A song I first came across as it opened "Donnie Darko" even though it was Richard Kelly's second choice having originally wanted "Never Tear Us Apart" by the insanely overated INXS and sure watching his directoral cut the opening of that song does work, but like every INXS song the opening is the best part.
Flying in the face of their contempories like U2 and Simple Minds who were drifting into stadium rock, Echo and the Bunnymen were deliberatly heading the other way with this track serving as a statement of intent paving the way for "Ocean Rain" released a few months later and often cited as thier masterwork.
While Donnie Darko might have introduced the song along with so many of it's 80's infused soundtrack to a whole new audience though discussing the song with Louder and citing it as his favourite song “No one else has a song like The Killing Moon, not even Bowie,” Ian McCulloch stated
“I’d mentioned somewhere that The Killing Moon was about pre-destiny,” says Ian McCulloch, “and he wrote the whole fuckin’ film about it. Cheeky bastard! He gave us this pittance one-off fee for the use of the song, saying it was just a little indie film, but forgot to mention that Drew Barrymore was behind it, who had more money than Howard Hughes. Great as it is, he should at least have given us a credit for the idea.”
The video is typical 80's fare and with no director listed in it's credits it's hard to see were they went next, but then this really is a song which for myself atleast will always bring back that opening bike ride as like any song used well in a movie like Steelers Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle With You" and Reseviour Dogs it will alway own that song and when it comes to this track Donnie Darko certainly did that.
