Echo & the Bunnymen: Ocean Rain [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino reissue is remastered and pressed on 180g vinyl in the EU. Ocean Rain reached No. 4 in the UK, went gold, and gave the world "The Killing Moon."

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Few bands have ever sold an album with a straighter face. Ocean Rain went out with posters calling it the greatest album ever made, a line Warner boss Rob Dickins borrowed from a chat with Ian McCulloch, who later admitted it was a joke. Will Sergeant's response was simply to ask why not.

The Liverpool four of McCulloch, Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Pete de Freitas recorded most of it in Paris in early 1984, at Studio des Dames and Studio Davout, with a 35-piece orchestra. Adam Peters arranged the strings and played cello and piano, so the songs swell like weather coming in off the Mersey. "The Killing Moon" was cut in Bath and is as moody and gorgeous as pop gets, "Silver" gallops, "Seven Seas" is a jaunty sea shanty, and the title track closes the album in candlelit hush. Henri Loustau, the engineer at Studio des Dames, helped shape those string passages.

NME later put it in its 500 greatest albums of all time, and AllMusic called it the band's most beautiful work. Forty-odd years on, the slogan looks less like a joke and more like a modest estimate.

Also at Kops: more Echo & the Bunnymen on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Korova / Rhino (cat# KODE 8), a reissue of the 1984 album.