“The Cutter” by Echo and the Bunnymen

"The Cutter" arrived on Korova in January 1983 as the second single from Porcupine, Echo and the Bunnymen's third album, and it's the band going for the grand gesture and getting it. The title and the chorus reach back to a line in A Clockwork Orange, which suits a song this dark and dramatic.

The four players share the writing credit. Ian McCulloch sings and plays guitar alongside Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson plays bass and Pete de Freitas drums, and Shankar sits in as a guest on strings. AllMusic's Tom Maginnis later heard it as a successful marriage between the band and the Beatles' brand of Eastern-flavored psychedelia, and back in 1983 NME put it at 14 among its tracks of the year.

In Britain it came out on both 7-inch and 12-inch. A limited run of the 7-inch was packaged with a cassette of tracks from the band's August 1979 John Peel session, and the 12-inch added "Zimbo", taped at the very first WOMAD festival in July 1982 with the Royal Drummers of Burundi, with a limited edition throwing in a free poster.

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