The stars, the oceans & the moon

"Apart from the two new songs that bode well for future albums of original material, there is absolutely no reason for Echo fans to choose a spin of The Stars, the Ocean & the Moon over another listen to the songs in their original perfect state".

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"Well, Echo & the Bunnymen is, after all, still Echo & the Bunnymen-one of the greatest bands in the world! They are about to shine again so hard with another batch of compelling songs packaged in an album that is worth adding into one's record collection. What then are you going to do with your life right now? What else, but to wait until you can lay your hands and ears on Echo & the Bunnymen's forthcoming celestial piece".

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"On the face of it, this would appear to be yet another stopgap along the way to fizzling out, but the surprise is that the by now overly familiar (if still classic) post-punk material has been given a lifeline. The band are now smartly refurbished thanks to shrewdly applied embellishments of orchestral and brass instrumentation to the likes of Bring on the Dancing Horses, Lips like Sugar, Rescue, Seven Seas, Ocean Rain and The Cutter. The best, perhaps, is kept until the closing track, The Killing Moon, in which McCulloch's nicotine-seared voice imbues the song with something quite different and very tender".

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