Album: Porcupine
Year: 1983.
After a second album, Heaven Up Here, that I underrated for years because I thought it was too dour by a half — turns out that was its strength — Echo & The Bunnymen’s third album, Porcupine, was more to my 1983 taste.
With songs that were one half psychedelic, one half trance, and one half pop, Porcupine caught the Bunnymen right before their ambition to be the biggest band in the world outpaced their ability to actually be the biggest band in the world.
What was left was songs like the ferocious “Back of Love,” probably the hardest Echo & The Bunnymen ever rocked.
Starting with a Will Sergeant guitar riff that stabbed like Jack the Ripper, “Back of Love” built and built and built until Ian McCullough screamed from the highest peak:
We’re taking advantage of
Breaking the back of love
We’re taking advantage of
Breaking the back of love
Now, I don’t rightly know what it all meant, but McCullough sang it, “Breaking the back of love” sounded like the most important thing in the history of the universe.
In the middle, they thew in horn bleats, strings and a few seconds of softness, just for a bit of relief before Sergeant started the riff back up and the scale the heights one more time.
Video for “The Back of Love”