ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - Porcupine LP

Porcupine finds the Bunnymen on the edge of a vast dark precipice, not far unlike the evocative cover photo. Their prior album, Heaven Up Here had put a bit of distance between them and their dank, bitter post-punk roots, bringing them into a more rarefied, graceful atmosphere, and the album to come, Ocean Rain would push them far past into the stratosphere, enormous midnight beauty much vaster and more keeningly romantic than anything their peers would (or could) achieve. In the middle sits this album which is pushing further with instrumentation and a sense of space, while retaining their haggard post-punk squall.