Porcupine by Echo and the Bunnymen

Porcupine, Echo & the Bunnymen's third album, came out on 4 February 1983, and it's the Liverpool band at their most tangled and prickly, a record that had to fight its way into the world. Ian Broudie, who had produced their early single "Rescue", took the controls under the alias Kingbird, with sessions spread across Trident in London, Rockfield in South Wales and Amazon Studios back home. When the label turned the first version down, the band recut it, and Shankar added strings that swirl and saw through the songs.

Ian McCulloch croons and sneers on top, Will Sergeant's guitar coils and stabs, and Les Pattinson and Pete de Freitas keep the rhythm taut. "The Cutter" is the showpiece, all sawing strings and urgent drums, with "The Back of Love" as the other single. Critics sniffed at first, but it went to number two in Britain, their highest chart showing.

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