ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Liverpool's legendary Echo & The Bunnymen add to their 30-plus years of service to music with a new album, of sorts, that in fact delivers two new compositions and 13 other songs plucked from their vast and expansive catalog. Long-time fans will no doubt be pleased to hear the new beatless tinges given to their 1984 classic "Seven Seas", while of course the album is a perfect diving point for new audience to come to grips with the band too. Take, for example, the gnarlyish drawl of "Nothing Lasts Forever" that helps offset the Bowie-like tendencies heard in numbers like "Lips like Sugar" and "The Somnambulist". Sounds like a cliche, but seriously, still as good as it ever was.

Review: It's now 25 years since Echo and the Bunnymen reformed (the Liverpool-born band initially disbanded in 1993) and recorded 'Evergreen', their seventh studio album. While reviews were mixed at the time, there's no doubt that it's as jangly, timeless-sounding and sonically gorgeous as any of their more acclaimed albums of the '80s and early '90s. Given that it was released at the height of 'Britpop' (Liam Gallagher provided backing vocals on 'Nothing Lasts Forever', a by-product of Oasis recording in the studio next-door), it's sound is far baggier, looser and warmer than much of the music being made by their younger rivals. On this expanded anniversary edition, the original (if remastered) set is joined by a disc of live recordings, both from their own shows and promotional radio sessions, all of which were laid to tape between 1997 and '99.

Review: Echo & The Bunnymen came back with renewed vigour when they reformed in 1997 and recorded Evergreen. The album was headed up by 'Nothing Lasts Forever', which lodged in the UK's musical psyche as the Britpop wave receded and everyone was craving a little more maturity in their indie bands. 25 years on, the album ranks as of the band's finest, as vital to their story as the classic 80s records, and it's a welcome treat to see it pressed up once again, on fetching white vinyl with a yolky centre, no less.

Review: Echo & The Bunnymen's first ever best-of compilation, first released in 1985, gets a reissue. Accruing all the hits, we begin with the seminal 'Rescue' before careening through 'Never Stop', 'The Killing Moon' and 'Seven Seas', recalling the new wave band's emotive drawl and gushing instrumentals, coinciding with the time in which their contemporaneous album, 'Songs To Learn and Sing', was released.

Review: Rhino have embarked on a grand reissue mission and plan to put out all of the Echo & The Bunnymen's first four albums. Here we have a remastered version of Ocean Rain on 180-gram black vinyl. It was the fourth of the band's albums and was related back in 1984. It reached number four on the UK Albums Chart thanks to singles like 'Silver', 'Seven Seas' and personal favourite 'The Killing Moon.' The album got the band back to the top of their game after the rather less than warm reception to previous album Porcupine the year before thanks to its new found romantic sweetness and the band's bittersweet melodies.