What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?

Two years after their triumphant comeback album, <i>Evergreen</i>, Echo & The Bunnymen sound sobered by a vision of mortality. It’s a hushed, contemplative record wreathed in acoustic textures and haunted by doubt. The title song ponders “memories and might-have-beens” over gentle strings; on “When It All Blows Over”, Ian McCulloch begs a lover to start again. Almost all the songs take the long view, telescoping distant yesterdays into uncertain tomorrows. It all comes to a head on “History Chimes”, a sombre self-examination over unadorned piano.