I know which is going to probably win but I honestly feel that Ocean Rain is not anywhere in the same league as their first two albums or even their third. what’s your vote?
Between the first two for me and the debut wins the closest of close races for the more transparent production and (arguably) a better batch of songs. Ocean Rain is one of those albums that got hailed to the skies to such a degree that it is very difficult to take a step back from the hyperbole without seeming a contrarian. For me it is a stand-out song or two shy of true greatness. That said if "Bring On The Dancing Horses" had arrived in time to make it onto that album then it would have definitely made it a contender for my number one.
The third record is Porcupine. I love all of these albums, but it would go something like this. Ocean Rain Porcupine Crocodiles Heaven Up Here Echo and The Bunnymen Reverberation Evergreen What Are You Going To Do With Your Life Flowers Siberia
imagine my shock having loved Echo all these years and only just learning that I'd been misspelling "porcupine" the entire time.
For me they have always been a tough band to love. Great artwork, great sound, very good songs... still there's something retrained or distant. My favorite album would definitely be "Heaven Up Here". Lately Spotify has been mixing in some "Evergreen" tracks and I was throughly surprised how good they were. Maybe I should check out some of their later work.
Went for "Crocodiles" - there are some great tracks on their other 80s output but that's the one album of theirs I go back to regularly.
Heaven up Here. They were superb back in the 80s. I saw them a few times. I was just thinking back on how easy it was to get tickets to see them at their peak.
I prefer their output from 97-05 and consider Siberia to be both their best album and one of the best albums of that decade. I also love Flowers and What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? I'm afraid I've just not got into anything they've done after Siberia, in fact the last album of their I bought was Meteorites and I found it completely unlistenable. I'm currently reading Will Sergeant's Bunnyman book and really enjoying it so far.
Their first four albums are all fantastic, each with its own distinctive sonic character: The debut is more sparse and feral, while Heaven Up Here is brooding and ominous, like a looming storm front. Exotic psychedelic qualities come to the fore on Porcupine, while things got more refined and crystalline on Ocean Rain. It's hard for me to pick a favorite from among these four. I've tried checking out some of their later stuff more recently, but while it has its moments, it doesn't feel quite as vital to me.
I think their best album by a margin is Heaven Up Here. The songs are great, the playing and arrangements are perfect and it flows like a great album should do. The debut album is great as well, I would rank that second. Ocean Rain is held up by culture magazines as the best - I go away from the consensus here as I don't agree. It's a good album but not as good as Ian thinks. The songs are excellent but I find some of the production and arrangement takes the power out of them. If you watch the Tube appearance at the time it is sublime, they played Ocean Rain, Thorn of Crowns and some others, and they sound so much better a little rawer and more powerful. Porcupine has the two killer singles and a couple of other good tracks but the rest is a bit flat and stodgy. The S/T album is ok, and I never really explored the comeback albums as I was never a fan of bands reforming on the whole.
For me it would be Heaven Up Here, Porcupine (not on list) and Ocean Rain, in that order. The Cutter is a compilation album from 1993 and shouldn't be in the list. I assume the OP simply got the title wrong and put "The Cutter" instead of "Porcupine" as the song "The Cutter" is of course on that album.
Hard call really. The best I can say here is one of the first 4..... but to be fair, I haven't heard a lot after those. My absolute favourite is Songs To Learn And Sing. It's one of those compiles that manages to sound like an album, rather than just a collection of hits.
Ocean Rain. (I'm listening to it now, as a matter of fact.) Sonically, this is a very cinematic album.
