Echo And The Bunnymen – Evergreen (25 Year Anniversary Edition) (1997/2022) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Echo And The Bunnymen - Evergreen (25 Year Anniversary Edition) (1997/2022) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

The cover alone is a dead giveaway, echoing as it does the cover of Crocodiles, with what looks like a set of trees and a car in place of De Freitas. But that telling and unavoidable absence alone puts the promise and problem of Echo’s comeback album in perspective – McCulloch and Sergeant had been working together again and Pattinson returned to the fold, but without De Freitas something remained unavoidably absent. Replacement drummer Michael Lee fills in adequately but not completely, rendering what was a special group something less so. The remaining core three discharge their duties well enough, but the focus is unavoidably on McCulloch this time around, rendering Sergeant and Pattinson to the status of talented backing players and making Evergreen seem like an extension of McCulloch’s solo career more than anything. While Sergeant in particular shows many flashes of the brilliance of Echo’s first phase, his work is more conventional here, perhaps the result of his experimental tendencies with his solo project, Glide. As an album Evergreen is closest to Ocean Rain due to the liberal appearance of the London Symphony Orchestra throughout, sometimes with impressive results, though without achieving the total heights of artistry of that earlier collection. There’s nothing quite like “The Killing Moon” or “Ocean Rain” itself this time around. For all that, when Evergreen shines at its best, it’s still an attractive piece of work. The album’s most successful number, the gently epic “Nothing Lasts Forever,” gets an extra boost from an uncredited backing singer, Oasis’ Liam Gallagher, while “I Want to Be There (When You Come),” the title track, and the moody “Just a Touch Away” kick up some smoke.After years of departures, solo albums, strange alliances, and rapprochement, Echo & the Bunnymen returned with Ian McCulloch at the helm for 1997’s Evergreen. It’s clear from the first song that the re-formed band is back in all its mysterious, uplifting, and graceful glory. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” features the best elements of the group — Will Sergeant’s soaring, biting guitar work, McCulloch’s majestic vocals and yearning lyrics, Les Pattinson’s rock-solid bass — and applies them to a deeply felt midtempo ballad that’s as heart-tugging as it is melodic. It’s a fine start, and the rest of the album follows suit. The sound of the record bypasses the cold exteriors and machine-bolstered slickness of Echo & the Bunnymen in favor of a more organic approach that puts Sergeant back out front and adds orchestral textures to many of the songs. It’s a more mainstream, less operatic take on Ocean Rain that finds room for uptempo rockers — “I Want to Be There (When You Come),” “Baseball Bill” — and melodramatic ballads — “I’ll Fly Tonight,” Just a Touch Away” — while sounding like nothing less than a great rock & roll band on the title track and “Altamont.” Like most of the rock and pop world in the mid- to late ’90s, Echo had their “Wonderwall” moments; both “Nothing Lasts Forever” and “Forgiven” are plaintive, classically structured big ballads that aim for the rafters and achieve their goal magnificently. The twist the band delivers is that it isn’t uplifting and laddy, it’s painfully sad and deeply felt. There is a gravity and power to these songs that Oasis can’t measure up to, and the rest of the album has enough of each of those two elements to knock any Brit-pop contenders to Echo’s throne sideways. Evergreen is a strong, sometimes stunning, comeback for the band, one that stays true to the sounds that made them so spectacular while also adding contemporary elements in a totally organic manner. – Tim Sendra

Tracklist:

1-01. Echo And The Bunnymen – Don’t Let It Get You Down (03:52)
1-02. Echo And The Bunnymen – In My Time (03:26)
1-03. Echo And The Bunnymen – I Want to Be There (When You Come) (03:39)
1-04. Echo And The Bunnymen – Evergreen (04:11)
1-05. Echo And The Bunnymen – I’ll Fly Tonight (04:23)
1-06. Echo And The Bunnymen – Nothing Lasts Forever (03:56)
1-07. Echo And The Bunnymen – Baseball Bill (04:04)
1-08. Echo And The Bunnymen – Altamont (03:52)
1-09. Echo And The Bunnymen – Just a Touch Away (05:09)
1-10. Echo And The Bunnymen – Empire State Halo (03:59)
1-11. Echo And The Bunnymen – Too Young to Kneel (03:40)
1-12. Echo And The Bunnymen – Forgiven (05:50)
1-13. Echo And The Bunnymen – Watchtower (04:25)
1-14. Echo And The Bunnymen – Polly (04:18)
1-15. Echo And The Bunnymen – Hurracaine (04:23)
1-16. Echo And The Bunnymen – Colour Me In (03:59)
1-17. Echo And The Bunnymen – Antelope (02:45)
1-18. Echo And The Bunnymen – Jonny (02:59)
2-01. Echo And The Bunnymen – I Want to Be There When You Come (Live Version) (03:29)
2-02. Echo And The Bunnymen – Rescue (Live) (03:52)
2-03. Echo And The Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar (Live) (04:42)
2-04. Echo And The Bunnymen – Bedbugs and Ballyhoo (Live) (03:44)
2-05. Echo And The Bunnymen – Nothing Lasts Forever (BBC Radio 1 Jo Whiley Session, 1997) (04:19)
2-06. Echo And The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (BBC Radio 1 Jo Whiley Session, 1997) (04:50)
2-07. Echo And The Bunnymen – Baseball Bill (BBC Radio 1 Live at The Kilburn National, 1997) (03:49)
2-08. Echo And The Bunnymen – Just a Touch Away (BBC Radio 1 Live at The Kilburn National, 1997) (05:09)
2-09. Echo And The Bunnymen – I’ll Fly Tonight (BBC Radio 1 Live at The Kilburn National, 1997) (04:32)
2-10. Echo And The Bunnymen – Altamont (BBC Radio 1 Live at The Kilburn National, 1997) (03:40)
2-11. Echo And The Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar (WHYT Radio Session, 1997) (04:16)
2-12. Echo And The Bunnymen – I Want to Be There (When You Come) (WHYT Radio Session, 1997) (03:36)
2-13. Echo And The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (WHYT Radio Session, 1997) (04:23)
2-14. Echo And The Bunnymen – Forgiven (BBC GLR Robert Elms Acoustic Session, 1997) (04:28)
2-15. Echo And The Bunnymen – Nothing Lasts Forever (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Session, 1999) (03:51)

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