Ian McCulloch in the Shade

As usual with every new Echo & the Bunnymen album of the past fifteen-plus years, I felt underwhelmed by 2009's The Fountain. It doesn't exactly overflow with darkness and drama the way the best Bunnymen albums did, once upon a time. The Fountain's production is all aluminum palm trees and fluorescent sunshine, and its songs contain none of the depth, agony, or even the foul wordplay of those great eighties albums. But when I dismissed The Fountain on first or second listen, I had overlooked something good. Underneath that avalanche of pop dust and glitter, Ian McCulloch and Will Sargeant buried some decent song-craft. Luckily, I discovered this today when I stumbled upon Ian McCulloch's acoustic Daytrotter sessions. They are a revelation. McCulloch is still in good voice, though he rarely opens up howls through his pipes like he used to. Yet the new songs are...well, they're all right. Stripped of slick pop sheen and dragged out of the bright light and into the shadows, these rough-around-the-edges tunes from 2009 kinda sorta hold their own--even in the company of the classic Bunnymen song "The Killing Moon."

Don't take my word for it. You can listen or download the MP3 here.

And you can read a decent (if not exactly hard-charging) interview of McCulloch by Scott Tomford of MOG here--which includes a bizarre comparison of The Fountain to the masterpiece album Ocean Rain, followed by this passage:

It's not as if McCulloch set out to recreate Ocean Rain, the kind of approach that would only lead to disaster. "It's hard to do that again," he says. "What I like about The Fountain is... we just went with the energy and the flow of everything instead."

It wasn't meant to be a calculated, rather an organic album that might rub some fans the wrong way, as if they're hoping the band will stay within a single space. Speaking of calculation, McCulloch thinks many musicians would be better off as mathematicians. He me that he's "not an avid follower of music anymore," opting to listen more to classical music, "because there's no one with crap words and a lying voice singing over what potentially is some good music."

[W]hile I silently think that he's being a little dismissive, he follows up with a valid point: "I always find that singers -- especially these days -- are lacking in character. They've got the best microphone and they can hit all the notes, but you might as well do algebra. There's more soul in an algebraic equation."

If there's anyone that can make that statement, it's got to be McCulloch, a man that has one of the most distinct singing voices in music, one that people have tried to imitate over and over without success.

And that's just it. McCulloch has this great voice, and for two decades now he has refused to use it--to really use and abuse it, to let it soar and growl and rip into the heart of the man. Ever since his misguided solo album Candleland, Ian McCulloch's voice sounds like his eyes look behind those iconic shades: hidden. Despite the odds, I continue to hope that someday he and Will Sergeant will lock themselves a room somewhere and not come out until they've written ten songs that bleed. Fuck the sunshine. I'd settle, though, for five songs that bleed, four that blow hot sand across a desert, and one that soothes the soul with cool ocean mist.

Stop trying to make us smile, Ian; it doesn't work. Stop proving you're the coolest cat in Christendom; we know. Just get in there and show us we aren't alone.

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Here's Echo & the Bunnymen's last great single, from before the fall:


Echo And The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar

Rab

MySpace Video
And here they are at their best, three years earlier, performing perhaps their greatest song, "The Killing Moon":



Oh, and here is McCulloch's saccharin-sweet fall from grace--1990's "Candleland," complete with cotton-candy backing vocals from the gorgeous-voiced Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins:

You get the feeling Jesus Himself came down, slapped this guy around, and told him to Put-On-A-Happy-Face.

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Meanwhile, back in 2010, the Bunnymen launch their postponed mini-tour of the U.S. next month. A whole two weeks, and they hardly venture inland at all. They certainly won't be coming anywhere near Oklahoma--though the Norman Music Festival would fit right into your itinerary, Ian, if you're in the mood. If it would help, I could arrange for a big, dark cloud to pass over the sun during your set.

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I've read in three or four places that the album Flowers is actually pretty good, but I've never heard it and haven't yet gotten my hands on a copy. I'm too cheap to pay full price. I have, however, listened to the clips on the Amazon page. McCulloch doesn't sing like it's life or death on any of the songs--in fact, he sounds bored, as usual of late--so I'm skeptical. If you've heard the album, let me know: Is it worth the trouble?