Echo & the Bunnymen - "Porcupine"

I'll confess. I never listened to "Porcupine" all the way through as a kid. I had such a love-hate dynamic with "The Cutter". I loved it for its overwrought histrionics; I hated it for its melodramatic histrionics. I could say the same for "The Back of Love". I could never quite get past Ian McCulloch's delivery of the lines about "breaking the back of love". Too much latter-day post-punk hand-wringing even for myself in my youth, even in the days when I'd play Manic Street Preachers and Cure records to death.

However, a few nights back, I dug out my copy (a 1983 German press - I've never heard any other, so can't comment on its sound quality vs. first press or CD) and put it on, thinking I'd have a good old mope to "The Cutter". I left it playing after those mock-tortured lines, and found that, in fact - it is quite a good record.

The second side by far beats the first, although overall I still feel the lyrics, and, for the most part, their delivery, are quite poor. Perhaps they simply haven't aged well? I didn't live through the '80s. However, the actual songwriting is pretty damned good. The instrumentation manages to stay cohesive and coherent throughout the skips on my copy, which must say something!

It's not "Unknown Pleasures", certainly, but neither is it "To Lose My Life". It's not the sort of record that deserves to be at the back of a bookshelf whence all shameful things go, as mine was for so long. I just wonder: why were "The Back of Love" and "The Cutter" the first two singles?

What are your thoughts on "Porcupine"?

 

A great album in its day. And Ian McCulloch's most auto-biographical work, but I think Ocean Rain has held up better over the years.

 

My favorite is the one that came before, Heaven Up Here.
That said, Porcupine is a great record from a band that came out of the gate blazing with 4 consecutive great records.
I prefer to think of Ian McCulloch's vocal delivery as "hyper-expressive" (I read that description somewhere).

 

I've never listened to this album. But I wore out my 12" single of "The Cutter", and my 12" single of "The Killing Moon" from their next album - two wonderful pieces of vinyl. Perhaps I should get the albums, do they hold up to the quality of the singles?

 

I say yes, they definitely do, with the caveat that I've never been a greatest hits person.

 

Wow. The Cutter is one of the greatest things they ever did. The Back of Love is also magnificent. Rest of the album does not live up to the singles. Weakest of the first 4, and I agree Heaven Up Here is the best.

 

Funny how time changes things. I bought all these albums on release and Porcupine was received as being patchy after the awesomeness of the first two albums. I agreed with this and Ocean Rain was quite a letdown for me. Now. Some people call Ocean Rain "classic" and one of their best albums!

 

I've been meaning to get into the Echo albums but as yet only familiar with the singles - do have Ocean Rain but think I've listened to it once. Also had the singles collection

The Cutter though is a classic

 

Brilliant album - second only to Heaven Up Here in my opinion. Apart from the 2 singles there are other classics like Gods Will Be Gods and Heads Will Roll. The title track is very good too, particularly the second part.

 

Every track on side two beats "The Cutter" in my opinion.

I've never considered Echo & The Bunnymen a singles band.

 

Does anyone else find a couple of the alternate takes on the 2004 remaster better than the album versions? Since I never have fallen in love with this album unlike their 1st and Ocean Rain it's been awhile that I've listened to it but I'm thinking that the alternate of "My White Devil" and another ("Ripeness"?) were better. Opinions?

 

Gosh, it's been so long since I listened to Porcupine (although yeah, I play Heaven Up Here frequently). Better add it to today's Listening Queue.

Oh good, I get to be the boring old "here, look at these photos of the terrible haircut I had in the 80s" pedant who says The Thing: when abbreviating the group name, one calls them The Bunnymen because that's the collective name of the human band members, whereas Echo is the drum machine they used before Pete De Freitas joined up.

 

Brilliant album. As with the other early records, the cover aligns perfectly with the contents.

 

I think this record has a certain mood to it, highlighted by the album artwork- but maybe it's just the way I perceive it. Of the four good Bunnymen records (first four), I think it's the least solid but there are some great songs on it- I think my fave is Heads Will Roll- love that tune.

 

It is not a great or brilliant album but has some great tracks on it. The poorest of the first four. Too many weak songs and uninspired music. But the good songs are some of the best they did.

Flawed but interesting.

 

The band say that they really struggled to come up with material for this album (and it shows) and band dynamics were terrible as they were hardly talking to each other.

They recorded it once but it was rejected by WEA and they had to re-record it.

In retrospect they should have taken a break and come back and written some new material.

 

Ripeness is a great track.

 

I'd go along with that too.

 

I like Shankar's playing on the opening tune though.

 

The NME review at the time:

" Hoskyns likened the sound of the album to the band "turning on their own greatest 'hits' and savaging them". Hoskyns also criticised McCulloch's lyrics and the general mood of the album, noting, "Only on 'Porcupine' itself do the various strains of despair coalesce", and dismissed the entire second side of the album, saying it "horrifies the more for its uniform lack of inspiration, for the fact that every number cops direct from earlier songs without preserving anything of their energy or invention"

 

Back in the days I listende to it night and day. My favorite Echo and the Bunnymen album back then.

 

Yeah its great. He also was quite good live with them, you can watch the Sefton Park gig they played for the BBC.

I was a huge fan at the time, first single I got was Rescue and then I bought everything they did without hesitation. The Cutter and Back of Love were both so good I was so looking forward to the album but it was a huge disappointment.

Best thing about the album, apart from the singles, was the stunning photography. I did go to Iceland to the same spot as they did which was cool.

 

That's hilarious.

 

Yeah my first album by them was Heaven Up Here and it remains my fav.

 

Agree with a few above that it is the weakest of the first four without a doubt. I waver between Heaven Up Here and Ocean Rain as my favorite (they are very different from each other after all so it depends on my mood) but this one has ALWAYS gotten the fewest plays around my place.