Product Description

Siberia is the crystallization of everything that has made the band so wonderful during their illustrious 26 year career. Explains McCulloch, ''the band we’ve got around us now are the closest to the old Bunnymen we’ve ever had. Not that we’ve intentionally set out to capture the past in any way. I think I’d been trying to get away from the approach of Heaven Up Here or Porcupine where a lot of the songs were based on a single note, or a pulse even, but with this album I thought, let’s just slide in there and see what happens.'' One telling link to the past has been the recruiting of veteran studio wiz Hugh Jones as producer, the first time he’d worked with the Bunnymen since acting as producer on the group’s second album. This is their 9th album and was recorded in Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. Imperial. 2005.

Track Listing

1. Stormy Weather
2. All Because Of You Days
3. Parthenon Drive
4. In The Margins
5. Of A Life
6. Make Us Blind
7. Everything Kills You
8. Siberia
9. Sideways Eight
10. Scissors In The Sand
11. What If We Are

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3291 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The indian summer of Echo And The Bunnymen's surprising late Nineties comeback has now cooled, but Siberia is a commendable attempt to make up for lost commercial ground. If 2001's under-rated Flowers cast the Bunnymen as woebegone psychedelists contentedly mumbling from the darker margins of indiedom while the world looked the other way then Siberia is the obverse. Far from sounding overcast, the single "Stormy Weather" is possibly the most effulgently extrovert song in the band's canon and maybe even an ironic titular riposte to a career seemingly blown off-course. The jury's out on Hugh Jones' production; reassuringly retro as on "Heaven Up Here" (his last work with the band) or too burnished to harness the evident danger which lurks behind "Scissors In The Sand"? The qualities of "Everything Kills You" and "What If We Are" are less equivocal--grand, romantic mock-tragedies in the tradition of "Rust" or "Nothing Last's Forever but instances of deja-vu persist with a little too much self-referencing to songs we've already learned to sing and the suspicion that the chord progressions to "Parthenon Drive" inadvertently derived from heroic sources (namely the Velvet's "Lady Godiva's Operation"). Not Porcupine then, or Crocodiles. However, Siberia is a decent enough record coming from a band stubbornly unwilling to be left out in the cold. --Kevin Maidment

CD Description
'Siberia' contains all the ingredients of a traditional Bunnymen album. Ian McCulloch's desperate, but confident vocals, blend perfectly with Will Sergeant's psychedelic, sweepingguitars. This album sees Echo & The Bunnymen reunited with Hugh Jones, producer of their classic album 'Heaven Up Here'. Included are the two singles, 'Stormy Weather' and 'In TheMargins'.

Customer Reviews

Back to their best
For any fan of Echo & The Bunnymen, new or old, there are four albums that are the group's masterpieces: "Crocodiles", "Heaven Up Here", "Porcupine" and "Ocean Rain". These are the albums that gave the Bunnymen worldwide cult status, which should have made them bigger than U2, if not the biggest band in the world. These are the albums that all other Bunnymen albums are tested against. And these are the albums that the likes of Coldplay and even U2 have said had major influences on their music.

Even though for some fans "Evergreen" got close, it was not close enough. "What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?" was a good album, but was too full of ballads and lacking Will Sergeant's distinctive guitar playing. "Flowers" got more into the Bunnymen sound, but didn't quite have what the fans were looking for.

So another album comes along since the 1997 comeback and the hope that McCulloch and Sergeant will be able to pull off a new album that is on par with those greats of the 1980s. For anyone who can't wait until 19th September and wants to fork out slightly more for an import, "Siberia" is already out in Japan.

Hugh Jones, the producer of the Bunnymen's second album "Heaven Up Here" - which most Bunnymen fans see as the band's best work - was brought back into the fold for "Siberia". Hugh Jones has done everything that Bunnymen fans have wanted. It's all there: the classic Bunnymen sound, McCulloch singing with passion, Sergeant's guitars and the distinctive bass sound that Les Pattinson made his own (he left the group back in 1999 and the bass is currently played by Peter Wilkinson). Drummer Simon Finley has also done an excellent job getting near to the drumming abilities of the late Peter DeFreitas. Sergeant recently said that this album was Heaven Up Here Part II and he was not joking. However, "Siberia" is not an exact copy of that album and it is poppy in places. It also sometimes keeps in with the more matured sound that has evolved since 1997 partly to suit the crooning vocal ability that McCulloch has today. But McCulloch and Sergeant have produced a modern-day masterpiece.

If you quickly run through this album there are a couple of slightly more mediocre tracks that could have come off McCulloch's "Slideling" solo album, but one thing that will knock you flying when first listening to the album is the production. Even the Slideling-type songs ("Make Us Blind", "Everything Kills You" and "What if We Are?" are the tracks that spring to mind) are turned into powerful rock anthems with the way that the production has been handled. Think Coldplay's "X&Y" and "A Rush of Blood to the Head" for any similarities in production techniques.

Sergeant's guitar playing will blow your mind. It's almost that he has sat down and listened to every way that he played on HUH and Porcupine and has done it again. Forget John Buckland, The Edge and the others, Will Sergeant is THE King of Kings in terms of guitar playing.

When comparing this album to "Evergreen", "WAYGTDWYL?" or "Flowers", it's a class apart. "Siberia" is everything that a Bunnymen album should be. The echoes of the past - Echo the drum machine makes a welcome return with the Over The Wall-style ending to "Parthenon Days" - a song which is clearly influenced by the first three Bunnymen albums; the Villiers Terrace-style rocking sound of "Scissors In The Sand" (which finishes with an ending that sounds like something similar to the spiralling guitar chord used in "A Promise"), the "Bedbugs & Ballyhoo" vibes of "Siberia" to "The Killing Moon" classic of "In the Margins". The Bunnymen of old are written all over this one.

"In the Margins" is a classic Bunnymen tune. It'll stick in your head for a very long time and Mac sings it beautifully. In terms of the post-1997 Bunnymen songs, this is up there with "Nothing Lasts Forever". "Parthenon Drive" and "Of A Life" are just unbelievable tracks for long-term fans who want the influences of Crocodiles, HUH or Porcupine. The title track "Siberia" again sounds so much like a classic Bunnymen track and shows to the world that McCulloch and Sergeant can still cut the mustard.

Forget the "play it safe" post-1997 sound, the overload of ballads and lack of Will's guitar on "WAYGTDWYL?", the too-soft sound on "Flowers". "Siberia" IS how a Bunnymen album should be done. Highly recommended.

Another magical album
It's great. I got a copy from Japan and have had it on a continuous loop since. The lyrics are as inventive and the vocals as good as ever--the smoking may kill McCulloch, but it makes his voice even deeper and more atmospheric, if that's possible. His phrasing, the best in the business, is still Sinatra on Merseyside. Will's on top form, making sure every sound has been thought through (missed on Mac's recent solo venture), and the songs are bristling with hooks and full of sonic layers. Overall, it definitely has more of a resemblance to the post-*Evergreen* albums than the '80s albums, despite Hugh Jones's first appearance as producer since *Heaven Up Here*. But there are touches of *Porcupine*-style psychedelia, and there might be more adventure in the song structures than there has been recently, which brings back the early days. Songs in the first half of the album may sound a bit too much alike--mid-tempo and maybe too few edges--but the second half is less sweet and more brooding. People who thought *Flowers* was too much of a pop record might still gripe, but if the Bunnymen can come up with hooks like these album after album, why bury them or go for Radiohead-style aimless noise? It's a musical mystery why people buy Chris Martin's nasal whining in mass quantities instead of everything these guys touch. Let's hope this one gets some attention.

Back from the dead
This has to be the comeback record of the century. From Crocodiles through to their no-name 1987 album Echo maintained a consistently high standard, perhaps peaking with Heaven up Here or Porcupine and tailing a little at either end. But after 1987 it was down the toilet, fast. Oh well, their inspiration lasted longer than that of 99% of rock groups. Now, out of nowhere, comes this Siberia and it's as if they're just out of the studio from that earlier string of five. McCulloch's voice has softened a touch, the wildness mostly gone, but that's not out of character with the songs. Amazingly, with a new rhythm section they still manage to evoke the heyday of Pattison and de Freitas, and Sergeant is right back to form, commenting and colouring with plenty to say. Lyrics, always the strong point of this group, are relevant to 2006 and to the group's, how shall we say it, maturity, without being fuddy-duddy or trying to be echt-hip. As my son says, sounds like they've learned from all the groups that have been inspired by them. Let's hope this is the start of an indian summer and not the last gasp.