The second incarnation of the Liverpool group Echo & The Bunnymen has been around longer than the first. Between 1980 and 1987 this quartet made influential post-punk albums such as (1980) and (1984) in which sixties psychedelics, melodic Britpop and dark bombast merge beautifully. On their eleventh official album and sixth since its re-formation in 1996, core members grab guitarist and
… vocalist especially back to the orchestral sound of Ocean Rain. Meteorites was initiated by McCulloch who started writing songs to reflect on his life and deal with demons like his drug use. It makes the album gloomy in tone with religious references in songs like Constantinople and Holy Moses. A sound that the group knows how to handle. Sergeant's sober and transparent playing dominates, while the orchestra creates thunderclouds above the songs. A new classic like Bring On The Dancing Horses is not on the list, but Meteorites does sound very urgent for a band that is well past 30. (MR)more
