Slideling

Whether it is a solo McCulloch affair, or else a Bunnymen album, the man seems to have been around forever. As good as the Bunnymen sometimes were on peaks such as Porcupines and Ocean Rain, the inescapable fact was when they were good they were very good, and when they were bad they were absolutely woeful.

Slideling chugs along blandly with a distinct lack of a noteworthy sound or tunes of any substance. McCulloch always possessed an unfortunate penchant for grating melodrama, so when the tunes don’t come up to scratch that’s pretty much all you’re left with.

Despite experiencing something of a career renaissance thanks to one Chris Martin of Coldplay, who employed a couple of McCulloch-isms to a far better and more lucrative effect, Ian doesn’t seem to have any definite vision or real sense of purpose on this album. He has already been critically mauled for plundering ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ for the awful ‘Baby Hold On’, so I’ll spare this another slating.

Okay, to be fair there are a few sparks worth cocking an ear at. The breezy pop on the opening salvo ‘Love In Veins’ and the reflective ballad ‘Arthur’ are passable attempts at a half decent tune, but one is still left with the feeling that you never want to hear them again.

Ian McCulloch has a reasonable track record, but this particular record is quite simply brutal.