ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – Their Stunning Debut Album ‘CROCODILES’ Came Out 45 Years Ago
Significant albums from yesteryear
18 July 2025
Liverpool legends ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (1978-1993, 1996-present) released
their stunning debut LP CROCODILES on 18 July 1980, today 45 years ago (same
day and year that Joy Division released their 2nd and final one ‘Closer‘)
Big mouth Ian McCulloch, genial guitarist Will Sergeant, bassist Les Pattinson (who
left in 1998) and drummer Pete De Freitas (who left after their 5th album Ocean Rain,
he died in a motorcycle crash in 1989, only 27) made it clear from the start that they
would become a major band. With this line-up, they scored 5 stellar LPs in a row.
Rolling Stone about Crocodiles: “Echo and the Bunnymen dive straight into the mystic
on their debut album, Crocodiles. Singer-guitarist Ian McCulloch specializes in a sort of apocalyptic brooding, combining Jim Morrison-style psychosexual yells, a flair for David
Bowie-like vocal inflections and the nihilistic bark of his punk peers into a disturbing
portrait of the singer as a young neurotic.
McCulloch trips out on his worst fears: isolation, death, sexual and emotional bankruptcy.
It’s the unnerving contrast between the colliding guitars and McCulloch’s tortured yelp that
gives Crocodiles its dramatic impetus.” Score: 4/5
Singles: Pictures On My Wall / Rescue
– PICTURES ON MY WALL –
Debut single
– RESCUE –
“Is this the blues I’m singing?”
ALBUM
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Back sleeve.
