Echo and the Bunnymen fans are eagerly anticpating their new single Think I Need It Too, released on September, 28, with the album The Fountain following in mid-October.
The Fountain is a massive return to form. It’s a superbly feisty album of pulsating, uplifting rock anthems such as the joyous Think I Need It Too, Do You Know Who I Am, Forgotten Fields, Everlasting and the Bowie-esque pop of Proxy, Shroud Of Turin, all centred around a grand, reflective soul-stirring ballad The Idolness Of Gods.
It’s a powerful album that sees the Bunnymen back to their very best and with a truly modern sensibility that should see a whole new generation discover one of the UK’s most iconic bands.
The Fountain was kick-started in 2007 when McCulloch began working on some new ideas with three London-based musicians.
Mac said: "I thought Will (Sergeant) and I needed to do stuff differently, but the end result still sounded like the Bunnymen.
"What we got with Think I Need It Too and Forgotten Fields, I thought: ‘Yeah, this is how it should sound."
The album was pieced together over the next year, with Mac and Will working on tracks at Parr Street Recording Studios in Liverpool.
He added: "The last few years have been pre-and post renaissance years.
"For me, The Bunnymen, because of this album and these songs and the Ocean Rain shows, feel more important than ever."
He points to The Idolness Of Gods cathartic 'soul-baring' and the words of Do You Know Who I Am. ‘Do you know who I am?’ is a phrase you daren’t ever say."
Mac muses: "It’s very tongue in cheek, but I’m saying throughout the album that I know exactly who I am.
"And I feel like rubbing your noses in it again. I know what I’m on about now."
Among the album’s greatest moments is the shimmering, impish Shroud Of Turin, in which Mac comes face-to-face with Christ.
Mac said: "The song is a kind of conversation with Jesus.
"It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it's also just another way of praying.
"It was based around a gig in Rimini at a club called, I think, The Transylvania. I saw this image in the monitors, it was Jesus’ face.
"I stopped the song, and said, 'If you all want to file past, you can see the Shroud Of Turin."
The album’s widescreen, crystalline sound is the work of Scottish producer John McLaughlin, whose credits may come as a surprise to some Bunnymen fans.
"He’s done work with Busted and Five, who I loved!" smiles Mac.
"I just became really good friends with him. I really want a big, solid undertow beneath the lyrics, not all jingly jangly like Siberia.
I wanted someone I could trust to get the sound – when he heard me playing The Idolness Of Gods with just guitar, it made him cry. He gets why I write the way I do. There’s glory in it.
"Siberia got a lot of good press, especially in America.
"But it wasn’t the best thing ever, it never is. This one was exciting to make – I felt excited to think of the Bunnymen as exciting again.
"I’ve re-found my spite – some might call it ‘angst”, I prefer to think of it as spite."
"I’m just a better writer and better singer these days.
"My voice has got more… honest, which fits these songs. This album is about something, rather than just sounding like it’s about something.
"It’s about having lived life, but still feeling like a kid. I’m a not traditional songwriter. What I do at my best is poetry.”
If recent live shows are anything to go by Echo & The Bunnymen really do seem like a band rejuvenated.
Their sold out ‘Ocean Rain’ shows last year at the Royal Albert Hall, London, Radio City Music Hall, New York & Liverpool Echo Arena were met with huge critical acclaim and recent performances at the likes of the Camden Crawl and Glastonbury rightly received rapturous receptions.
You can see the band play at the following venues in support of the album release.
Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 12th October
Manchester The Ritz 13th October
Glasgow Barrowlands 14th October
London Roundhouse 15th October
Oxford 02 Academy 12th December
Newcastle 02 Academy 14th December
Leeds 02 Academy 15th Decemebr
Liverpool 02 Academy 17th December
Liverpool 02 Academy 18th December
Liverpool 02 Academy 19th December
For more info on the band and Mac's insights visit WWW.BUNNYMEN.COM
Buy tickets for the Bunnymen's Liverpool gig.
Pre-order: The Fountain
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