1984 album in review: Echo & the Bunnymen--Ocean Rain

Just for fun, I've decided to take a look back at some favorite or notable albums that were released forty years ago.

1984 was, in retrospect, a significant year for pop/alternative/metal/rock music. I have already made a long list of my favorites, and I will at least try to explore them here in this blog. These entries might be a little freewheeling, so beware. I mean, it IS a blog, right? I reserve the right to be a little sloppy.

Leading off is Echo & the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain. The album was the band's fourth album and was released on May 4 of '84. (May the Forth be with Echo and the Bunnymen--sorry, I couldn't resist). 

In full disclosure, and as should be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog, I had absolutely no awareness of this album's existence in 1984. The first I ever heard of Echo & the Bunnymen was accidentally seeing their name on the marquee of Detroit's Fox Theater in about 1985(ish). 

After arriving at college in autumn 1986, I was finally educated in the subject of "college rock," and part of my "graduation" included the acquisition of Echo & the Bunnymen's best-of compilation Songs to Learn and Sing. (If memory serves me, I got The Cure's Standing on a Beach: the Singles on the very same day). It wasn't until over a decade later that I finally decided that Songs to Learn and Sing wasn't enough and I decided that I need ALL the "EatB" albums. This, of course, included Ocean Rain.

So let's get to the album. All these years later, and I still don't know what these songs are about. I don't have a clue. But I love them. Echo & the Bunnymen are, for the most part, a "vibe" band. Their songs evoke moods. Ian McCulloch's lyrics range from impressionistic to surreal, but always poetic. Even on songs like "The Killing Moon," ostensibly a love song, nothing is straightforward.

From the album title and sleeve photo to many of the lyrics, sea, seafaring, and water is a consistent theme in Ocean Rain. Is this due to the band being from the seaport of Liverpool? Was Ian McCulloch going through a Patrick O'Brian reading phase? I really have no idea. Perhaps these questions will be answered in guitarist Will Sergeant's third installment of his highly entertaining memoirs.

As for the nautical mood of this album, there is a "blind sailor," a "tidal wave," swimming so well in the "seven seas," and all the presumably allegorical water and sailing imagery in the (beautiful) title track. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the lyic that always makes me smile, "kissing the tortoise shell," which McCulloch pronounces like "tore-toys. "Tore-toys Shell" seems like a good name for a Echo & the Bunnymen tribute band.

The songs on Ocean Rain range from the unusual and experimental ("Yo-Yo Man", "Thorn of Crowns") to the comparatively poppier tunes such as "Silver," "Seven Seas," and "Ocean Rain." But when the album gets weird, it doesn't hold back, such as Ian McCulloch's "c-c-c-cucumber, c-c-c-cabbage" rant on "Thorn of Crowns." That's a song that seems as if McCulloch wrote it after looking through his refrigerator with the marijuana munchies.

One of the band's strengths is that the music matches the lyrical content, probably none more so than on "Nocturnal Me," another song that defies interpretation, but evokes a mood. It is a mood of darkness, passion, gloom, and icy coldness. All of that in one song. They keyboard sounds as if it's being played in the ice palace from Dr. Zhivago, or perhaps the dark cave pictured on the album cover.

On my list of favorite 1984 albums, Ocean Rain has risen in my estimation over the years. I would likely have it in my top ten. That said, it's not my favorite EatB album, but certainly slides somewhere into the top five.

After Ocean Rain, the band released the forementioned Songs to Learn & Sing compilation in 1985. After closing that chapter of their career, the Bunnymen were poised for their big breakthrough with their self-titled "Grey Album" in 1987, but it never happened. They simply weren't U2, more like U2's sullen, misbehaving brother. The death of drummer Pete de Freitas was a major blow. Though the band has continued to make good-to-great albums, they never made it beyond cult status.

My goal in 2024 is to revisit more 1984 albums in this blog. Perhaps I could throw in some 1994 albums, too. There are certainly some that deserve my expert analysis. So, we'll see how that goes. No guarantees, but I will give it a shot.