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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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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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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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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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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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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