The Best Kind Of Sophomore Slump --Heaven Up Here

As Prospect Diminishes, Nightmares Swell

I still love Heaven Up Here from Echo and the Bunnymen. Though it does not contain songs like The Cutter, or The Killing Moon or Lips Like Sugar, but is in sum a mesmerizing tribalistic trance of an album. It is a gloriously tortuous collection, where the rhythm section of bassist Les Pattinson and late great drummer Pete DeFreitas are really out in the forefront. They drive the album are very much responsible for the greatness therein, not to slag the inventive psychedelic guitar work of Will Sergeant, the emotional crooning of Ian McCulloch, or even producer Hugh Jones' magic. After a while the rhythm section makes me space out, brings my head into another place. Many people consider this to be a little too uniform and dark but I think that is where this band is at their best. And a lot of people don't realize that before Bono ascended to hisSeat Perilous, Echo, Teardrop Explodes, The Sound, and other post-punk neo-psychedelic bands were competitors with U2. In retrospect, I'm not sure that the right band won that reality show.

I've seen Echo and the Bunnymen several times, including the pretty bad tour when they had a go without Ian McCulloch, and when they Ian and Will put out an album as the heavier sounding Electrafixion. But by far they were at their best when I saw them at the Channel in Boston in 1983, with Mitch Easter's band Let's Active. Judging by that gig alone, they were definitely one of the best live bands of the 80's. They were at their musical peak then, McCulloch and Sergeant trading riffs at peak intensity, backed by that dynamic revved up rhythm section. This was of course before the cigarettes and booze took its toll on Ian's voice.They did not have a string section that night, but I don't think anything could have improved upon that night's performance. One thing I remember was coming out of the Venue after the show and seeing the line for the second show. There was long row of young hipsters decked out in long coats and scarfs with hair teased high like their favorite singer just adolescent girls used to do at Madonna shows.

I guess that is a high form of emulation, trying to wear someone's skin. I noticed a lot of this identification at Elliott Smith shows. People want to fit in, be part of a clique, to belong. Wear the t-shirt proudly. Maybe the guy on stage will see you in the crowd and you'll get a big thumbs up. I saw the Dropkick Murphy's at Wetlands on St Patricks Day Eve (they recorded their live album in Boston the next night), and while I was looking around for my friends there were all these phony punks wandering around, kind of aggressive, Mohawks, spiky chokers. I didn't really wear an outfit that night, I went straight from work. It's all well and good--I don't really give a crap what others do--but just stay out of my way. A few times I really thought that I was going to have to get in a scrap with some dickhead, but luckily things were avoided that night. I have to admit that the band had more merch being sold at a gig than I've ever seen, almost like you would expect to see at a Hard Rock Cafe store.

Though Heaven Up Here is a terse grim little record it is the Bunnymen at their creative peak and their most cohesive work. This is the record that critics don't compare to other bands so much. If you had to, maybe the closest match would be The Cure. Show of Strength is a powerful start to the record. Listening to the album now, I can't but think that they sound like they are playing live. The sound on the record sounds very much like how they sound in concert. With A Hip, the 2nd song here is an itchy skittery adrenaline rush that is one of their very best songs. Probably my favorite song is the defiant Turquoise Days, which begins quietly and builds with intensity to the middle and then fades back out.

The centre of the album is the title song Heaven Up Here, a tumultuous psychedelic rave up with alternating choppy and melodic guitar riffing by Will Seargeant, and a live favorite. Other highlights on the record include the Moody Bluesish All My Colours, the grim and moody The Disease, and the percussively dynamic  drumsand marimba-like guitar of the closing All I Want. A hypnotic masterpiece of an album where the songs seem to blend into one another seamlessly. All of the albums prior to their break up and reunion are recommended though. Unfortunately Pete DeFreitas died in a motorcycle accident, and his absence is one thing that can't ever really be replaced. However, the band reunited with producer Hugh Jones and recorded the excellent Evergreen, which is almost as good as the music of their early years. Today people are very quick to make fun of the music of the 80's, but a lot of good music was being made--its a shame the novelty acts are remembered and the gold  often gets buried.