Like any good cultural steward of teens who came of age in the mid-aughts I watched Donnie Darko on Halloween evening this past Friday after taking the kids trick or treating. It’s a fantastic film with a world-class soundtrack that adds so much depth to the film. At any rate, the movie opens up with one of the most unforgettable tracks of the 80’s “The Killing Moon” (which as you’ve probably guessed by now is off Ocean Rain). The song’s moody pulse and graceful groove line up perfectly with the film’s mix of teenage confusion, cosmic dread, and small-town melancholy. Lead singer Ian McCulloch’s vocal performance—partly recorded while he was fighting a cold at Amazon Studio in Liverpool—only adds to that weary forlorn edge. His performance somehow feels both fragile and untouchable at the same time, as timeless as the movie it later helped to define.
Across Ocean Rain the band leans all the way into that sound and somber nostalgic yearning for purpose that seems just out of reach. This is an album that is dramatic and majestic from start to finish. The sweeping string arrangements and evocative musical production gives each song a truly cinematic feel as if you’re caught inside a fog-filled dream world you’re attempting to navigate through. It’s an album full of grand ambition, but it never loses the emotional heart that makes Echo & the Bunnymen such a special band.
Between Ocean Rain and their equally formidable 1981 cut Heaven Up Here it’s becoming increasingly clear I need to double down on Echo & the Bunnymen a bit more whenever I’m in the mood for some 80’s post-punk sad boi vibes. McCulloch certainly agrees– in typical British rock star fashion he described Ocean Rain as the greatest album ever made and said “When I sing ‘The Killing Moon’ I know there isn’t a band in the world who’s got a song anywhere near that.”
Love the belief in his own creation. And hell, the dude may have a point.
Standout Songs: “The Killing Moon”, “Seven Seas”, “Silver”, “Crystal Days”
