Echo & The Bunnymen: Heaven Up Here (Remastered & Expanded) CD Track Listing

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Echo & The Bunnymen Heaven Up Here (Remastered & Expanded) (1981)
2003 Rhino/Sire Records\n\nOriginally Released May 30, 1981\nCD Edition Released \nRhino Remastered & Expanded CD Edition Released January 27, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: 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 Dion's "Wanderer") 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. [The 2004 reissue of Heaven Up Here boasts improved sound, new liner notes, lots of photos, and bonus tracks. Chief among these are live renditons of tracks from the album ("Show of Strength," "The Disease," "All I Want," and "Zimbo") recorded in Australia in November of 1981. They are raw and energetic, the sound of an exciting rock band in its prime. Also included is the B-side to "A Promise," the long version of the dark and meandering (and very Gang of Four-sounding) "Broke My Neck."] -- Aaron Warshaw & Tim Sendra\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nOver The Wall - Hand in Hand - Over The Wall - Watch Us Fall, April 17, 2004 \nReviewer: Ed Snyder from Fullerton, ca United States \nThere is a time when we are young adults, just starting to touch the world (maybe not even really experience the world because the word experience would imply coming to understand), maybe falling in love for the first time, that we come to the realization that life is bigger, much bigger, and more tantalyzingly beautiful, and thus more terrifying, than we had ever previously imagined.\n\nIf you are a feeling person who has not been raised to express their feelings well, then you can become very overwhelmed by this new dimension of depth that life is revealing. Many of us seek solace and understanding in rock n' roll music, after all these musicians are expressing intense passion through not only their voices but their shrieking guitars as well. These sounds often approximate the intensity that we feel inside. And we confuse this approximation of intensity for the dimension of depth which we are discovering and many of us come to believe that the musicians actually "understand" what we are feeling.\n\nThey may, or they may not. They may just be silly rock stars going through the motions to make a quick buck and get laid. They may be confused, troubled individuals. They may be egomaniacal freaks. Or, they may be all of the above.\n\nWhen I was 19 or twenty years old Echo and the Bunnymen, and U2, were the bands I went to to try to understand my world. The Bunnymen were the more confused of the two and, since I was also confused, the Bunnymen seemed to understand what I was feeling even better. \n\nI knew U2 was the better band in every way, but I scoured the Bunnymen's music for meaning. I would have done better to stick with A Love Supreme by Coltrane, which I had been listening to since I was fourteen. But somehow, rock music spoke to me more when I was nineteen. The fact that the lyrics never quite made sense made the music seem all the more deep.\n\nOh brother. (Oh, by the way, which one is Echo?)\n\nThere is part of me that wishes I could take that whole part of my life back and there is part of me that wishes I could experience it all again.\n\nIt's nice to be older and have the casual leisure to walk into a book store on a Saturday afternoon and rummage through the CD racks and say to oneself, "Wow, check this out; Heaven Up Here. Man, I haven't heard that in years. I think I'll buy it and give it a listen just for old times sake." You know, when I bought the album way back when it was so important to me that I probably spent the only money I had to buy it. It was so important to me that I went home and listened to it over and over again.\n\nNow it's just kind of a one-off thing, like, "Let's give it a listen. I wonder what it will sound like?"\n\nWell, I'm right back to where I was when I was nineteen. No, just kidding. \n\nReally, it's ok. It's pretty good. I give it four stars not because it almost a classic, but becasue, as silly as it may seem, Heaven Up Here was a foundational album of eighties Goth music. \n\nEighties music has not been dissected as much as seventies music, but I certainly think it deserves to be. The music of the eighties expressed the feelings of teenagers as well as (if not better than) the music of the seventies did. Do you want to tell me the Who's Tommy wasn't silly? How about The Lunatic Is On the Grass or that last bombastic song on Dark Side of The Moon? Or how about, "Does anybody remember laughter?"\n\nNo, that silliness had nothing on Joy Division, the Cure, Modern English, the Bunnymen, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets and the whole Goth movement.\n\nI'm glad to find that the bass and drum pattern at the end of Show of Strength does still give a kick. And there is still a cool mystery to Ian's vocals, "Hey, I came here right on cue. One is me and one is you." Over The Wall, All My Colors, and The Disease are all still suitably surreal. A Promise still betrays vague hope with it's disjointed imagery like, "Light on the wings." Yeah baby.\n\nAnd Will Seargent's guitar still shrieks like a ghost in another room. \n\nBut, it's Pete deFreitas whose musicianship now sounds so prescient. Clearly the Emo drummers cut their teetch listening to the man from the Bunnymen. His martial rhythms crack and explode like a drum corps in a stone hallway. Love it. \n\nI'll leave you with one more thought based upon the music of Echo and The Bunnymen, \n\n"Zimbo Zimbo Zimbo Zimbo Zimbo Zimbo Zimbo." \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nHeaven's a promise from The Bunnymen, February 13, 2004 \nReviewer: wtdk from Fairfield, CA United States \nThe Bunnymen's second album focused on dense textures, swirling atmospheric sounds and Ian McCulloch's dark, expressive voice. The songs are equally as powerful as the debut album. Build up around Les Pattinson's tumbling patterns on bass guitar Heaven Up Here certainly stands as the band's darkest statement but there's always hope--the jangly "A Promise" counteracts the dark tonic of "Over the Wall". \n\nThe extensive liner notes are interesting although there is some recap from the boxed set put out in 1999. The sound is brilliant sounding--a sonic step up from the previous Cd and equal to the boxed set. "Fuel", "No Hands" and "Broke My Neck" from the boxed set appear within their proper context at the end of the album. \n\nThere's a couple of interesting previously unreleased tracks here as well although nothing as revolutionary as the previously released stuff. It's all interesting though including the live versions of "Zimbo", "Show of Strength" and "All I Want" as well as 1 track I can't remember at the moment. \n\nHoused in a nice slip jacket (at no extra cost no less), Rhino's doing right by the other lads from Liverpool. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nOcean Rain / Heaven Up Here = 2 desert island discs., January 30, 2004 \nReviewer: A music fan from Milwaukee, WI United States \nBuy these remasters. The clarity and improvements to the mastering is quite nice. Great separation in the guitars and the rhythm tracks (Pete & Les) are huge. Nice addition of great live tracks make these essential. The price is right too. I only wish they would release a nice retrospective DVD including 'Pictures' as well as the complete 'Crystal Day' concert and all the early stuff as well. Classic band that deserves classic treatment. Rhino does it again. \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nHugh Jones, Engineer\nHuge Jones, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nEcho & The Bunnymen: Ian McCulloch (vocals, guitar); Will Sergeant (guitar); Les Pattinson (bass); Pete De Freitas (drums).Additional personnel: Leslie Penny (woodwinds).Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, England. Originally released on Sire (3569). Includes liner notes by Max Bell.Though it yielded only one minor hit single in the band's native England, HEAVEN UP HERE is considered by many to be the ultimate Echo and the Bunnymen album. The album is drenched in an aura of mystery that is fueled by the swirling, epic sound of guitarist Will Sergeant and drummer Pete De Freitas. The music is so powerful that singer Ian McCulloch's vague, almost nonsensical lyrics take on a profundity.While tracks like "The Disease," a desolate two-chord sound-poem based on a solitary rhythm guitar and a haunting recorder passage, do feature some incisive lyrics, most of McCulloch's words seem intent on reinforcing the dark, brooding atmosphere of the music. The opening "Show of Strength," a soaring song that is driven by one of Sergeant's gripping guitar passages, sets the tone for the album, creating a heroic soundscape that crests with the majesty of "A Promise." The latter is a hypnotic song in which drummer DeFritas showcases his explosive style and McCulloch provides one the most compelling vocal performances of his career. While HEAVEN UP HERE may lack the hit singles that made the Bunnymen alternative-radio favorites throughout the '80s, it is a classic rock album and arguably the Bunnymen's finest hour.
This newage cd contains 16 tracks and runs 65min 15sec.
Freedb: dc0f4910
Buy: from Amazon.com

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