CROCDILES..ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN......

Crocodiles is the Bunnymen's great debut album and exposes a level the band would never reach in their career again. "Echo" would never again release such a cohesive album, without a single mediocre track. No fillers here! Unfortunately the Bunnymen in general and this album in particular are still fully overlooked by music fans. Probably the Bunnymen are the most underrated band ever!

Echo & The Bunnymen are definitely inspired by the music of The Doors and Television, the Marquee Moon album in particular. On "Crocodiles", though, the Bunnymen overshadow their music-heroes. The gorgeous bass-lines, the dark melodies, the melodramatic singing: it all comes together on this album that consists of 10 cohesive tracks that never become boring.

The title track is known for the fastest bass-line the Bunnymen would ever use to compose a song. "All that jazz" strongly reminds us of their Manchester contemporaries Joy Division (listen to Joy Division's classic song "Shadowplay"). "Villiers Terrace" is a breathtaking track, not only for its catchy intro and melody, but also for the bleak lyrics about (drugs) addiction ("people rolling round on the carpet - mixing up the medicine"). These three tracks are absolute highlights on an overall (nearly) perfect album. One of the very few albums that do not force you to ignore some dross /fillers. Rock 'n' roll / wave would never become better than this! I am sure that if you are prepared to take the eighties' sound / echo for granted (why should that be a problem if Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs etc. are so amazingly popular today...?) this album becomes an instant favourite in your CD-collection. Highly recommended; I give it five stars! Rock N Roll Rene