16 July 2026
Echo & the Bunnymen’s Brussels Is Haunted: A Beautiful, Melancholic Return to Form
I didn’t realise that Echo & the Bunnymen was still going as a band, but after hearing Brussels is Haunted, I am glad that it is. I remember Ian McCulloch leaving the band in the late 1980s and then there was a resurrection in the late 1990s with Evergreen, but after that I lost track. They are now apparently a two-piece, with original members Will Sergeant on lead guitar and programming and Ian McCulloch on vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboards. So, you can tell I’m not a diehard Bunnymen fan, but I think Brussels is Haunted is a great track. Plus there is a new album, Apples for Isaac coming out in September.
You can watch the video below, which is by Jef de Smet, and
an intriguing, animated piece that matches the mood and the lyrics perfectly. Even though I was a little disappointed that there
wasn’t a performance of the song as such, the video is a fantastic evocation
of Brussels as a place of ghosts, memories and faded glamour - a city where
history, art and personal stories seem to linger in every street and square.
Like the song itself, it feels both nostalgic and slightly unreal, capturing
that very Bunnymen combination of beauty, mystery and melancholy. Plus, any song that namechecks Plastic and Bert Bertrand
is going to get a listen or two from me…
Brussels Is Haunted feels like Echo & the
Bunnymen turning Brussels into a dreamscape where personal memories collide
with European history. The city is haunted not by ghosts alone, but by wars,
art, romance and lost moments - from World War I, Waterloo and World War II to
the imagined threat of World War III. In classic Bunnymen fashion, melancholy,
myth and destiny blur together: Brussels is haunted because we are.
As a quick aside, while I wrote this, I put Ocean Rain
on – because why not? I’ve already put a sell-by date on myself by saying I remember
the original split and so a little wander down memory lane wasn’t going to do
me any harm. I think almost anyone of my
generation will recognise the opening chords of Silver – the first track on the album and although I
believe that most people will say The Killing Moon is the standout track
on the album, for me it’s The Yo Yo Man.
It’s amazing to think how the Bunnymen pumped out four brilliant albums
over the first five years of the 1980s (and that we took it for granted!). I seem to remember McCulloch describing Ocean
Rain as the greatest album ever made – and he wasn’t that far wrong,
frankly.
