Crocodiles by Echo and the Bunnymen

Crocodiles, the debut album from Liverpool's Echo & the Bunnymen, came out on Korova on 18 July 1980, and it announced a band with a taste for the dark and the dramatic. Ian McCulloch sings like a sullen young poet, Will Sergeant's guitar spirals and shimmers, Les Pattinson's bass throbs, and Pete de Freitas, new on the drums that year, keeps it all moving.

Bill Drummond and David Balfe produced the album, cut at Eden Studios in London and Rockfield near Monmouth, while Ian Broudie had already handled the single "Rescue", which sits here alongside "Pictures on My Wall". It's post-punk with a psychedelic chill running through it, tense and taut but always reaching for something bigger. Reviews were warm, and it climbed to number 17 on the UK chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.