Echo & the Bunnymen

Evergreen Echo & the Bunnymen Standard edition

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Echo and The Bunnymens second coming, London Records revisit the bands triumphant album Evergreen. Originally released in 1997, Evergreen marked a critical and commercial renaissance for the band after more than half a decades hiatus; an album that rightfully returned them to the Top 10 that sported three UK hits including the seminal Nothing Lasts Forever.

Ten years since they last graced the Top Ten Album Chart, Evergreen returned them there in July 1997. The Bunnymen had proved themselves not only deserving of a second wind but effortlessly welcomed by the musical landscape of the late-90s. Arriving in the season of Oasiss Be Here Now and The Verves Urban Hymns, Evergreen was both of and beyond its time. At the time, McCulloch proudly spoke of the album as the best hed believed theyd ever made. Through the sepia lens of hindsight, today he understates its value as containing at least three great songs, which is three more than most bands have in their entire catalogue. By name, the ballads Nothing Lasts Forever, Forgiven and Just A Touch Away. Beyond McCullochs holy trinity, Evergreen was just as notable for its snake-charming title track and the similarly serpentine Empire State Halo, both, like the best Bunnymen songs of yore, reaching our ears somewhere from Norris Green via Marrakesh. Elsewhere the Mersey shuffle of singles Dont Let it Get You Down and I Want To Be There (When You Come) sees the brighter side of the band, as open and as relevant as their contemporaries past and present. Someone asked me the other day why I reunited the Bunnymen, McCulloch commented that summer. Well, I havent. Ive re-ignited the Bunnymen. Having said that, they never stopped glowing somewhere in my heart. That glow made music, Evergreen still blinds.

Evergreen - Echo & The Bunnymen