Pros: Great songs like The Killing Moon, Silver, Never Stop, and Rescue...
Cons: Hasty early release and three not so good songs...
The Bottom Line: Pardon the bad pun above, but this is a great collection of songs and an easy way to become familar with British band Echo & The Bunnymen.
lambchops's Full Review: Songs To Learn & Sing: Greatest Hits by Echo & The...
Dark British post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen never soared to the stratospheric heights of contemporaries like The Smiths but they did manage to garner enough attention to allow for a career that has spanned a quarter century and nine studio albums. Does that mean that the band should be considered among the brilliant? No way, but they are nonetheless a fairly decent example of the musical direction of the 1980’s.
Echo & the Bunnymen came into being at the hands of vocalist Ian McCulloch. McCulloch’s earlier venture, the Crucial Three, had just split up and he was looking to form another band. His ideas came to fruition when he joined with guitarist Will Seargent and bassist Les Pattinson. After experimenting for a short time with a drum machine and releasing one now forgotten single called Pictures On My Wall/Read It In Books the trio added drummer Pete de Freitas.
During the earliest part of the 1980’s the band released four albums in quick succession. These found albums are the ones that are covered on the 1985 Sire collection Songs To Learn & Sing. Obviously the disc was a bit early in coming considering some five subsequent albums would be released including the most recent, 2001’s Flowers. It seems that the probable explanation for such a hasty release is that Sire was looking to buyers for a quick fix of money. And considering the fact that it was released the year following Ocean Rain, the band’s first album to hit the top 100 in America, it should come as no big shock that Sire would try to satiate new fans in such a simplistic and relatively haphazard manner.
However rushed Songs To Learn & Sing was, it does provide a glimpse of the first four albums from Echo & the Bunnymen without requiring people to go out and individually buy them. 1980’s Crocodiles and 1984’s Ocean Rain are both decent enough albums but the middle two, 1981’s Heaven Up Here and 1983’s Porcupine, are much less satisfying. So, as a consequence, non-completist fans should find Songs To Learn & Sing to be quite inclusive.
Consisting of ten chronologically arranged hits and one new track (Bring on the Dancing Horses), this 1985 collection is an overall better than average experience…especially for those less familiar with the dour band’s work. Think of Songs To Learn & Sing as a taste test and most of the songs taste pretty darned yummy. The songs that made the cut for this album are pretty obvious choices. Most were hits at least in the UK and most earned them praise from fans and critics alike. Some are immediately recognizable to lay fans while others will turn out to be wholly new experiences. On the whole Songs To Learn & Sing is a good buy, especially at the discounted “Super Saver” price and should augment any collection of 80’s music nicely.
Of these eleven songs, the one that sticks most in my mind is The Killing Moon. A hit from Ocean Rain, the track is also one of the most popular from the band’s career. It has been featured on numerous compilation albums in addition to the More Grosse Pointe Blank and most recently in the stellar film Donnie Darko (though not on the soundtrack release). And all of the attention is definitely earned. Dark, uneasy, and creepy the song appeals to a wide range of listeners. And if any song can act as a bridge to discovering the rest of this collection and Echo & The Bunnymen, it is this one. The lyrics add to the dimly lit vocals and melody:
In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips a magic world
Your sky all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
There are of course other things of note from this British act. The album kicks off strongly with Rescue, a song that on one level shrieks with punk fervor but on another it proves that with careful arrangement and lyrical attention even brooding, thick songs can be massively appealing. The mid-tempo pace and pounding use of the bass guitar and drums makes for a unique listening experience. The Puppet (a relative rarity, it has been featured only on Echo & The Bunnymen compilations and the cassette version of Crocodiles) is also similarly entertaining. Once again McCulloch’s vocals are full of restrained yet obvious anger. As a result of a near total lack of synthesizers, this album on the whole and the songs on an individual basis have aged pretty gracefully and even today make for a good listen.
Do It Clean is the final Crocodiles release. I do appreciate the band’s turn toward a faster pace and as such it immediately draws me in. And fortunately Echo & The Bunnymen delivers. Most specifically, the chorus is resonant and sticks with me for hours following a listen. Seriously, aside from The Killing Moon this is one of the top tracks. A Promise on the other hand is the only representative of Heaven Up Here. And if this track is the album’s standout then it is for good reason that I have yet to hear it on the whole. McCulloch yelps (yodels?) with a full voice just over top of repetitive drums and guitars. It is a sorry song, definitely not worth hearing. But a necessary evil when it came to assembling this greatest hits compilation.
Things pick back up with the Porcupine-era offerings. The Back of Love returns the band to the use of a drum machine. But somehow (believe it or not) the synthetic beats work well. So well in fact that it is hard not to forget they are the driving force of the kinetic dance track. And to really add another level to the songs, the band recruited an amazing strings player to provide a richer, more inventive sound. This is also an important part of The Cutter. While it isn’t the best song here, it does provide a few moments of fun. The non-album single Never Stop is on most levels a dance track. But there is so much more that makes it a special song. Most specifically Shankar’s hyper strings and the brilliantly utilized combination of synths and guitars are the most incredible (yes, incredible) aspects of the track. Never Stop ranks up there with this collection’s best.
Three songs from Ocean Rain made the cut including the aforementioned The Killing Moon and also Silver and Seven Seas. The grand, almost orchestral, feel of Silver proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the band was/is talented. McCulloch and company had a flair for the most experimental facets of 80’s pop-rock. The immediately striking song is special not only for the creative elements, but also the fact that it is fun and catchy while incorporating increasing numbers of strings. Seven Seas begins mildly, just an acoustic guitar. But as the track progresses various other elements are added. Comparatively, it is not as good as most of the other included songs. Though it does present Echo & The Bunnymen at their most subdued; hence its inclusion.
The final song is the previously unreleased Bring on the Dancing Horses. A hip, upbeat mid-tempo dance track it is a bit too thickly arranged especially with the overuse of synthesizers. To add insult to injury, a harp and various other elements are included. But the real shame is in the fact that Bring on the Dancing Horses contains one of the most immediately entertaining choruses. Unfortunately, most people will be unable to get past the ridiculousness of the instrumentals.
Songs To Learn & Sing is a good buy. It was a little early in coming and therefore doesn’t come close to being a career retrospective. Though, it is one of the more notable of the single-band greatest hits collections of the 1980’s. Most listeners will be surprised by how many of these songs are familiar and will find they get something out of the majority of the included tracks. There are a few clunkers like A Promise, Seven Seas, and Bring on the Dancing Horses but most often Echo & The Bunnymen come across as pretty damn entertaining. Definitely worth a listen, and also probably worth buying.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Rescue [Crocodiles, 1980]
02. The Puppet [Crocodiles (cassette version), 1980]
03. Do It Clean [Crocodiles, 1980]
04. A Promise [Heaven Up Here, 1981]
05. The Back of Love [Porcupine, 1983]
06. The Cutter [Porcupine, 1983]
07. Never Stop [single, 1983]
08. The Killing Moon [Ocean Rain, 1984]
09. Silver [Ocean Rain, 1984]
10. Seven Seas [Ocean Rain, 1984]
11. Bring on the Dancing Horses
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