Echo And The Bunnymen
‘The Fountain’
(Ocean Rain)

You should never meet your heroes. Oh no. But reviewing them? A head-fuck, especially when the gurus in question churn out an album with all the bombast and wankery of U2 on Ego Emancipation Day. The shock hits us when opener ‘I Think I Need It Too’ undoes everything sacred about this band by cartwheeling across its own imaginary stadium with all the subtlety of Bono, well, being Bono. Indeed, such his proximity to the Messianic One, on ‘Shroud Of Turin’, McCullough is actually conversing with Jesus. Sporting a voice that seems to fuse The Eejit with Neil Diamond, second track ‘Forgotten Fields’ attempts to Snow Patrol these elements into an epic concoction that seems to applaud itself. Redemption does reside in the latter half of the album, which recalls EATB’s darker moments, but what we’re ultimately left with is an echo that only gives volume to the chambers of greatness that once was. The Fly can’t quite believe he’s saying this, but ‘The Fountain’ is a shower of shit.

Stephen Brolan