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Echo and the Bunnymen, Reverberation Why critics thought it sucked: the notion of an Ian McCulloch-less Bunnymen – he was the frontman and main songwriter, if you don’t know—filled people with such dread that they didn’t even give it a chance. Apart from a brief appearance on the US charts, this album has been buried by fans and the band alike—not a single song from it appeared on their box set, and it’s been long out of print. Why it doesn’t suck: Sure, without McCulloch’s distinctive baritone rumblings, it ain’t really a Bunnymen record, and a case could be made that they should have called it something else. Reverberation is, however, a terrific record—“Enlighten Me” is as good a song as the band’s ever done, and it’s surrounded by tons of other interesting, quirky, psychedelic guitar pop. Dig if you will the very Ocean Rain-y “Cut and Dried,” or the bouncy “King of Your Castle,” or the smooth album-opener “Gone, Gone, Gone.” And the album ends with the one-two punch of “Flaming Red”—a gorgeous, mysterious ballad—and the powerful “False Goodbyes.” Singer Noel Burke has a fine voice, and his lyrics aren’t terrible at all (at times, they’re funnier/wittier/more interesting than McCulloch’s). His only crime, of course, was that he wasn’t McCulloch—and by the middle of the 90s, he’d be back anyway, Burke being resigned to a mere Wikipedia footnote. Track this one down—it’s hard to find, but it’s worth it. Why critics thought these albums sucked, and why they were wrong

Echo and the Bunnymen, Reverberation

Why critics thought it sucked: the notion of an Ian McCulloch-less Bunnymen – he was the frontman and main songwriter, if you don’t know—filled people with such dread that they didn’t even give it a chance. Apart from a brief appearance on the US charts, this album has been buried by fans and the band alike—not a single song from it appeared on their box set, and it’s been long out of print.

Why it doesn’t suck: Sure, without McCulloch’s distinctive baritone rumblings, it ain’t really a Bunnymen record, and a case could be made that they should have called it something else. Reverberation is, however, a terrific record—“Enlighten Me” is as good a song as the band’s ever done, and it’s surrounded by tons of other interesting, quirky, psychedelic guitar pop. Dig if you will the very Ocean Rain-y “Cut and Dried,” or the bouncy “King of Your Castle,” or the smooth album-opener “Gone, Gone, Gone.” And the album ends with the one-two punch of “Flaming Red”—a gorgeous, mysterious ballad—and the powerful “False Goodbyes.” Singer Noel Burke has a fine voice, and his lyrics aren’t terrible at all (at times, they’re funnier/wittier/more interesting than McCulloch’s). His only crime, of course, was that he wasn’t McCulloch—and by the middle of the 90s, he’d be back anyway, Burke being resigned to a mere Wikipedia footnote. Track this one down—it’s hard to find, but it’s worth it.

Why critics thought these albums sucked, and why they were wrong

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