Heaven Up Here (Remastered) Echo & The Bunnymen

• 1 Show of Strength 04:50
• 2 With a Hip 03:12
• 3 Over the Wall 05:59
• 4 It Was a Pleasure 03:15
• 5 A Promise 04:07
• 6 Heaven up Here 03:47
• 7 The Disease 02:25
• 8 All My Colours 04:05
• 9 No Dark Things 04:26
• 10 Turquoise Days 03:50
• 11 All I Want 04:08
• Total Runtime 44:04

Info for Heaven Up Here (Remastered)

Echo & the Bunnymen’s second album, Heaven Up Here, was released invMay 1981, under a year after Crocodiles, and gave them their first top 10 album.

Rife with thick atmospherics and brooding dreamscapes, the harrowing songs clatter amidst arrangements infused with requisite air, space, and chamber echoes. Silhouetted guitar leads help convey moody dampness, despair, dread, and disgust, the themes directly connected to narratives that tackle distrust, dishonesty, betrayal, and arrested dreams. Cloudy and jagged for certain, but the majesty of Heaven Up Here relates to how, in spite of the haunted arrangements and claustrophobic feel, ribbons of light and hope illuminate its shadowy corners and nocturnal glow.

"Following their more psychedelia-based debut, Crocodiles, and subsequent "Puppet" single, Echo & the Bunnymen returned in 1981 with the darkest and perhaps most experimental album of their career. Heaven Up Here lacks the signature hooks and melodies that would make the Bunnymen famous, showcasing instead a dirge-like songwriting approach built around the circular rhythms of bassist Les Pattinson and drummer Pete DeFreitas. In this setting, the band remarkably flourishes, although they would go on to greater heights by scaling back the album's extremism. Heaven Up Here's strength is the way in which the Bunnymen seamlessly work together to shape each song's dynamics (the tension underlying the crescendo of "Turquoise Days" being a prime example). Ian McCulloch, having found his trademark confidence, sings with soaring abandon and passion throughout the album. Similarly, Will Sergeant's guitar playing, notably freed from verse-chorus structure and pop riffs, is at its angular finest; his playing on "No Dark Things" is pure Andy Gill-esque skronk. The album's opening troika of "Show of Strength," "With a Hip," and "Over the Wall" (the latter with its jarring, direct invocation of Del Shannon's "Runaway") are particularly effective, establishing the theme of distrust and restlessness which continues throughout the album. Indeed, even the album's lone single, "A Promise," is hardly light, pop material. But the message underneath that darkness, especially in McCulloch's lyrics, is a call to overcome rather than wallow, as the album ends with the relatively euphoric "All I Want." Sitting comfortably next to the pioneering work of contemporaries like Joy Division/New Order, and early Public Image Ltd. and Cure, this is a rather fine -- and in the end, influential -- example of atmospheric post-punk. Having reached the British Top Ten, Heaven Up Here is highly regarded among Echo & the Bunnymen's fans precisely for the reasons which, on the surface, make it one of the least accessible albums in the band's catalog." (Aaron Warshaw, AMG)

Ian McCulloch, Gesang
Will Sergeant, Gitarre
Les Pattinson, Bass
Pete de Freitas, Schlagzeug

Digitally remastered

Echo & The Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk group, formed in Liverpool in 1978. Their original lineup consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut album, Crocodiles, met with critical acclaim and made the UK Top 20. Their second album, Heaven Up Here (1981), again found favour with the critics and reached number 10 in the UK Album chart. The band's cult status was followed by mainstream success in the mid-1980s, as they scored a UK Top 10 hit with "The Cutter", and the attendant album, Porcupine (1983), reached number 2 in the UK. Their next release, Ocean Rain (1984), continued the band's UK chart success, and has since been regarded as their landmark release, spawning the hit singles "The Killing Moon", "Silver" and "Seven Seas". One more studio album, Echo & the Bunnymen (1987), was released before McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career in 1988. The following year, de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident, and the band re-emerged with a new line-up. Original members Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson were joined by Noel Burke as lead singer, Damon Reece on drums and Jake Brockman on keyboards. This new incarnation of the band released Reverberation in 1990, but the disappointing critical and commercial reaction it received culminated with a complete split in 1993.

After working together as Electrafixion, McCulloch and Sergeant regrouped with Pattinson in 1997 and returned as Echo & the Bunnymen with the UK Top 10 hit "Nothing Lasts Forever". An album of new material, Evergreen, was greeted enthusiastically by critics and the band made a successful return to the live arena. Though Pattinson left the group for a second time, McCulloch and Sergeant have continued to issue new material as Echo & the Bunnymen, including the albums What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Flowers (2001), Siberia (2005) and The Fountain (2009). ...

This album contains no booklet.