45 years ago on today (18 July 1980), Echo and The Bunnymen released their debut studio album “Crocodiles” featuring singles "The Pictures on My Wall" and "Rescue".
The music and the cover of the album both reflect imagery of darkness and sorrowfulness. The album received favourable reviews from the music press, receiving four out of five stars by both Rolling Stone and Blender magazines.
In 1993, the NME listed Crocodiles at number 28 in its list of the 50 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2006, Uncut magazine listed the album at number 69 on its list of the 100 greatest debut albums. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2020, Rolling Stone included Crocodiles in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising "Will Sergeants’ ice-dagger guitar and Les Pattinson’s spelunking bass, making “Rescue” and “Pictures on My Wall” the perfect invitations to crawl down into Ian’s hot pit of despair."