Sixteen Horsepower

Sackcloth and Ashes (A&M)
by Rowan-Morrison

If Echo & The Bunnymen ever soundtracked a Western directed by Sam Peckinpah, it would sound like this. From the Hauntabilly school of songwriting, this disc is a lot like seeing Deliverance for the second time. Y’know that scene where the guy plays guitar along with the inbred boy on banjo, and the first time you saw it you thought that it meant, “Hey, we’ve got common ground here – and it’s music!” but when you see it for the second time, you recognize the forboding set-up – this kid is just plucking out Taps for them. Steve Martin once said, you can’t play a depressing song on the banjo. Yeah, right.