Inspired to create a new album after the highly successful Ocean Rain 25th Anniversary tour, which saw them play their 1984 masterpiece from start to finish at every show with a symphony no less, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant are back with The Fountain, their first album of new material in four years and the fifth album to be crafted by McCulloch and Sergeant since their reunion in 1997.

While The Fountain doesn't recreate the wheel for this longstanding Liverpool group, it does offer a few bright glimmering moments that remind you what made Echo & The Bunnymen such a big deal in the 80's to begin with. The mood of The Fountain is a lot more sunnier than Echo fans are surely used to, but the constants of McCulloch's sturdy vocals and Sergeant's piercing guitar work are still there in fine fashion. Opening tracks "Think I Need it Too" and "Forgotten Fields" have more in common with mainstream pleasing arena rock acts such as U2 and Coldplay than most of Echo's own early back catalog. But with that being said, McCulloch and Sergeant sound so comfortable and at ease here it's hard not to just sit back and enjoy the ride. The only problem with The Fountain is that all the great tracks are lined up one after another on the first half of the album and the second half is nothing but filler that doesn't seem nearly as inspired or as memorable as side A. Oh well, at this point in their career I'll gladly take half a great Echo album and call it a minor victory.