SHIVER and say the words, goes the lyric to Echo & The Bunnymen's Bring On The Dancing Horses, the opening number on their new album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon.

Frontman Ian McCulloch, now 59, still sends shivers down the spine as the Liverpool band reinterpret "13 of their most beloved songs" with "strings and things", every word so clear, but when he says the words of a phone interview, that clarity goes, the voice fogged up as if stuck in the Mersey tunnel.

It is not that McCulloch lacks enthusiasm or is not keen to share stories, nor that the Liverpool lip is not still whip-smart with punchy comments, accompanied by a cackle; merely that there is an unintended, cotton-wool barrier to decoding what he is saying, in anticipation of concluding the Bunnymen's eight-date tour at York Barbican on Monday with a four-piece string section in tow.

York Press:

"Then I listen to that voice, and it sounds like Little Lord Fauntleroy," says Ian McCulloch

What's more, the barrier only comes down part way through an answer that then drifts out of range, so the McCulloch quotes will be briefer than you or I or he might wish.

Anyway, here goes. The starting point is a McCulloch line from the album's press release. "I'm not doing this for anyone else. I’m doing it as it’s important to me to make the songs better. I have to do it," he reasoned.

Why, Ian? "Well, because, if I hear the old stuff, there are some instances where I think, 'this is perfect', but then I listen to that voice, and it sounds like Little Lord Fauntleroy," he says, cackling at that self-deprecating thought.

There was another reason to revisit the past, he says. "Maybe I wanted to alert people to listen to the older stuff again; I thought it might create a little interest."

York Press:

"We like to do things that are a challenge and just change things up," says Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch

This is not the first time the Bunnymen have added "strings and things". "We had A Crystal Day in Liverpool in 1984; we've always done things like that, mainly around Ocean Rain," says Ian. "We like to do things that are a challenge and just change things up..."

The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon also was a chance to showcase two new Bunnymen songs, The Somnambulist and How Far?, alongside the familiar likes of Seven Seas, The Cutter, Rescue, Nothing Lasts Forever and The Killing Moon. "There are loads of songs that I wanted to try out, a lot of new demos that we were rattling off," says Ian. "These two were more mysterious, ethereal, and that tied in well with the old songs, and I love doing new stuff..."

The recording sessions took place at the Dog House Studio, on the banks of the River Thames, two miles from Henley, in Oxfordshire. A river, rather than oceans, but an idyllic setting for working with co-producer Andy Wright. "He was suggested to me by the record company, even though I had the idea for the record, but he came in to add the polish; he put the sheen on it, and we love what Andy did..."

York Press:

"When I was trying to think of a title, it's usually the elements and the mysterious that inspire me," says Ian McCulloch

Wright arranged the "strings and things" musicians to accompany Bunnymen singer McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and co. "He said, 'trust me to get the best players'...and they were good."

McCulloch famously called the Bunnymen's fourth long player, Ocean Rain, "the greatest album ever made", but did he really believe that? "No, it was tongue in cheek," he now says, but if he were right, how come he wants to "make the songs better"? "I want the world to hate me even more for being so arrogant!" he says, cackling again.

The album title could not be better, perfectly summarising the scope of the Bunnymen's psychedelia, majesty and mystery in The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon. "When I was trying to think of a title, it's usually the elements and the mysterious that inspire me," says Ian. "The moon is my favourite globe, apart from a football..."

Echo & The Bunnymen play York Barbican on Monday, October 22, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

York Press:

"Better? No, but the Klopp to Paisley's Liverpool FC," says The Press album review 

Charles Hutchinson's album review

Echo & The Bunnymen, The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon (BMG) ****

IAN McCulloch famously reckoned the Bunnymen's Ocean Rain was "the greatest album ever made”. He wasn't joking, still insisting "The Killing Moon is the greatest song ever written". Or maybe co-written, because McCulloch credited God with half the lyrics.

Thirty four years later, McCulloch has revisited The Killing Moon and 12 more Bunnymen beauties for "the greatest songs ever re-made", tagging on a couple of new squad members in The Somnambulist and How Far. "It's important to me to make the songs better. I have to do it," he says.

Salvador Dali ended up painting the same melting imagery over and over, for commercial gain, but McCulloch's reasoning is artistic, not a vanity project, adding "strings and things" as the alchemist to match George Martin for The Beatles or Nelson Riddle for Frank Sinatra.

Singing in grand, stately voice, Ocean Rain and Lips Like Sugar rise anew, Killing Moon becomes a piano-led torch song. Better? No, but the Klopp to Paisley's Liverpool FC.