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Their most accessible offering in a long time sees Ian McCulloch at his most lyrically playful and cocksure, hovering between confessional ("I cried a fountain dry") and mischievous, and firing off one-liners as if it were the band's 80s heyday.
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Alternative PressOn The Fountain, the Liverpool, England, legends shake off the sluggish tempos of their recent albums in favor of brisk, vibrant pop songs. [Jan 2010, p. 94]
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The Fountain reveals that the magic of yore is still there.
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Under The RadarThe Fountain owes much of its sound to that unremitting 1987 pop fest, and the album's best moments play like forgotten singles from the group's '80s commercial heyday, only with a prouder emphasis on guitarist Will Sergeant. [Fall 2009, p.58]
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FilterThe Fountain is replete with shimmering, flaw-repellant pop, all glorious melodies and gorgeous atmospherics; and while Will Sargent's feral guitar hounds are kept tightly leashed, Ian McCulloch rattle off couplets and takes us to dizzying heights of piercing sadness and grown-up romantic longing. [Holiday 2009, p. 93]
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Ultimately, The Fountain is an echo of an echo, inessential to all but the band's most devoted followers.
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‘Think I Need It Too’, the best thing they’ve done in ages. And yet, much as we want to love it, the rest is a pulled punch.
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Maybe it would be easier to give The Fountain the benefit of the doubt if it hadn't been preceded by four similar efforts, or if singer Ian McCulloch hadn't spent the band's entire career unabashedly proclaiming their genius and preeminence in the rock world, but that's a lot of "if" to work with.
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Q MagazineThe 11th Bunnymen album is a reminder that the elegiac guitars and uplifting choruses of indie rock were invented by this band way back in the ealy '80s. [Nov 2009, p.104]
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To avoid risking further embarrassment and degradation of their impressive legacy, McCulloch and Sergeant need to consider making The Fountain the final Echo & the Bunnymen album. Because on the evidence here, they don’t have another comeback in them.
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After 30 years since their first incarnation, has the flowing fountain of creative inspiration finally run dry for the Bunnymen?
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In the end, it's not the occasional missteps that mar The Fountain so much as its consummate, consistent mediocrity.
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MojoTwenty-five years after their creative peak, it seems as essential a purchase as a book of new jokes from Bobby Darvo. [Nov 2009, p.91]
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UncutBuffed to a hyper-compressed, anodyne sheen by John McLaughlin, The Fountain is so craven in its bid for airplay it even includes an insipid number called "Drivetime". [Nov 2009, p.84]
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For all of their wonderful contributions to modern pop music, McCulloch and Sergeant aspired for too much this time around.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 15
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Mixed: 0 out of 15
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Negative: 3 out of 15
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PatrickSNov 14, 2009I like it. A fun excursion with the Bunnymen.
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JoeHNov 14, 2009Sadly a tired, stale, formulaic simulation of a once-legendary band.
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ToddC.Nov 13, 2009