Track Listing

1. Game
2. Over You
3. Bedbugs and Ballyhoo
4. All in Your Mind
5. Bombers Bay
6. Lips Like Sugar
7. Lost and Found
8. New Direction
9. Blue Blue Ocean
10. Satellite
11. All My Life
12. Jimmy Brown [*]
13. Hole in the Holy [#][*]
14. Soul Kitchen [#][*]
15. Game [Acoustic Demo][#][*]
16. Bedbugs and Ballyhoo [Original Version][#][*]
17. Over Your Shoulder [#][*]
18. Bring on the Dancing Horses [#][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15307 in Music
• Brand: Echo
• Released on: 2004-01-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Description
Remastered reissue of 1987 album features 18 tracks including 7 bonus tracks, 'Jimmy Brown' (Early Version of 'Bring On The Dancing Horses' - prev. unreleased), 'Hole In The Holy' (prev. unreleased), 'Soul Kitchen' (prev. unreleased), 'The Game' (Acoustic Demo - prev. unreleased), 'Bedbugs & Ballyhoo' (Original Vers - prev. unreleased), 'Over Your Shoulder', & 'Bring On The Dancing Horses' (Extended Mix). 25th anniversary expanded edition features new liner notes & unseen photos. Slipcase. WSM. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Not Bad for a Band on the Verge of Breaking Up
The four dour personages of the cover of the "Gray Album" could only hint at what was going on behind the scenes during the making of this album. The band was fighting, breaking up, regrouping, and yet managed to make their best selling album out of the chaos. It's equally fascinating that some of songs here are E&TB's most coherent. They are also the most timely sounding, probably more to producer Laurie Latham trying to make the band sound more 80's timely and the band being too contentious to care.

Ian McCulloch was also veering into a new phase of singing. He's in deep croon here, as "Bomber's Bay" and "All My Life" deftly indicates. He was stretching towards arty pop (Ray Manzerek guesting on "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo" is a dead giveaway) and the rest of the band was resisting. The tension gave birth to terrific songs like "Lips Like Sugar" and "The Game," but also guaranteed the band would jettison him after this record was done. Too bad, because the rift that led the Bunnymen to go on without the Mac left us with the bitter "Reverberation" and Mac's "Candleland" needed them more than he cared to admit.

But for now we can revel in this remastered and punchier sounding disc of the Bunnymen's swansong. (I don't count the reunion albums.) The bonus tracks are pretty cool, in particular, the live version of "Soul Kitchen."

Echoes of the past
I realize that this isn't the band's favorite album, but artist's (and critics) can frequently be wrong. Behind Heaven Up Here (my favorite)and Porcupine (my second favorite), their self titled album more than holds its own in #3 position for me. The remastered sound is terrific although the production is a tad flat on at least a couple of tracks. The songs are well written and if the production might be a little too slick it works with the material the band put together here.

With 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks and two that appeared on the boxed set, this is, to date, the ultimate edition for this vastly underrated album. As the band began to fall apart, they produced some of their most memorable songs including the incredible "Lips Like Sugar", "All My Life" and "The Game". Really this album is essential for anyone who is a fan of the band.

Unfortunately, the remastered albums don't feature all the tracks on the boxed set, so most fans should probably make a copy of those tracks and then sell the boxed set. Missing from this CD are the following tracks: "Lips Like Sugar" (single version), "People are Strange", "Rollercoaster".

The booklet is quite nice as well.

For those with ears...
...it's truly remarkable what a little remastering will do for a recording once sidelined, because Bunnymen fans will happily discover this album now sounds the way it was meant to sound. It's punchier, more vibrant, and every instrument is brought forward in the mix and given the sort of attention it deserves. All of which now screams out for a much needed reassessment.

Old school bunnymen fans saw this record as the flaccid decline of a once great band, but this 'remaster' has pulled the carpet out from under that claim. Their new stuff may lack the edge of their former glory, but at least this one won't get consigned to the dust bin so quickly. Revisit an 80's classic.