Meteorites
26 May 2014
429
3.5 stars out of 5
It’s pure coincidence that this is the second album I’ve
reviewed this week that was produced by Youth (who is, incidentally, 53 now).
What is perhaps not a coincidence is that the artists performing these albums,
Peter Murphy and now Echo & the Bunnymen, both released their first LPs in
1980, along with—wait for it—Killing Joke, of whom Youth is a founding member.
While very different bands, both Peter Murphy’s Bauhaus and Ian McCulloch and
Will Sergeant’s Echo & the Bunnymen were (and remain) two very different
bands, but were lumped together (along with Killing Joke) under the banner of “post-punk”
from the beginning. Meteorites is
E&tB’s twelfth studio LP (thirteenth if you include Burned), and while it’s unmistakeably a McCulloch & Sergeant
record, it has little in common with 1980’s classic Crocodiles except for core personnel.
It could be argued that E&tB sanded off most of their
edges and fell into a comfortable and confident groove with the stunning Ocean Rain back in 1984, so to remark
upon how smooth and sleek Meteorites
is would be akin to saying that trees’ leaves tend to be green. The vocal hooks
of “Holy Moses” and “Explosions” could have been included on that record thirty
years ago, while “Market Town” takes those hooks and morphs them into an epic
of over seven and a half minutes. There are more hints of shimmering dream pop
guitar here than has been typical of E&tB’s music in the past. The closer, “New
Horizons,” could be Cocteau Twins, or This Mortal Coil, or perhaps just
something off the 2014 remake of Ocean
Rain.
While most traces of the “post-punk” label have long-ago
disappeared from McCulloch & Sergeant’s work, one would find it difficult
to find evidence that they have sold out or watered down their product. Meteorites is an honest record,
featuring no pretension or contrivance. It may feel comfortable, but it’s the
good kind of comfort, not the bad kind.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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