Bunnymen polymath's solo albums come under scrutiny with extra tracks and rarities
8/10
One of the '80s icons and permanent fixtures on many a student's bedroom wall, Ian McCulloch spawned at least a few thousand fashion clones dressed in trademark overcoat, skinny black jeans and sporting a sprouty mop-top. Yet for all these stylistic faux-pas back in the day, McCulloch was, and still is, one of Britain's most engaging songwriters who, with Bunny bandmates, racked up an enviable stream of the decade's true anthems - The Killing Moon arguably remains a creative holy grail.
After Echo and the Bunnymen split for the first time in 1987, McCulloch seemed to know exactly where he was going with his solo career, somewhere personal and somewhere without the pressures of album, singles, tour and next album. He couldn't have had a better start with Candleland - released in 1989, the ten songs showed that previous wrangles with bandmates had been pretty much forgotten and that the singer's romantic and human side was finally exposed for all to see.
The album hardly starts with a bang, in fact The Flickering Wall and The White Hotel are rather tame when compared to the remaining eight songs and it isn't until Proud To Fall that the album truly begins to settle down. As the next few tracks unfurl, Candleland's flame burns brighter, particularly on the title-track with Elizabeth Fraser lending her ample and graceful pipes to proceedings, the dramatic off-kilter Horses Head, the New Order-esque and clubby Faith and Healing and the album's highlight, In Bloom, the latter being nearer to McCulloch's Bunnymen years than the rest here.
But what makes this debut album just a little bit remarkable are the two poignant tracks on side 2 (hark at me, talking in vinyl language), I Know You Well and Start Again, the album's closer. McCulloch's swaggering signature yodel is soothed into submission and soaked in strings and a sombre air, perhaps brought about by the untimely deaths of both his father and his old band-mate, Pete De Freitas.
Alongside Candleland you get a wealth of b-sides and remixes with mixed results - a poor transfer tarnishes the inclusion of the remixes of Faith and Healing (one version, The Carpenter's Son Mix, actually jumps), but the non-album flips boast at least two tracks that should have been on the album in place of the opening pair of songs mentioned above. Pots of Gold and Big Days are the equal of much of McCulloch's oeuvre, although the game cover of Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game is a worthy inclusion too.
Also re-released at the same time are expanded editions of second-album Mysterio (6/10) and post-Warner set Slideling (7/10). The former doesn't possess much to get excited about, although the cover version of Lover Lover Lover (originally by Leonard Cohen) is rather fetching, as is the dinky demo version of Vibor Blue, the brassy Close Your Eyes and melodic charm of Heaven's Gate (with Fraser and Roddy Frame). Slideling followed some eleven years later and represents Ian McCulloch's resurgence as another icon for a new generation.
For information on Ian McCulloch's live shows, head to Allgigs here
8/10
After Echo and the Bunnymen split for the first time in 1987, McCulloch seemed to know exactly where he was going with his solo career, somewhere personal and somewhere without the pressures of album, singles, tour and next album. He couldn't have had a better start with Candleland - released in 1989, the ten songs showed that previous wrangles with bandmates had been pretty much forgotten and that the singer's romantic and human side was finally exposed for all to see.
The album hardly starts with a bang, in fact The Flickering Wall and The White Hotel are rather tame when compared to the remaining eight songs and it isn't until Proud To Fall that the album truly begins to settle down. As the next few tracks unfurl, Candleland's flame burns brighter, particularly on the title-track with Elizabeth Fraser lending her ample and graceful pipes to proceedings, the dramatic off-kilter Horses Head, the New Order-esque and clubby Faith and Healing and the album's highlight, In Bloom, the latter being nearer to McCulloch's Bunnymen years than the rest here.
But what makes this debut album just a little bit remarkable are the two poignant tracks on side 2 (hark at me, talking in vinyl language), I Know You Well and Start Again, the album's closer. McCulloch's swaggering signature yodel is soothed into submission and soaked in strings and a sombre air, perhaps brought about by the untimely deaths of both his father and his old band-mate, Pete De Freitas.
Alongside Candleland you get a wealth of b-sides and remixes with mixed results - a poor transfer tarnishes the inclusion of the remixes of Faith and Healing (one version, The Carpenter's Son Mix, actually jumps), but the non-album flips boast at least two tracks that should have been on the album in place of the opening pair of songs mentioned above. Pots of Gold and Big Days are the equal of much of McCulloch's oeuvre, although the game cover of Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game is a worthy inclusion too.
Also re-released at the same time are expanded editions of second-album Mysterio (6/10) and post-Warner set Slideling (7/10). The former doesn't possess much to get excited about, although the cover version of Lover Lover Lover (originally by Leonard Cohen) is rather fetching, as is the dinky demo version of Vibor Blue, the brassy Close Your Eyes and melodic charm of Heaven's Gate (with Fraser and Roddy Frame). Slideling followed some eleven years later and represents Ian McCulloch's resurgence as another icon for a new generation.
For information on Ian McCulloch's live shows, head to Allgigs here