Heaven Up Here

VINYL FORMAT. How strong and looming of an influence is Echo and the Bunnymen? Strong enough to be the one band name-dropped in a great piece of dialogue from the music-loving film High Fidelity, whereupon Jack Black's quipping record store clerk character cites the band as legitimate tastemakers for much of the cutting-edge music that happened in the late 80s and beyond. And on no record is the English quintet's greatness more apparent than on 1981's sophomore Heaven Up Here, the group's first effort to chart in the US and a Top 10 smash in its native UK. The record's merits are legion, and timeless: vocalist Ian McCulloch's cavernous croon; dream-weaving guitar lines pushed through ominous, melodic soundscapes; neopsychedelic dirges and self-aware lyrics; glamorous drama and torturous tension. These characteristics and more turn the music restrained euphoria and what the band called "black magic."