★★★★★
Ah, the Bunnymen. One of the great bands of the '80s and one of the best-named ever. But never quite as omnipotent and consistently brilliant as lead singer Ian McCulloch regularly used to claim. Which is why, when "Mac" is now declaring this album a "return to form", we should be taking it with a large dose of salt. It's worth recalling that, when their last album The Fountain, was released in 2009, McCulloch said it was the best album the band had ever made, excepting Ocean Rain...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-06-06
★★★★★
Echo and the Bunnymen have never been the most dynamic of bands. There's no standout feature that makes them particularly remarkable, aside from their consistency. They've stayed modestly relevant in the decades since their post-punk heyday without straying too far from the atmospheric proto-indie foundation they built in the '80s. This makes Meteorites an interesting step in their long career. It's not a comeback album, but rather a reminder that The Bunnymen are still around...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2014-06-05
★★★★★
Echo and the Bunnymen have never been the most dynamic of bands. There's no standout feature that makes them particularly remarkable, aside from their consistency. They've stayed modestly relevant in the decades since their post-punk heyday without straying too far from the atmospheric proto-indie foundation they built in the '80s. This makes Meteorites an interesting step in their long career. It's not a comeback album, but rather a reminder that The Bunnymen are still around...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2014-06-04
★★★★★
June 3, 2014
In the Eighties, Echo and the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch battled the Cure's Robert Smith for goth-doll dominance. But nobody could touch the Buns for glowering guitar grandeur. On their 12th LP, trademark psychedelic swirls and red-sunset strings sound like they're soundtracking a Western about a gunslinger in a Joy Division T-shirt, as McCulloch moans about doomed romance, decadence ("Grapes Upon the Vine") and emotional dissolution...
- www.rollingstone.com
2014-06-04
★★★★★
7.3
Music | Reviews
Echo & The Bunnymen: Meteorites Review
June 3, 2014 | 12:21pm
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Since returning from a seven-year break in 1997, Echo & The Bunnymen have put out an impressive string of albums. And while none of them quite captured the band's early magic, no one expected them to...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-06-04
★★★★★
After they reunited in the mid-'90s, Echo & the Bunnymen cranked out album after album of decent-to-good material, spotlighting Ian McCulloch's ageless vocals and the band's sure way with a dramatic hook. For 2014's Meteorites, the duo of McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant turned to legendary producer Youth to help guide the album, and came up with a record that compares favorably to the best work of their original run in the '80s...
- www.allmusic.com
2014-06-03
★★★★★
For a band formerly as bombastic as Echo And The Bunnymen, it's sad that their 12th album, and first in five years, begins with a whimper. The title track opener takes a few minutes to reach its Verve-esque chorus, and even when it does, Ian McCulloch's normally peerless voice is drowned by strings, guitars and backing vocals...
- www.nme.com
2014-05-27
★★★★★
McCulloch and Sergeant. They may not quite have the iconic status of other songwriting partnerships like Lennon & McCartney and Jagger & Richards, but since 1980 they've created a pretty sparkling legacy.
Because, for a certain group of people, the '80s weren't about Madonna, Stock/Aitken/Waterman, day-glo colours and deedlyboppers...
- www.musicomh.com
2014-06-03
★★★★★
Ian McCulloch is only 55 years old, but from a quick read of the lyrics on Meteorites, you could be forgiven for thinking he was a lot closer to death. The whole album has its eyes pointed over its shoulder or upward at a deity that may or may not be there, taking stock and setting the table for a possible next life in turn. These aren't really new themes for an Echo & the Bunnymen album, but they've never quite felt like this on one of their records before...
- pitchfork.com
2014-05-27