Echo and the Bunnymen”Crocodiles” (1980) SireIn 1980,...

Echo and the Bunnymen

“Crocodiles” (1980)

Sire

In 1980, some folks might have had trouble taking a new band called Echo and the Bunnymen seriously. With its unfashionably cute moniker (which flew in the face of the prevailing spirit of punk Angst ) and a debut album called “Crocodiles,” the Liverpool export arrived in the United States with all the trimmings of a lightweight.

But Echo and the Bunnymen proved to be anything but frothy and dismissible. Edgy, adventurous and somewhat exotic, the music on “Crocodiles” merged the sonic sizzle of burgeoning punk/new wave bands such as U2 with the arty flourishes of such ‘60s psychedelic groups as the Velvet Underground and the Doors. It was a potent mix, eloquently expressed in a core of punchy and sometimes ornate tunes by singer Ian McCulloch and his razor-sharp crew.

There’s a palpable hard-soft, yin-yang tension running through parts of “Crocodiles.” “Going Up” is a both fiery and melancholy rock mood piece. The hard-to-peg “Monkeys” balances spacey psychedelia with rock-solid rhythm. (McCulloch used to call the quartet’s material “bunnymusic” in an attempt to subvert the psychedelic tag he so despised.)

Still, there are moments when this 12-song disc just flat out rocks. The riff-heavy “Do It Clean” is a juggernaut of a song that slashes and burns with elan. The title track also puts the pedal to the metal in a whirlwind of exploding guitar parts, blurring bass runs and white-knuckled drum shots.

The album’s sense of shadowy power and mystery is conveyed effectively by the not-quite-solemn voice of McCulloch. He isn’t a classic rock ‘n’ roll shouter in the Elvis mode. Instead, like Jim Morrison, he infuses his singing with a vibrancy that is icily poetic and passionate.