Porcupine

Mopier cure/smiths, and not in a good way. Very underwhelmed. 2*

There's so much of this kind of thing on here. It's ok in places... I like some of the variation in instruments... but it's not for me. At its worst it's warbly, and long-winded, and boring. And that's an awful lot of this album.

Very 80s new wave. It’s not awful, but I’m not putting it into any rotation. 2.5 stars.

I'm vaguely aware of the artist, but I don't think I recognize any of these tracks by name. I feel like what little I have heard from this group I don't like, but as I mentioned, it's vague.

Yeah, my instinct was correct: I don't like this. In addition, it all kind of blurs together.

There is something so tedious about post punk, but I think this album got me closer to understanding why I don't like the genre. Each song feels stagnant, like it's jogging in place. The music doesn't go anywhere, the vocals just kind of chant whatever, and after 3-4 mins the song ends and the process starts over again. There are a few bits that were fine, but I really did not enjoy this. 2/5

Another one I don't really have a lot to say about. This is some decent 80s post-punk, but it doesn't really stand out compared to the other post-punk acts of the time other than maybe a few experimental attempts on this album. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, I still enjoyed this album, but I don't think I'll be adding it to the regular listening rotation.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5, despite a weaker second half.

Despite my shortcomings with “Crocodiles”, I had a feeling this album would be good. 3 years is enough time to hone in some musical talent, & the biggest issue with “Crocodiles” was just an inability to elevate each track to something more memorable, with a lot of tracks just settling into themselves. This album feels like it’s found that energy that was lacking, & while it’s not as ‘zen’ as “Ocean Rain” was, the arrangements here just feel great to listen to. If “Ocean Rain” is a bridge between R.E.M. & the Britpop to come, this album just feels like their R.E.M.-esque era, and they do a great job with it.

Lyrically, I don’t think it’s as tight as “Ocean Rain” was, though it’s certainly an improvement on “Crocodiles” – lots of flowery language & metaphor here that is a little confusing to parse at times, but with a lot of these tracks centered around relationship issues & the constant ‘thorniness’ of maintaining a sense of bliss (probably where “Porcupine” comes from as a title), there’s always a line or two to center the track in a way that gets across a good meaning. My favorite one is probably “Smiling equates with happy, but I know they're miles apart”, but there’s a lot of smaller gems here. Vocally, I do think the range in Ian McCulloch’s voice gets some emotional pull across better than “Ocean Rain” did at times, though it’s more consistently strong in the front half of the album than the back half. Instrumentally, I like these a lot – my only issue stems in a lack of perceived variety. These are all good unique compositions, but a lot of these tracks don’t really stray too far instrumentally outside of some Indian-influenced soundscapes at times, so there is a slight homogeneity that builds up over the course of the album.

As I’ve been saying, the back half is the weaker half, but only because I found more little nitpicks to me – a repetitive ending, a longer track, a track that could use some trimming, and a slight mismatch in vocal / instrumental energy that feels kinda noticeable, but those are all smaller issues that don’t really hurt the core of each track, which is still usually strong. “Heads Will Roll” has none of those issues, and it’s probably in my top 3 for the whole album. It’s just consistently more polished in the first half, at least to my ears. Overall, it’s not a big enough pile of issues to make me bump this down to a 4, as I did enjoy the whole runtime here. I think it’s a good album, and for our final encounter with Echo & The Bunnymen, it’s a strong one to go out on. It just makes me wonder why “Crocodiles” is here, really. I’ll bump this up to a 5 – I think it earns it, and if nothing else, I liked it a lot.

I had the LP when I was younger but I haven't listened to this album in probably 15 years. I didn't remember a single song. It's a style of post-punk I generally enjoy, but there's so many better bands and albums in this vein you have to reach the point you're scraping the bottom of the barrel to get much from it. Overall a pretty decent record, but nothing that really knocked my socks off.

Quintessential '80s goth. I didn't always appreciate it, but it's something that has really grown on me.

só tinha escutado o ocean rain deles então tava empolgado
e valeu a pena. bão demais. post punkzinho com um leve toque gótico, bonito demais!
tem gente que fala que eles roubam o the cure mas acho bobeira. eles tem bastante personalidade própria e são pica tbm. curti bastante!!

When it comes to Echo And The Bunnymen, i find that their music is perfectly fine 80s new wave but just incredibly forgettable and Porcupine here did little to change that. As you can guess from what i said prior to this, this is a case of an album where i just don't have much to even really say about it. It's not bad, not great, just kinda in between. The music on offer is serviceable as are the vocals but most of them i just have trouble even remembering because they were just so forgettable. I really am just scratching the bottom of the barrel for things to say so i will just regurgitate this, Perfectly fine, but not remarkable at all.
Best Song: Higher Hell
Worst Song: Clay

3.5 very enjoyable, but didn't manage to stand out.

I am so sick of the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland

some cool songs, but even i have to admit that these post punk records are starting to sound samey. 3.5

Great voice, moody atmosphere that's a cool mix of goth and new wave, dynamic interplay between synth/guitar/bass parts, lots of drama, movement, and sweep to the songs. It's the stock cube you need to put into a post punk soup to fill it out, but doesn't have any if the star ingredients.

I obviously had a very warped view of what style of music these guys play. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Great bass heavy, almost gothic sound. Favorite track: The Cutter

"Not just another DROP IN THE OCEAN."

Opening track absolutely streets ahead of anything else here, but I absolutely love that track.

Oh right, this record. I love "The Cutter"; hard to resist singing along. Let's see what the rest of it is like - I never did end up getting any of their records at the time, just enjoyed their hits when they came on the radio.

So I think this is one of those records that grow on you with repeated listens as you start to process the lyrics. The band are doing some interesting stuff behind the vocals, like on "Heads Will Roll," "Gods Will Be Gods," and the 6-minute title track, and I'm bopping along with the consistent beat.

I like this - well, I've always enjoyed the danceable but with miserable-sounding vocals kind of New Wave that came out in those days. So: 4 stars.

4/5

I can feel myself building resentment towards Echo And The Bunnymen for how many albums they have in this list. On paper, they look like they’d be my kinda band, but I absolutely cannot be bothered to connect with their music. I promise I've tried.

I guess this is New Wave (TM) but it's important to kinda talk about what that means. This was a weird time when New Wave included the Bowie-inspired "Plastic Soul" kinda funky New Wave (think Talking Heads), the post-punk style of misanthropic rock (like this, Joy Division, etc), and sadly, the cloyingly pop-focused synth pop that you probably think about first when you think of New Wave (I refuse to dignify this with examples). I think I like the Plastic Soul New Wave the most, and this variant second. This record resonates with me more than either Joy Division album, so there’s that. But it feels like “What if U2 didn't write any hits?”, and I barely like U2 even with the hits. I guess I should be heartened that E&TB seemed to get semi-famous before U2 did and maybe the influence worked in the other direction. I’m not. It’s still the same shoegazy ethereal pop-rock but all the themes are dark and the twinkly guitar sounds are in the midrange instead of up in the treble register. IDK. All the ingredients are here but the recipe just isn’t quite right.

Now i like some Echo and the Bunnymen ( the obvious ones Killing Moon, nothing lasts forever and their cover of People are strange). Unfortunately nothing here comes close to those and my overriding wish was for this album to end