With Echo and The Bunnymen‘s new album ‘Meteorites’ looming close on the horizon, judging by the press seen so far it has had a mixed reception but as mentioned in previously from what we’ve heard its shaping up to be the Bunnies most accomplished set since ‘Reverberation’.
Heralding the albums imminent arrival is ‘Lovers on the Run’ – which we are happy to say finds the Bunnymen rediscovering their mojo and turning the clock back to the halcyon days of the early to mid 80’s. now in truth I’d be the first to pour critical scorn, they pretty much had it all – peerless live – in fact only the cold grandeur of the Banshees ‘ju-ju‘ tour ever compared close in terms of electricity and celebration, in Ian McCulloch a front man not only blessed with an acid tongue but someone so cocksure and arrogant he made later rent a quote ‘pop stars’ seem positively Saturday tea time and tame and tardy to boot (hello Morrissey) and a band whose first four albums are without question probably the finest quartet ever to have graced a turntable.
However there’s been something depressingly lacking and amiss in recent years, even ’Flowers’ – a particular favourite around here was at best patchy and at worst a ghost treading former glories, while McCulloch’s last solo album – was – and I’m being mindful that impressionable young folk may be reading – f****** woeful. Maybe we’ve all grown up still clutching to our former youth and always expecting so much more – I’ll leave that with you to decide. And with that when ’Market Town’ reared up on our radar a little while back – there was a good deal of – not anticipation – but rather more anxiety afoot in our gaff, an anxiety which I’m happy to say quickly dissipated. Likewise with ’Lovers on the Run’ – more immediate this time of asking this finds the Bunnies time tunnelling their way back ’87 into 5th album environs, darkly mercurial and adrift in shadowy 6’s honeycombs, the waltzing John Barry styled Venetian arpeggios cast a shade adorned soft psych dinking for Mac to impart his trademark smoked croon across.
Rescheduled dates:
Sat 7 Manchester Ritz, Sun 8 London Shepherds Bush Empire
Tues 10 Bristol Academy, Weds 11 Edinburgh Queens Hall
July
Thurs 3 Wolves Wulfrun Hall
Original tickets remain valid. The band’s hometown date in Liverpool will be rescheduled soon.
