Echo & The Bunnymen (album) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

After previewing the album with a short concert on top of the HMV shop on Oxford Street in London, Echo & the Bunnymen was first released on 6 July 1987 as an LP and CD by WEA Records in the United Kingdom and elsewhere and by Sire Records in the United States. The album reached a peak of number four on the UK Albums Chart. The album became the band's most successful in the United States where it reached number fifty-one on the Billboard 200. The album also reached number fifty-one on the Canadian RPM100 Albums chart and number twenty-two on the Swedish Albums Chart. The album has also been certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry for having shipped more than 60,000 copies. Along with the other four of the band's first five albums, Echo & the Bunnymen was remastered and reissued on CD in 2003 – these were released for the band's twenty-fifth anniversary. Seven bonus tracks were added to the album and included early versions of "Bring On the Dancing Horses" (title "Jimmy Brown"), "The Game" and "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo". Also included was a cover version of The Doors' "Soul Kitchen", an extended version of "Bring On the Dancing Horses" and the previously unreleased track "Hole in the Holy". The reissued album was produced by Andy Zax and Bill Inglot and released by Rhino Entertainment.

In his 1987 review of the album for Rolling Stone magazine, music journalist J. D. Considine described Latham's production of the album as "ineffectual" and "well mannered". He went on say that there was no "anxious energy or knife-edged irony that made the group's earlier albums so compelling". He finishes his review by saying the album is "as vacant as it is pretty". Reviewing the 2003 remastered album, Andrew Harrison for Blender magazine's website said, "Egomania and off-message electronics experiments sank their eponymous 1987 comedown..." Taking a more positive stance, David Cleary for Allmusic describes the album as "the hookiest and most memorable the band would ever write". Having described de Freitas's drumming as solid and veering toward the danceable, and McCulloch's singing as "restrained and tasteful", Cleary added, "The production values were excellent, with many subtle touches that do not detract from the album's overall directness." Although he stated that the production "watered the band's sound down", Joe Tangari for Pitchfork Media said, "The band's attempt to reach a wider audience worked out."

Three tracks from the album were released as singles. The first of these was "The Game", which was released on 1 June 1987. This was followed by "Lips Like Sugar", which was released in August 1987. The final single to be released from the album was "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo", which was also released before the year's end in the United States and Germany. "The Game" and "Lips Like Sugar" reached numbers 28 and 36 respectively on the UK Singles Chart.