Echo & The Bunnymen

Active since the late 1970s in Liverpool, Echo & The Bunnymen emerged from the British post-punk wave, quickly shaping a songwriting style oriented toward alternative rock, new wave, and a strain of dark psychedelia. Formed around Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, and Les Pattinson, the group later brought in drummer Pete de Freitas and made its name on stage before releasing Crocodiles in 1980 and Heaven Up Here in 1981—albums that established the band’s hallmark melodic tension and mist-shrouded atmospheres. Porcupine in 1983 and Ocean Rain in 1984, driven by more orchestrated arrangements, signaled an opening toward a broader sound without breaking with the melancholy vocals and jagged guitars. After Echo & The Bunnymen in 1987 and a period of lineup changes, the band paused in the early 1990s, then reconvened around the McCulloch-Sergeant core, yielding Evergreen in 1997 and What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? in 1999. Subsequent releases—from Flowers in 2001 to Meteorites in 2014, as well as 2018’s The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon, which revisits part of the catalog—carry forward a trajectory in which Echo & The Bunnymen blend reverberant guitars, understated keyboards, and taut bass lines in a register between melancholic pop and atmospheric rock.