From: Christopher B. Prescott, cbprescott@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: The Further Adventures of Echo (NC)
Date: 2/18/2002 8:50:47 PM
To: Seance List, seance@lists.no-fi.com


> Definitely don't rush out and buy Bunnymen's Reverberation... actually,
> avoid it like the plague.

well, don't run out and get it if you're expecting mac's crooning. i think
it's out of print anyway. don't get me wrong, i'm a major echo fan right
through to recent albums and i love electrafixion. but i have to say that
reverberation was one of the most wrongly maligned albums of all time.

it shouldn't of been under the name of echo & the bunnymen. will seargent
(guitarist) didn't want it to be but the label threatened to drop them if
they didn't use the name. so they did and they've always regretted it. but
not because the music wasn't good. just that the name gave it the wrong
expectations.

overall, it's a great psychedelic rock album, with biting
holier-than-thou/self-beating up lyrics that pleases me to this day. no
matter how much i like ocean rain or porcupine or electrafixion or the
b-sides or the new box set or flowers even, i still listen to reverberation
and the six non-album tracks more than the rest of the echo catalogue
combined.

strip away the name of e&tb-men and give it another listen. very cool.

in fact, this whole topic came up (likely because of me) back in december of
2000.

here's what i posted then:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: seance@lists.no-fi.com
> [mailto:seance@lists.no-fi.com]On Behalf Of BRUTUSW@aol.com
>
> echo and bunnymen- reverbaration -one of the must underated albums of the
90's.
> better the ian mccolluch's solo efforts by far.

Completely agree! Funny, while i've always been a Bunnymen fan, my two
favorite albums have not been proper Bunnymen albums: Reverberation and the
Electrafixion album. Plus the Reverberation b-sides were amazing as well.

I got into it because in the spring of 91 I was living in the south of
France and the then non-Ian Bunnymen toured and played Marseille where I saw
them at a small club with An Emotional Fish opening. It was a great show
despite the fact that the small crowd all could only be pleased if the
Bunnymen were to have played 'Songs To Learn & Sing' straight through.
Clearly this was not going to happen. They came out, no one wearing black,
their old new wave hair-do's thankfully long gone and proceeded to f'in
rock. I hadn't heard Reverberation yet but I was super impressed by the
hard, raw, psychedelic new sound. Lots of energy on front-man Noel Burke's
part. I was thoroughly impressed and spent my time watching Les Pattinson's
bass work while all the frogs yelled 'Killink Mooooon!' at every song break.
Burke politely said 'maybe' but they thankfully only played 'Silver'.
Eventually they got so frustrated by the frogs that they walked off before
finishing their set (still have the playlist) and they certainly weren't
coming back. I felt bad because the rest of the crowd were such a-holes.

As soon as I got back to the states I picked up the album and the three
cdingles. Still one of my top 10 albums of all time. Just love the
holier-than-thou, vitriol-laden, sanctimonious lyrics as Noel sings to the
omnipresent 'you' (most-likely the parts of himself that he hates) backed by
Will Seargant's guitar psychedelics. Really brill.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Mac. Evergreen is enjoyable enough and I've
definitely spent a couple months caught up in poppy genteelness of What Are
You Going To Do With Your Life and, frankly, Electrafixion's Burned (along
with the b-sides) is definitely in my top 20 (what a balls to the wall
album!). But, Reverberation is just amazing and anyone who is even curious
can probably find it in a used bin for about $2. Well worth it. Seargant
once said that they shouldn't have used the Bunnymen name for it and, while
I would agree, I'm glad they did as I might never have struck gold there.

The big question that I've always wondered about is: Who is that Noel Burke
guy anyway? Does anyone know of prior or later recordings with others that
he has done? I'll do anything to get some more of that.

Prescott