Heaven Up Here by Echo & The Bunnymen [Vinyl LP]

Echo & The Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here [180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
• Barcode: 190295360887
• Genre: Post-Punk / New Wave / Alternative Rock / Indie Rock
• Label: Korova / Rhino / Warner
• Originally Released: 29 May 1981
• Reissue Released: 15 October 2021
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Heaven Up Here is the second studio album by Echo & The Bunnymen — Ian McCulloch (vocals, guitar), Will Sergeant (lead guitar), Les Pattinson (bass) and Pete De Freitas (drums) — originally released on 29 May 1981 on Korova Records. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios near Monmouth, Wales in March 1981, co-produced by Hugh Jones and the band. Coming less than a year after their debut Crocodiles, it found the group working at remarkable speed and with expanding ambition: the arrangements are fuller, the atmospheres darker and more immersive, and the production — driven by Jones's instinct for spatial clarity and De Freitas's extraordinary, thunderous drumming — gives the record a scale that few post-punk albums of the period could match. McCulloch's baritone, Sergeant's melodic but abrasive guitar work, and Pattinson's bass lines, heavy and elastic in equal measure, combine into a sound that was entirely the band's own.

The album reached number 10 on the UK Albums Chart in June 1981, becoming Echo & The Bunnymen's first Top 10 release, and their first album to appear on the American charts, reaching number 184 on the Billboard 200. It won the NME Best Album award at the end of 1981 and was described by the NME at the time as darker and more passionate than Crocodiles — an assessment that has proved enduring. Heaven Up Here has since been placed at number 463 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and ranked by the NME at number 39 on its list of the 50 greatest albums of the 1980s. Simon Reynolds, in his 2005 book Rip It Up and Start Again, drew a direct comparison to Joy Division's Closer, noting both records were "harrowed by the same things — hypocrisy, distrust, betrayal, lost or frozen potential."

The album opens with the taut, propulsive "Show of Strength" before moving through a sustained sequence of tracks — "With a Hip", "Over the Wall", "It Was a Pleasure", "A Promise", and the title track — that collectively define the record's character: brooding, melodic, emotionally unguarded, and sustained by a rhythm section of unusual power. Both "A Promise" (UK number 49) and "Over the Wall" (UK number 32) were released as singles, though neither captures the album's cumulative impact as well as an unbroken listen does. The record closes with "All I Want", its quiet harmonica and McCulloch's vocal stripped back almost entirely, one of the more unexpected endings in post-punk.

This 2021 Rocktober reissue on Korova / Rhino / Warner presents the complete 11-track album on 180 gram vinyl in a textured sleeve replicating the feel of the original 1981 Korova pressing. Made in the EU.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Show of Strength
2. With a Hip
3. Over the Wall
4. It Was a Pleasure
5. A Promise
6. Heaven Up Here

Side B

1. The Disease
2. All My Colours
3. No Dark Things
4. Turquoise Days
5. All I Want

Credits

• Ian McCulloch – Vocals, Guitar
• Will Sergeant – Lead Guitar
• Les Pattinson – Bass
• Pete De Freitas – Drums
• Hugh Jones & Echo & The Bunnymen – Producers
• Label – Korova / Rhino / Warner