Listening to Porcupine...

[Malbert]

its the bass --

Agreed, and it's also the bass in "Gods Will be Gods."

[black francis]

As usual Jack doesn't know his asshole from a hole in the ground.

It's the "The Cutter", "The Back of Love", "My White Devil", "Clay", "Porcupine", "Heads Will Roll" combo that is the greatest six songs in a row on an album in rock & roll history.

[withahip]

Heaven Up Here smokes that album.

[black francis]

Heaven Up Here smokes that album.

Or as I like to call it "Three Proper Songs and a Whole Lot of Atmospheric Filler"

[Voodoo Billy]

Or as I like to call it "Three Proper Songs and a Whole Lot of Atmospheric Filler"

Wash your mouth out.

[black francis]

"The album is dull as ditchwater. The songs are unformed, the sound uniformly grey."

- Bill Drummond

[black francis]

This All Music review pretty much sums up my feelings on "Three Proper Songs and a Whole Lot of Atmospheric Filler"

http://www.allmusic.com/album/r6556/review

Following their more psychedelia-based debut, Crocodiles, and subsequent "Puppet" single, Echo & the Bunnymen returned in 1981 with the darkest and perhaps most experimental album of their career. Heaven Up Here lacks the signature hooks and melodies that would make the Bunnymen famous, showcasing instead a dirge-like songwriting approach built around the circular rhythms of bassist Les Pattinson and drummer Pete DeFreitas. In this setting, the band remarkably flourishes, although they would go on to greater heights by scaling back the album's extremism. Heaven Up Here's strength is the way in which the Bunnymen seamlessly work together to shape each song's dynamics (the tension underlying the crescendo of "Turquoise Days" being a prime example). Ian McCulloch, having found his trademark confidence, sings with soaring abandon and passion throughout the album. Similarly, Will Sergeant's guitar playing, notably freed from verse-chorus structure and pop riffs, is at its angular finest; his playing on "No Dark Things" is pure Andy Gill-esque skronk. The album's opening troika of "Show of Strength," "With a Hip," and "Over the Wall" (the latter with its jarring, direct invocation of Del Shannon's "Runaway") are particularly effective, establishing the theme of distrust and restlessness which continues throughout the album. Indeed, even the album's lone single, "A Promise," is hardly light, pop material. But the message underneath that darkness, especially in McCulloch's lyrics, is a call to overcome rather than wallow, as the album ends with the relatively euphoric "All I Want." Sitting comfortably next to the pioneering work of contemporaries like Joy Division/New Order, and early Public Image Ltd. and Cure, this is a rather fine -- and in the end, influential -- example of atmospheric post-punk. Having reached the British Top Ten, Heaven Up Here is highly regarded among Echo & the Bunnymen's fans precisely for the reasons which, on the surface, make it one of the least accessible albums in the band's catalog.

[withahip]

Following their debut release Crocodiles, Liverpool lads Echo and the Bunnymen didn't let the lore of the sophomore slump fall upon them with Heaven Up Here, which was not only their most driven and possibly darkest album of their career but the first one to earn a spot on the UK's Top Ten album chart at the time.

"Show of Strength" opens up the album with Will Sergeant's greasy and atmospheric slide guitar as singer Ian McColluch's haunting quiver declares "Your golden smile/Would shame a politician." Sergeant's guitar licks are so frigid that they could cause the listener to see their own breath throughout the albums duration. Pete DeFreitas' drumming created the semblance of rumbling ocean thunder on "Over the Wall" and brought it back once more on the nervy and warm Krautrock infusions of "All I Want."

If numbers like "It Was a Pleasure" showed us anything, it's that Echo and the Bunnymen were not immune from catching an infectious New Wave dance shimmy and merging it with their pop koodies. There were even club friendly and punchy numbers like the title track, with McCulloch yipping out "Groovy groovy people/We're all/Groovy groovy people," while "All My Colours" was like a gentle Celtic breeze.

While many bands who tried to pull off what Echo and the Bunymen did on Heaven Up Here were tagged with mocking the likes of Joy Division or the Cure, the Bunnymen were in full swing and doing their own thing, which was wholly original and innovative. The layers of a psychedelic realm just fused so well with the Bunnymen's airy and gloomy undercurrent. If there was any album cover from the '80s that truly depicted the sound of the record, it was most assuredly Heaven Up Here's with a shoreline's dusky sky, seabirds in flight and a silhouette of the band with their shadows reflecting underneath them in the gleaming sand. It's quite a task for one to put their finger on it in order to explain how, but after one complete listen you should be able to understand.

[Malbert]

not by jackt it isn't. i quite like it too. you dont get alliteration (is that the right word) like pining for the pork of the porcupine very often. Not these days any way. The videos of them in iceland are good too.

If the porcupine has pork, then it can't be kosher (I'm not Jewish, so I don't really care. I'm just sayin'....).

[black francis]

"All My Colours" was like a gentle Celtic breeze.

[JackT]

All I Want might be my favorite HUH song.

[girlwithnoname]

Leave it to bf to ruin my Porcupine love fest...

[black francis]

How did I ruin it? I think Porcupine is their best album. Blame these people with their Heaven Up Here talk!

[pork is mine]

Pork is mine.........porcupine...........brilliant album

[girlwithnoname]

How did I ruin it? I think Porcupine is their best album. Blame these people with their Heaven Up Here talk!

It was the pukey emoticon.