Although I was quite young and still relatively new to this kind of thing, I can remember knowing instinctively when Ocean Rain came out that it was a bit of a disappointment. The edge had come off the Bunnymen's sound and they were moving towards the more mainstream "modern rock" (remember that awful term?) which left an awful lot of unhappy Bunnyfans behind.
Funnily enough though, 25 years later (I feel so old saying that) I actually think it holds up better than some of their previous albums. OK, so it's not as dark and intense and Ian's lyrics, never great to begin with, verge on dreadful in spots - but the songs themselves are really quite strong and taken as a whole it's a remarkably coherent work. Their swansong, as it turned out. Next to Crocodiles I'd put this on before any other Bunnymen album today.
The recording here is from a Peel session.
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