Echo & The Bunnymen - Songs To Learn & Sing

Tonight's a good night for a record we haven't listened to yet. That's not true, i've listened to it several times, i just haven't reviewed it. It's the 1985 singles compilation from the English Post Punk band Echo & The Bunnymen entitled Songs To Learn & Sing. It's lovely. 

You might have the mistaken impression that i don't like compilation albums, and that's just not true. I like them when they serve a purpose, and collecting all the singles from a band's many albums without qualifying that they are necessarily their greatest is a perfectly fine concept. It basically says "well if you're only going to pick 11 songs from the last 5 years, these are the ones that got radio play." 

I'll be honest, i don't really know what any of these songs are about, they're poetically obtuse in spite of their readily apparent gloominess. Then again Echo & The Bunnymen formed like right after Pink Floyd released Animals, and they basically exist fully inside Thatcherian England, so that's kind of all you really need as far as context, isn't it? They don't much care for the world they have to live in, and they clearly want to express that pessimism. 

What's with the name? Well, Will Sergeant said they had a friend who liked to make up all sorts of ridiculous band names, and this was the one of them they went with. Apparently their first gig was just a 20 minute version of the song "Monkeys." Anywho, this was the only album they released in 1985 because they were fighting a lot, fired their manager, and ultimately their drummer Pete de Freitas went on a drug bender in New Orleans and quit the band. They kept being a band until 1993, then reunited in 1996, but this is the Bottle show, so we kind of just say Songs To Learn & Sing is the fitting epilogue of the original Echo & The Bunnymen; everything after this is a different band. 

I think it's fair to say that even though you can definitely compare them to Joy Division and The Cure, there's still a fair bit of actual Punk happening here, albeit comparatively psychedelic/lethargic. Honestly it's the overall sonic conglomeration i enjoy, but let's try to focus and figure out what any of this is actually about, lyrically speaking. 

I don't mean to sound dismissive, quite the opposite, it's all generally emotional instability and dreamy/nightmarish romanticism. It's gorgeous stuff. 

I will say this, a compilation album with actual reprinted lyrics is weird enough, but this 2022 Warner repress has them both on the inner sleeve and in a booklet insert. That seems moderately redundant and unnecessarily more expensive, but at least they aren't skimping on quality. This is a delightful listen from start to finish. Lots of strings and eclectic instruments, singalongable choruses and quirky vocal delivery. No clue why he's kissing a tortoise one moment and burning witches the next, but we'll just chalk a lot of it up to dream logic. I will say this, there is no deviation from the strict verse/chorus pop song format, their real pizazz is in catchy melodies and Ian Mccollough's meandering, often Bowie-esque vocal delivery. 

Good stuff. If you've never really heard Echo & The Bunnymen (which you totally have if you've seen Pretty In Pink, Bring On The Dancing Horses is playing while Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy banter in the record store), then this is actually a great place to start. I don't have a copy to sell you, but they're out there and it's totally collection worthy.