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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Ocean Rain Records
Salesrank: 1156
Released: November 10, 2009 |
| Our Price: $7.99 |
| Used Price: $20.99 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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The Fountain Track Listing:
1. Think I Need It Too
2. Forgotten Fields
3. Do You Know Who I Am?
4. Shroud of Turin
5. Life of a Thousand Crimes
6. Fountain
7. Everlasting Neverendless
8. Proxy
9. Drivetime
10. Idolness of Gods
Editorial Review:
2009 release, the 10th studio album from the veteran Liverpudlian band led by vocalist Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant. Along with Teardrop Explodes and Wah! Heat, Echo & the Bunnymen were part of the early-1980s Liverpool scene that was somewhat misleadingly dubbed Neo-Psychedelic. While the Bunnymen bore elements of the Doors' dark, mysterious sound and decidedly abstract lyrics, Punk played as much of a role in the development of the band's music as anything else. What marks their sound more than anything else, though, is a soaring, anthemic quality that can be quite affecting. 10 tracks.
The Fountain Reviews:
Boy did I miss them, and was it ever worth the wait! 
2009-12-02 - Shroud of Turin sounds almost like New Order, but so much like their own Bomber's Bay. Ian McCullough's voice has actually gotten better.
It's amazing how fast I was able to sing along with this CD. Just like Songs to Learn and Sing, they just get inside you and stay there.
And if you listen to them really closely, you'll hear the same beautiful, lilting guitar and unmistakable piano.
They're not just some old band come back to try to make another CD. They've been completely reborn.
After listening over and over again, I can't find even one bad song on this CD.
My other CDs of theirs are completely worn out and all scratched up, and this one would be too if it wasn't a download.
This one has made sleepless nights much easier to pass.
Love you Bunnymen! Bravo.
The Fountain of Middle Age
2009-11-28 - Middle-aged musicians who still make records have come to expect a certain reaction from cranky middle-aged music critics. It goes something like this:
"(NAME OF BAND) was so much better back in (YEAR), when they released their influential album (TITLE GOES HERE). But that was (NUMBER) years ago, and listening to their new album, it's hard not to feel sorry that they sound SO DIFFERENT/EXACTLY THE SAME. I just wish they HAD/HADN'T changed and that they weren't SIMPLY GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS/TRYING SO HARD TO CREATE A NEW SOUND. It's simply impossible for me to listen to this album without thinking of their old songs which affected me differently because I was so young and IMPRESSIONABLE/HIGH/TRYING TO ACT SO MUCH COOLER THAN I ACTUALLY FELT."
Having said all that, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN sound recognizably themselves and occasionally fresh and different on their new album THE FOUNTAIN. "How can I change when I don't want to?" asks Ian McCulloch on the first single THINK I NEED IT TOO. "I've heard it a thousand times," he intones on follow-up LIFE OF A THOUSAND CRIMES. And maybe we have too. But McCulloch's vocals and Sergeant's guitar playing are as distinctive and pleasing as ever. They're still going strong, and, on the upbeat PROXY, issuing the present-day invitation: "Everybody look at us now."
Old fans (except perhaps the crankiest) won't be disappointed. And for new listeners, if you're not all hung up on those echoes of the past, there's plenty to enjoy, too.
4 stars solid, maybe 4.5 stars 
2009-11-17 - I was looking forward to this CD being a huge EATB fan and a big fan of their last CD, "Siberia". This CD is, in short, not as good as "Siberia" but is wonderfully listenable. Here's my review of "The Fountain":
The Cons: Some major review sources have said that the CD is a little overproduced and that the band sounds like they're on autopilot. Listening to tracks 3 and 7, I initially thought that myself. Both songs get meatier as you listen to them though. Track 3 especially has been stuck in my head for the last day or so.
The Pros: Most tracks have unexpected and playful lyrical turns, and vibrant music. I played the CD at home the other day and felt that it ended too soon. This CD is so lively, and such a fun listen, I'm trying to think of who I can buy a copy for to give them as a Christmas present. The CD overall has a bright fun sound we're not used to hearing from EATB, but the lyrics include some of the dark weird reflections we've come to expect. Very good.
(I have also written an Amazon review of EATB's last CD, "Siberia")
Disappointingly pleasant. 
2009-11-14 - On new album "The Fountain", Echo & The Bunnymen have exchanged their crocodile shoes for house slippers. The one-time brilliant, peerless purveyors of the gloom-rock anthem have traded it all in for safe, edgeless pop rock. Which is not to say the new release is without highlights: "Think I Need It Too", "Forgotten Fields", "Proxy" and "Drivetime" are all good songs, the latter being the closest they come to the moody grandeur of old (while still falling well short). Indeed, the entire record is eminently listenable, even pleasurable, and newer fans as well as the unfamiliar may find a lot to like here. The problem, especially for long-time fans, is that the tracks all sound thin, lacking weight both musically and lyrically. Will Sergeant's guitar is far too restrained and, on several tracks, absent completely, while Ian McCulloch's voice has been reduced over the years to barely more than a strangled croak. In and of itself, that's not such a detriment, but his reliance on repeating a single lyric over and over or frequently resorting to la-la-la's is a far cry from the quasi-poetic brilliance of, say, "With A Hip". I won't go so far as to say they've missed the point of their mission, but they've definitely become misshapen.
They never stop
2009-11-13 - With The Fountain, the Bunnymen's renaissance has now lasted as many albums as their original incarnation, and one can actually now debate which period has been richer. This album lightens up from the devastating beauty of Siberia, adding a more upbeat pop sensibility to the pure artistry they have developed. Forgotten Fields and Drivetime are pure EATB classics, and Proxy shakes things up with a backing vocal that is simultaneously ridiculous and fantastic. As a whole, Will goes more subtle this outing, Ian continues to croon with his tremendous foghorn, and the melodies are ticklish and tight. This is a real grower, and a lot of fun. My third favorite of this period, after Siberia and Evergreen.
