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The Fountain is the eleventh studio album from Echo and the Bunnymen, and the fifth since their reformation in 1997. It features a guest spot from Coldplay's Chris Martin, who contributed to a track after he signed on head Bunnyman Ian McCulloch for production duties on A Rush of Blood to the Head. The first word that comes to mind when you listen to Echo and the Bunnymen's new album The Fountain is familiar. After 30 years of music making, the Liverpudlians have certainly mastered their sound. The album opens up with "Think I Need To", a track that sets the tone with its '80s British pop flow. "Forgotten Fields" gives us the standard Echo soaring sound, while "Life of a Thousand Crimes" boasts a chorus that is vintage Bunnymen. Easily the best song on the album is "Drivetime", a string-laden song with a driving rhythm ending with an unsettling echo that actually sounds like it was written because it had to be. As always, McCulloch's lyrics are generally opaque, with a few striking phrases that stay in the mind, but as a singer he is at the top of his game, with his mature middle-aged vocal style much more sophisticated than when angrily young. The thing that strikes one as being different on this record is the mood. Upbeat and catchy tracks like "Do You Know Who I Am?", "Everlasting Neverendless", and the doo-wop tinged "Proxy" make this album seem far less grim than most previous Echo efforts. The band's classic albums and best reunion discs (Evergreen and Flowers) have a cavernous darkness and intensity that McCulloch and Sergeant simply don't muster here. So do Ian McCulloch and the rest of the Bunnymen break any new musical ground with The Fountain? Heck no. But it is a nice record and an enjoyable listen for fans of the band.

Influences / Similar Artists:
The Sound, The Chameleons, Interpol, Longwave, For Against