. That's my territory.

[Mr. Brian]

No one is blindly lauding the group or its members. There's no asswiping going on here. Yet at the same time, when the same topic with the same sentiments is brought up every 6-8 weeks like clockwork, I can't stand it. Have you ever worked with someone who is negative all the time? Eventually the attitude gets tiring and boring and old and wears everyone out.

I know what you are saying and I do sometimes worry that this is just the complaining forum but this forum appears to be the only outlet for honest criticism so I think it gets magnified here.