Crocodiles

File under: Bands that i think are talented and make fine music, whose influence I recognize and appreciate, yet have absolutely zero interest in listening to.

I'm 87% sure the autor of this list realised halfway thought that he didn't know 1001 albums and added just random English music.

This is a seminal album for me. In 1980 I was 18 years old and and was deepening a musical rebirth. Shedding the shackles of classic rock and discovering the joys of alternative rock. Melody Maker and NME were the bibles of my religious awakening. That's where I read about Echo and the Bunnymen and how I was lead to their first album. From the moment the rumbling bass and drum that introduces Going Up, I was hooked. I have the original Canadian release which does NOT include Do It Clean as the second track which is fine by me; I think the ne two punch of those two songs back to back as my introduction to Bunnymen may have caused my head to explode. I won't go into a track by track lovefest, just suffice to say that the album gets stronger and stronger and kick started my now decades long love of British alternative/ post punk music as well as indie/alternative music in general. 5 🌟

This album lands squarely in the “I feel like I should like this” camp. However, for reasons I can’t articulate, I just don’t find it that compelling

I never really listened to Echo and the Bunnymen much because their name and fans were off putting, but this record is really fantastic. Cue regret for not tuning in earlier, as this would go splendidly alongside the cure, new order, joy division, the smiths. Really great, moodly rhythmic rock record. 4*

An album I just don’t care about, it’s been weeks since I’ve had an enjoyable listening experience with an album. Somebody please help me

Crocodiles by Echo & the Bunnymen (1980) If you’re looking for meaningful lyrics, disciplined poetic cadence, creative melodies, elaborate chord structures, skillful performances, and fine vocals, you should look elsewhere. This Liverpudlian group’s debut release has a steady and competent sound, but it lacks variety on almost every level. I’m looking for artistry here and not finding it. Ian McCulloch’s lead vocals are too often stuck on one note, with easy intervals begging to get back to the home tone. It’s what a non-singer does when forced to write a song he has to sing. While the themes are dark, they neither shock nor provoke empathy. All we get is assorted amateur adolescent angst that could be assisted by amphetamines. It’s a sad album that provides its only musical variation on the final track “Happy Death Men”. If this record has a highlight, this is it, but it’s more of a lowlight. The lone lead solo guitar work is found on this track, and listening to it goes a long way toward explaining why there isn’t more of it. Guitarist Will Sergeant has a very narrow comfort zone, and he has the good sense to stay within it. It seems to me that in a title track about “Crocodiles”, it seems that one could find some actual crocodilian images that might give some meaning. But nope. The listener is pretty much on his/her own. In the song “Rescue”, they ask: “Is this the blues I’m singin’?” No, I don’t think so. More like the blahs. 1/5

Post-punk is one of the worst genres of music I've ever heard. A scourge upon mankind, a plague upon good taste, an offense to good taste.

This album has the feel of a high energy anti-establishment punk album of the 70's, heard through the haze of heavy sedatives. The tempo is slower, the gritty effects are traded for rich and mellow reverbs, but the bite is everywhere and just beneath the surface. Check out the track "All That Jazz" to hear what I mean. This is a great album and pair perfectly with works from groups like the Clash. I'm surprised that I never really listened to this group, but I know I will be now!

A truly miserable album which is what makes it so perfect.

Whoever made this list had a raging hard-on for British boy bands from the 80s. That being said, this band was one of the slightly better ones. I probably won’t remember it though.

I remember listening to some of this band's later work when I was in college, and I'll never forget their video for 'Bring On The Dancing Horses' (a song from a later album) that always reminded me of Equus, a great play (no idea if the band intended that). This album, their debut (I think), is great. Nice mash-up of rock, post-punk, new wave -- this is all my best guess; I often mess up all these subgenres -- and I like the strong bass lines.

Turns out, I like this band

What a fantastic album. Loved Rescue. This is the sound of my youth, being played at parties by countless cover bands, along with Oingo Boingo, B-52s, REM, U2

9/10, really fun 80s rock while I really liked their first album, the stuff that came after was undeniably better still a damn good start for a band tho

Good album. Really build momentum. I think the sweet spot is Monkeys, Crocodiles, and Rescue. Band sounds good. Good harmonies, crisp vocals, and cohesive new wave sound.

I really enjoyed this album. It’s definitely post-punk with that early goth sound. It has the dark, moody atmosphere of bands like Joy Division and Bauhaus, but with more energy that highlights the punk influences and the new wave sounds bleeding into the music. Since this is their debut, I’m excited to move through their catalog and see how they progress from here.

This is what they call ‘right up my alley’. Its new wave, its got that punch and its structurally interesting. It might be my taste but theres nothing ive got to critique. I could listen to this easily and i think a 5 is in order.

Know the band name but not their music…loved this. A lot. Thinking this might be a huge influence on numerous bands including the replacements…will definitely listen again.

This was fine, would likely not relisten

I had to look.. there are 3 Echo and The Bunnymen records on this list. At least 1 too many.

fajny do autka

No need to listen to this album as I have done so a hundred times before , seen the bunny men live a few times and this is their best album by someways. This album is in my top ten of all albums

2025-10-05: Another dose of absolute enjoyment after the previous albums. Am I that volatile in my listening experience?

Some debuts stumble around in search of identity, but Crocodiles confidently crawls out of the shadows. Immediately stylish in its songwriting and atmosphere, you'll know after the first three tracks if it's an album for you. The music's not as angular as Wire nor as nihilistic as Joy Division, but somewhere sharply in between. It's got enough teeth to grab you immediately and it's moody enough to put on when you want to inhabit a gloomy feeling. In its era, this is a five-star record, yet on the bradytelic timeline of the music of actual crocodiles, it may only be four stars in the night's sky.

Loved this way more than I expected to.

It's a cold October day in 1984, you're driving down to the South of England. You rummage through the unfamiliar car and find a tape from 4 years before and you put it in. You finally see the sign for Brighton as the end of Happy Death Men plays. A fitting song.

Deep and rocking tracks with emotive vocals and

Can't really be objective with this album. It is one of the first post-punk albums i ever heard and I LOVED it from the opening drum flourish to the opening crescendo of Going Up; WOW! I was hooked. I realize the album has its flaws (Happy Death Men), but so moany great songs. Villiers Terrace, the title track (Me i'm all smiles, I got my Croc-O-diles), Rescue, All That Jazz, Monyeys, Stars are Stars, Pictures on My Wall. I know I was onto a band that would become a part of me. 5 stars (though if being objective it would 4.5, but I can't)

Increíble que este álbum sea el debut de los Echo and the Bunnymen. Este nivel de genialidad se alcanza como al cuarto o quinto álbum, si es que se llega alguna vez, y al escuchar Crocodiles parece que estamos escuchando a una banda más que experimentada. Pronto le daré una segunda vuelta y le seguiré con el resto de los discos de Echo y los conejombres.

Again not a bad choice love echo.

100% my thing.

This is #day313 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… here's to post-punk classics again. It's crazy to think this came out 45 years ago. What makes this band stand out in the '80s scene is the psychedelic element in their music. While, say, The Chameleons (one of my favourite bands from the genre) leaned more into goth rock, ethereal wave, and dream pop, the Bunnymen embraced full-on psychedelia, though not without a trace of new wave and punk roots. The instrumentation on the debut is raw and tight: jagged guitars, metronomic drums, and a bouncy bassline. Very much in the vein of Jeopardy by The Sound (another all-time favourite). This is deep autumn music, for wet November days, when the trees are stripped bare... Straightforward, stark, beautiful in its own right. This is a 5 out of 5. Looking forward to #day314.

Was super exciting

A dark and ethereal classic.

Love the guitar work, some of the best post-punk I've heard. Also like the fact that it's short and straight to the point without any dud tracks or anything that seems like filler

Perfection. Plain and simple

Solid

This list of albums you MUST hear before you die was put together by someone who really loves British post-punk, huh? I also enjoy British post-punk, so I'm not mad about it.

Superb. The best bunnymen album.

There’s a buldge in my pants now

Det er jo dem med The Killing Moon. Troede de var et one hit wonder band. Okay det lyder af Joy Division. Samme mørke stemning og til tider det industrialiserede lydbillede som JD også havde på deres debut fra året før. Det her er mega fedt 🖤 Nyt yndlings album. Weekenden skal vist bruges på at lytte mere af deres diskografi

There were two reasons I didn't listen to this band in the 80's. First, it wasn't heavy metal. Second, their name is silly. In the early 90's I had a roommate that gave me RHCP Freaky Styley. Turns out it was just the cover, it had an Echo and the Bunnymen album inside. I was truly surprised at how much I liked it. I don't remember which album it was, but I know it wasn't this one. This album is good but I think they have better. But that's all subjective innit. This is the style of British New Wave I like. I'll probably dive into the rest of their discography today. Solid.

I am a fully signed up Bunnyhead (?) and this is as perfect a debut album as you could ask for. Ian Mcculloch is exactly who Jim Morrison might have been had he grown up in Liverpool in the late seventies, and one of music's best frontmen. De Freitas and Pattinson are a dream rhythm section, as 'angular' as other new wave bands but with a drive and melodic aspect others lacked. Will Sergeant created a guitar sound all of his own, enough said. Have I gone on about how unjust it is that U2 conquered the world while the Bunnymen, the finest of the post new-wave big 3 with them and Simple Minds, did not. It is unjust. The songs? Flawless apart from possibly Happy Death Men which does sound like something they knocked up in the studio in half an hour. 4.9999999. 'Heaven Up Here' is even better.

Kinda reminds me of Grunge

One of my all-time favorites (I very slightly prefer the first three Echo albums and the way the songs play with dissonance to other stuff by them but love their whole career). Villier's Terrace piano part and the Happy Death Men trumpets stood out to me in this listen through. That and Will Sargeant! He's such as virtuoso, doing rhythm guitar things that invite bits of more minimal space into the songs along with unexpected lead guitar licks all over on this album.

Excellent album from start to end.

I love the story from Bill Drummond about seeing the giant rabbit head in the twisted tree that supposedly noone else had noticed at the photo shoot. I can't see anything else. This record is so good my microwave died.

Echo and the Bunnymen is a classic too, very good mix of rock and new wave 😊 5/5

Really enjoyed this one

early 80's new wave fan girl here

This sounds like all those unidentified 80s songs people find on old cassettes, but if they were actually good. Cozy and romantic but also futuristic and ominous.

I really like this, I’ve never heard of this band before but it feels similar to The Talking Heads.

I was surprised to see I rated the other Echo album (which I rated 725 albums ago) 3 stars, even though I'm sure Spotify has put a few of their songs on random playlists for me and I enjoyed them then. Just the same, I really enjoyed the Crocodiles album as well. So maybe that's evolving taste, maybe it's evolving rating standards and maybe Echo And The Bunnymen need the listener to be in an appropriate mood to hit just right. Because this album really did hit just right. More of a 4.5 rounded up, rather than a clean 5, but a very good album just the same. I particularly enjoyed the textural depth of the instrumentation.

It's an interesting album and band.

Again another superclassic 5-star album, just like their second, third and fourth album, which presumably are included on the list as well.

Plagued with sadness and misery, this is a standout album of the Post-Punk era

Already one of my all time favourites!

"Crocodiles" is the debut album from Echo and the Bunnymen with two songs, "Pictures on My Wall" and "Rescue," on the album previously released as singles. This is quite an album. The music is described as post-punk and neo-psychdelic with imagery of darkness and sorrowfullness. Yes, that's all there. To me, the sound is sort of similar to Joy Division's "Closer" and Gang of Four. The band includes Ian McCulloch (singer), Will Sergeant (guitars), Les Pattinson (bass) and drummer Pete de Freitas whom they added after they signed to a label and were encouraged to add a drummer. One of the first things you notice is how prominent each of the band members are. They all make major to contributions to the songs and album as a whole. McCulloch's lyrics are dark and appear very personal. Given the imagery and personal nature leaves a lot of these songs open for interpretation. The lyrics and music match perfectly creating a great dark and somewhat haunting mood. "Going up" starts the album with Pink Floyd type echoes. Check neo-pyschedelic. It builds with a solid rhythm section and sort of a slash-like guitar. "Do It Clean" has great drumming and absolutely great guitar in the middle. I have no idea what this is about, cleaning your room, doing cocaine??? My favorite song on the album is "Monkeys" with just a great guitar intro and chorus. The bass and drums create a great atmosphere. It sounds like the bass is carrying the melody. My guess it's about a change needed in a relationship. The second side starts with their second single "Rescue" and probably their most recognized song on this album. Another great guitar intro going into the melody. Tremendous catchy vocal chorus. Definitely one of their best pop-type songs. The first single was "The Pictures on My Wall" and appears to have a more keyboard-focused chorus. More echoes. Neo-pyschedelia checked twice. The music is a great match for the lyrics which express a state of despair and paranoia. Joy Division and Roxy Music typically get a lot accolades for the best-ever debut albums and rightfully so. But, this is also just a great debut, worthy of a listen and being on this list. They would also have a few other outstanding albums later on in the decade.

What a belter and a soundtrack to my youth!

very cool

5/5 - New wave? The Smiths? This hit the spot :D

Very cool

No está a la altura de Ocean Rain, pero bueno, qué puede estarlo. Sin embargo, bastante bueno.

Definitely a bop.

post-punk, new wave it is moody and dark. The bass lines are great with the underlying lead guitar parts and the vocals have enough range to not be boring. I enjoyed this and would listen to it again.

Haven’t heard this in a while!

This might be the sliding doors moment where I finally understand what all the fuss is about with Echo and the Bunnymen. Whenever I've tried in the past, including one of their other albums I've had so far during this process, I've always found them competent enough, but the music would wash over me. Turns out I'd just been listening to the wrong Bunnymen for where my tastes are at - this grabbed me from the word go, and never let go. Nice, rich bass-lines, a great drum sound, it occasionally goes for that angular style of playing akin to Wire, Magazine et al (most notably so on "Happy Death Men") but it also has a gothy, detached coldness to it. Definitely something of a revelatory listen, it's gone onto the purchase list.

W sumie fajne. Mogło być inspirowane trochę Joy Division albo tak wtedy grali. Ale tak na 4.

This album is filled with great tunes, but it didn't resonate with me tonight as much as I thought it would for some reason. Still great though

I love Echo and the Bunnymen, but there are only a couple albums I personally feel hold up all the way through, and this isn't one of them. It is a very good album, but this album mostly is just impressive for how original it was at the time, a couple good singles, and promise of what they would do. As a whole, it's good but not great, especially compared to some of their other albums.

Yeah…will listen to more

Clean crisp production, great sound if somewhat dated and limited. I was never a fan of this 80s vocal style which 90% of British male singers adopted. But the songs are mostly great. I first knew the band from The Lost Boys, then a few singles, then by appearing on a Manics song. Never heard a full album before.

The post-punk explosion was in full swing by the dawn to the 1980s thanks to the emerging presence of Joy Division, John Lydon's shift from the Sex Pistols to the more experimental Public Image Ltd. and some newer players like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Liverpool had their own answer to this movement: Echo and the Bunnymen: and their debut record, 'Crocodiles', would make a determined case that popular music was looking at its hottest Liverpool property since The Beatles. With the darkly alluring vocals of Ian McCulloch, the swirling, chorus-drenched guitar or Will Sergeant, the driving bass lines of Les Pattinson and the rolling drums of Pete de Frietas, 'Crocodiles' has all the critical elements of Echo and the Bunnymen already there, although with more of the raw punk energy and less of the deep, sensual melodies that would define their peak works in the mid 80s (Ocean Rain, self-titled). With unique hits such as 'Rescue' and 'Pictures on My Wall', Echo and the Bunnymen already sound brimming with confidence and personality, which would help grow their status as one of Britain's most prominent acts from the post-punk/goth era. They may not be as musically dense as The Cure nor as witty and sharp as The Smiths, but Echo and the Bunnymen had their own unique that won them over plenty of fans in the 80s. Getting it right on the first go with 'Crocodiles' was only the beginning. Best songs: Going Up, Crocodiles, Rescue, Pictures on my Wall

It's a link between British post-punk and early neo psychedelia, great album. Happy Death Man is a fantastic song to finish the album.

Enjoyed album. Worth listen

Good, but missing the standout Bunnymen tracks, so I don't feel like a 1001 essential album. 3.5/5

Great record. I have loved E&tB since I was a teen.

Echo’s influence in the 1980s was quite broad. Dorm music!!

Always sorta liked this band, but never really center stage for me, but listening now it's pretty clear what a big (and important) break they helped form from punk, prior to the onslaught of shitty synth bands.

Darker than I thought it would be. A couple of songs were reminiscent of Joy Division. Pleasantly surprised!

115/1001 Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodile Heard before? ❎ Revisit? ✅ One of those bands where I'm trying to figure out why I haven't listened to them sooner... It's one of those albums that incorporates the post-punk with the more energetic sounds, along with goth elements. It may have dropped off a little towards the end, but a great debut.

Good stuff.

High 3 I think, sounds of the 90s which aren't my favorite but definitely a little ahead of it's time

3.5

Prior to this, I hadn't heard much from this band outside of the track on the Donnie Darko soundtrack. This is really good post-punk, proto-goth, new wave-ish stuff. I even have a discount shirt that I snagged in one of those mystery bag type offers -- i can wear it and not feel like a poser now.

I like it. Not as depressing as their later work. Favorite song: crocodiles.

Un buen ejemplo de lo que el rock británico en los años 80 era. Saliendo de la efervescencia del punk para adoptar formas más sofisticadas (The Cure, Siouxie and the Banshees, etc) Echo and the Bunnymen representaban una línea que abrazaba sonidos oscuros y atmósferas cargadas que ya destacaban en este primer disco. Yo los idolatré con “Porcupine”, que llevaba ese estilo a lo más alto. Pero nunca fui atrás para escuchar con atención sus comienzos. Ahora me resultan algo cargantes, pero se reconoce ese toque propio que además ha influenciado a muchas bandas posteriores. “Billiard Terrace”, “Pride” y “Stars Are Stars” están entre mis favoritas.

Quite nice.

I love how this has this punky goth vibe without losing its pop flavor.

Pretty cool, pretty fun

Fun project, wish I were around to hear this live back when it first dropped. I was already a big fan of a few of these tracks after hearing them on one of their compilations, but within the context of the album they're even better sounding. Bangin basslines and classic 80s post punk darkness whats not to love. Catchy as hell with a solid variety of songs throughout.

Show gazing

Awesome album. Happy discovering this band. They sound like king gizzard from 1980 and the album was fresh and unique. Great vibes and I’m surprised I’ve never heard of them. Loved it

3.5 stars

Great debut album. Very moody with dark vibes. Love the post punk 80s era.

Really liked this one - had a bit of a creepy atmospheric sound and moves into gothic territory especially towards the end. Surprised it's the debut as they seem to have control of their sound already.

Drumming is iconic in early 80s

Early Bunnymen…saw them when they were touring this. Thought it was interesting then and still do. Of its time but still strong

This was great, the drums are so moody throughout. Saw them 10 years ago and I’d done some prep before hand so remember some of these. Rescue is the highlight of the album, Do It Clean could have be made by the Monkees if they did post punk but I like that. Looking forward to more