Echo & The Bunnymen Apples For Isaac
Released Sep 18, 2026 BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd.
Consensus forming 3 professional reviews Updated Oct 7, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. Echo & The Bunnymen's Apples For Isaac arrives as a late-career burst of reinvention that pairs stadium-ready hooks with a quietly elegiac core.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Brussels Is Haunted
3 critic mentions
“lead single ‘Brussels Is Haunted’, complete with ‘sha-la-la’ backing vocals, is one of the catchiest things they’ve ever recorded” — Hot Press
An Unstoppable Force
3 critic mentions
“The first time the tone of the album genuinely shifts, however, is with ‘An Unstoppable Force” — Clash Music
Take Me By The Hand
3 critic mentions
“Searing opener ‘Take Me By The Hand” — Hot Press
Full critic consensus
Echo & The Bunnymen's Apples For Isaac arrives as a late-career burst of reinvention that pairs stadium-ready hooks with a quietly elegiac core. Across three professional reviews the record earns a 78.33/100 consensus score, and critics consistently point to its blend of nostalgic Bowie-leaning grooves and atmospheric guitar-led rock as the engine behind its renewed energy. Standout tracks repeatedly named by reviewers include “Brussels Is Haunted”, “An Unstoppable Force” and “Take Me By The Hand”, each cited for combining singalong heft with lyrical darkness.
The critical consensus highlights contrasts that give the album its shape: upbeat, often funk-tinged arrangements conceal bleak, memory-rich lyrics, while orchestral strings and cathedral-sized production lend a stately weight to moments of mortality and renewal. Reviewers praise Ian McCulloch's fragile vocal turns on “An Unstoppable Force” and the irresistible hooks of “Brussels Is Haunted”, and they single out “Take Me By The Hand” and “Can't Be Sold” as the record's immediate earworms. Across professional reviews critics note a careful balance between nostalgia and progression, framing the collection as both a homage to past textures and a credible late-career reinvention.
While some appraisals emphasize the album's comfort in familiar territory, others celebrate how swagger and introspection coexist, producing a record that feels reinvigorated rather than merely retrospective. With a concise eleven-song run and recurring psych-pop touches, Apples For Isaac stakes a persuasive claim in Echo & The Bunnymen's catalogue and gives clear answers to searches about the best songs on Apples For Isaac and what critics say about the new record, making it well worth attention for longtime fans and curious newcomers alike.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Take Me By The Hand
Can't Be Sold
Brussels Is Haunted
I'll Be Your Sunshine
Hijacked
The Honey
An Unstoppable Force
The Light That Surrounds You
Lab Rats Ran
Asimov
We Prayed In the Dark
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
In his upbeat, considered voice Henry Swales finds the best tracks on Apples For Isaac in moments like “Take Me By The Hand” and “Can’t Be Sold”, where the Bowie-leaning grooves and bright production make the record’s optimism palpable. He highlights “Brussels Is Haunted” for its joyful background vocal hooks that mask grim lyrical material, and singles out “An Unstoppable Force” as the emotional pivot with a tearful string section. Swales frames the closer “We Prayed In The Dark” as a powerful final statement, its hopeful sound belying darker lines, and ultimately calls Apples For Isaac a resounding success for the Liverpool greats.
Key Points
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The best song moments are those that pair bright, Bowie-tinged production with strong vocal lines, notably on the opening pair and the emotive centerpiece.
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The album’s core strength is its balance of optimism in sound with darker lyrical themes, supported by smart orchestral arrangements.
Themes
Critic's Take
Echo & The Bunnymen have, on Apples For Isaac, rummaged successfully in their memory palace to reclaim a wilder, more unruly spirit. Stephen Troussé writes with affectionate forensic detail that the best tracks, notably “Brussels Is Haunted” and “An Unstoppable Force”, tap into glittering nightclub reminiscence and Leonard Cohen-like gravitas respectively. The record is concise and fleet, eleven brisk songs that refuse to outstay their welcome while letting McCulloch’s singular sense-memory guide the band back toward danger and grandeur. Listeners searching for the best songs on Apples For Isaac will find them where the album balances gutter and stars, pogoing between nervy funk and swooning, cathedral-sized balladry.
Key Points
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The best song is "Brussels Is Haunted" for its roaring nostalgia and vivid sense-memory.
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The album’s strength is reclaiming a wilder, memory-laden Bunnymen sound while staying concise and emotionally potent.
Themes
Ho
Critic's Take
Echo & The Bunnymen sound reinvigorated on Apples For Isaac, balancing stadium-ready choruses with a wistful edge. The review savours the immediacy of “Take Me By The Hand” and the irresistible hook of “Brussels Is Haunted”, noting how those best tracks on Apples For Isaac marry singalong heft with melodic craft. McCulloch’s fragile delivery on “An Unstoppable Force” is singled out as a genuine emotional centre, giving the album depth beyond its rock gestures. Overall, the record is praised for rolling back the years without trading on past glories, delivering both earworms and a stately closer.
Key Points
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The best song is "Brussels Is Haunted" for its irresistible hook and status as one of the catchiest things they’ve recorded.
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The album’s core strengths are singalong, stadium-ready songs paired with fragile vocal moments and retro-tinged arrangements.
Themes
Critic's Take
Echo & The Bunnymen's Apples For Isaac arrives heavy with history, yet it still sparks in moments such as “Take Me By The Hand” and “The Honey”. The reviewer hears flashes of 1980s magic without wholesale nostalgia, noting funk-inflected rhythms and Will Sergeant's familiar guitar textures that let the best tracks stand apart. The album's strongest moments - particularly “Brussels Is Haunted” and “The Honey” - balance atmosphere and urgency, reminding listeners why the band matters. That balance makes the question of the best songs on Apples For Isaac an argument for these assured highlights rather than a rewrite of past glories.
Key Points
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The Honey is the album's standout for its atmosphere, urgency and comparability to the band's finest material.
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The album's core strength is blending legacy Bunnymen textures with new, assured songwriting that avoids mere pastiche.
Themes
Critic's Take
Echo & The Bunnymen sound improbably revitalised on Apples For Isaac, and Sam Lambeth writes with relish about the record's best songs. He singles out “Take Me By The Hand” and “Can’t Be Sold” as the roaring openers that bristle with punky posturing and irresistible choruses. The emotional centrepiece “An Unstoppable Force” is described in spare, elegiac terms, giving the album its moral weight. Elsewhere tracks like “Brussels Is Haunted” and “The Light That Surrounds You” supply psychedelic flourishes and otherworldly magic, making clear why listeners ask, best tracks on Apples For Isaac? These are them, and they make a near-50-year career feel freshly combustible.
Key Points
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The best song is the opening trio led by "Take Me By The Hand", which sets the album's irresistible, punky tone.
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The album's core strengths are renewed energy, emotional centrepieces, and tasteful psychedelic flourishes.