The recent release of Echo and the Bunnymen’s latest effort Siberia seems to appear at a strange time in the history of the band – considering that their original drummer Pete de Freitas died in a tragic motorcycle accident back in 1989, and the departure of their original bassist Les Pattinson after a family illness in 2003 now leaves behind two of the band’s original members, along with McCulloch’s recent divorce. And although in some respects all of this may sound ideal for an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music, we, as lovers of the arts are intuitively aware that great art can be inspired not just from profound experience but from turbulence and from pain. Somehow sharing a spiritual tie with the Verve’s great Urban Hymns record, songs such as “All Because Of You Days,” “Everything Kills You,” and “What If We Are?,” seem as if written from a man who has experienced aching, life altering heartbreak, and yet simultaneously manages to be wistful but optimistic. But unlike any other record of recent memory, Ian McCulloch’s lyrics run the emotional gamut from being mysteriously poetic, playfully silly, wistful, angry, clichéd and insightful – often within the same song. A turn of a phrase in a single line can convey several different emotions, bringing about several different interpretations. In a song such as “Of a Life,” there’s a playfully thrown out reference to an early Echo and the Bunnymen album, Songs to Learn and Sing that fans will easily catch on to and either smile or groan at. In a song like “Sideways Eight,” a bouncy, quick paced romp displays that ancient “Us vs. Them” sentiment in a way that comes across as simultaneously playful, pissed off, and downright British punk.
But as a fair warning, Ian McCulloch’s voice doesn’t sound the way it did in previous Echo and the Bunnymen efforts such as Flowers, Evergreen, or the The Killing Moon. In those efforts McCulloch and company have moments where they unintentionally sound like fellow late 1970s and early 1980’s UK scenesters U2. The similarities between early U2 and early Echo are extraordinarily uncanny – but come from similar influences, and being from the similar scenes. (Perhaps it was Echo and the Bunnymen’s resemblance to their counterparts in U2 that have rendered Echo to cult favorite status instead of one of their time’s big bands?) On this album, McCulloch sounds as if he finally sets himself apart, sounding warmly grizzled and experienced.
Musically, Siberia is an inspired turn back to their earlier, successful sound but tied into recent experiments creating a very adult interpretation into any band’s earlier work. And although the comparison to U2 will be a typical, it is apropos – consider U2’s last two albums for example, and you’ll see what I mean. But regardless of the U2 comparisons, the songs on Siberia are written with a free flowing, improvisational feel that can only be successful when the musicians and the singer are as tight and as focused as Echo and the Bunnymen sound on this album (thanks to the return of their early producer Hugh Jones). All the members intuitively know where the other one is going and where they all want to go within a song. A song like “Parthenon Drive,” has Finley displaying certain flourishes – drum rolls, and the like – to emphasize phrases such as “Count to twelve/And dreams may fall,” on top of keeping a tight rein on the rhythm with his counterpart, bassist Peter Wilkinson. Will Sergeant’s guitar playing is the empathetic counterpart to McCulloch’s lyrics – where a line or a lyric requires muscle and aggression such as a song like “Scissors In the Sand,” Sergeant provides it; where McCulloch is dreamy and introspective, Sergeant follows; and whenever McCulloch is playful, Sergeant provides a buoyant, fluttering feel. The keyboardist, Paul Fleming assists whenever a dreamy, almost watery undertone is needed; he also helps the two remaining original members in a retrospective look back – all while looking forward.
But what McCulloch, Sergeant, Wilkinson, Finley, Fleming and their producer Hugh Jones have created in Siberia is a rare piece of work – an album that can readily and easily become a part of the personal soundtrack of your own life. Such albums nowadays are sadly getting increasingly rare because there seem to be so few artists with that rare comprehension into life that comes from the wisdom of experience and empathy. We all need that album or that series of albums that inexplicably transforms our understanding of lives, that shakes at our very foundations, and with Siberia there’s still hope that someone out there can make that sort of connection. Clichéd as it is, music does and can change our lives and we must never forget that!
