Erasure: Classic Or Dud?

hard to resist...

i can't find the only pick one thread so i'm guesing there hasn't been one. none of the erasure threads seem to be very long which is weird.

Otherwise, they have always been a great single band while debut album "Wonderland" is also great and underrated. A singles compilation is always worth checking out nevertheless, not at least because they often contained new and better mixes.

i think CHORUS is a bit weedy production wise in parts, lacks the general punch and thwack of the other two classics. incidentally the cd packaging of the CHORUS album (cliched advertsing images of 2.4 famillies on beaches and bike rides and so on) had a massive effect on me at that age. i wondered *what they were getting at* with it all for a very long time.

in the early 90's NME and the like decided they were brilliant and there was a lot of ecstatic praise for the POP! singles comp.

also they were a *fantastically* under rated b-sides act.

if you can watch their live dvd THE TANK THE SWAN AND THE BALLOON without being thrilled most of the way through i'd seriously consider checking your pulse.

Do you mean that they do not particularly specify homosexual relationships?

I just gave their latest covers album a spin this week. Although covers albums are generally a bad idea I gave them a pass here because Erasure's glory days are long gone anyway and they've usually picked idiocyncratic tunes to cover, picking the most obvious (the Abba stuff) or the most unusual (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Ave Maria, Hall of the Mountain King). It starts off quite well with Solsbury Hill, Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes and Come Up and See Me Make Me Smile. Then it gets really blah until it ends with a really redundant Video Killed The Radio Star. Worth hearing the first three if you are an Erasure fan though.

I don't like digital synths. Way too much "punch" and "thwack".

couldn't have cared less after the 86-91 peak but GODDAMN that peak.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2134860,00.html

andy bell. god bless him.

Has anyone else said the new album is excellent?

If not, I'll do. Hadn't it been for "Nightbird", it would have been their best since "Chorus".

i still haven't heard it yet :/

"Ship of Fools" is a little spooky, isn't it? This make s me feel bad at words, but "Ship of Fools" freaks me out a little.

Hmm, never thought of it as spooky -- nicely atmospheric, though. (Helps that that's still my favorite album of theirs.)

It is. The music sort of sounds like wind howling. or something. lol. I am also bad at words. I feel like there are other songs on The Innocents that have a spooky vibe to them but tbh it's been a while since I've listened to them.

Toppermost of the poppermost: The Innocents, Chorus, I Say I Say I Say

Excellent and worth a listen but not-quite-there: Erasure, Nightbird

Good-to-great singles and one or two decent albums tracks, but otherwise patchy: Wonderland, The Circus, Wild!, Cowboy

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!: Loveboat, Light At The End Of The World, Tomorrow's World.

Ultimately though, my favourites are the analogue-synthfests of Chorus, I Say I Say I Say and Erasure, and the lovely-sounding softsynths of Nightbird.

Chorus is my favourite single

Andy Bell's excellent performance in Peter Hammill's opera The Fall of the House of Usher is often overlooked. Here he is duetting with Lene Lovich:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYajmE_K4M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=herZ8lENFMk

I reckon 'Stay With Me' could have been their biggest hit overall had it just been released at an earlier point in their career

myself and NI made one of the remixes that's on the single (the Club Clique mix). seems to have had a pretty good reaction so far.

https://soundcloud.com/erasureinfo/elevation-club-clique-remix

I reckon 'Stay With Me' could have been their biggest hit overall had it just been released at an earlier point in their career

― PaulTMA, Wednesday, September 24, 2014 12:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It could have been a bigger hit than it was even if it had only been released three or four years earlier, I reckon. Prior to 'Stay With Me', Chorus and the ABBA Esque EP had been quite successful, and then 'Always' was quite a big hit from I Say I Say I Say. By the time the self-titled record came out, the UK had gone Britpop crazy and pretty much every band deemed "'80s electro" that was still active struggled apart from Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys (but even then, Bilingual got a mixed reception). I think everything from The Innocents up to I Say I Say I Say made it to #1 in the UK album chart, whereas the self-titled record made it to #14. People were still very much buying a lot of albums at the time, so they were very much selling to their hardcore fanbase from that point onwards.

Very odd choice of first single, though... 'Fingers & Thumbs' probably would have been my pick.

Haven't heard the new album yet. I got my hopes about it being good as they'd work with Richard X but the single didn't do a lot for me. Agree that the last album was terrible and that Loveboat was a low point in their career.

Nightbird is a wonderful album. I loved it when it came out and almost 10 years later it's definitely my favourite Erasure album, ahead of Chorus. A great set of understated and beautiful songs with perfect production. It was such a great moment when Breathe game them another top five hit. I just didn't see it coming at the time. It makes it more of a shame that the two albums after were so weak.

I think the problem with the self titled album was it was released too soon after I Say I Say I Say. It came out less than 18 months after an album that did spawn a couple of big hits and made number one but also did sell much less and didn't stay in the charts for long at all. They needed to give the public a bit more time to miss them. I remember them saying they thought it was going to be their Dark Side of the Moon. It's not a bad album but fairly forgettable. Fingers & Thumbs is an incredible song, defiantly should have been the first single.

I can understand what you mean. Plus, if they'd held off releasing it for a while, they could have lived with the material a bit more and might have gone back and made further adjustments and/or come up with additional songs that may have improved it. But as it stands, really there's only 'Grace' and 'Love The Way You Do So' that I'm not keen on from that album.

Then Play Long reaches The Innocents and, uh, yeah: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/erasure-innocents.html

I disagree, naturally. As someone more than familiar with the '80s synthpop "canon", I think The Innocents is a great record and find it mostly consistent throughout. Fair enough if he doesn't like it, though.

The "wall" he mentions is his own inability to accept Erasure as anything other than a) a singles band and b) exclusively peers of Depeche Mode and PSB which results is a very pedestrian appraisal but whatever. Great album.

Then Play Long reaches Wild! and meets Kate Bush along the way: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/erasure-wild.html

Maybe they're not self-conscious anymore now that no one's paying attention?

I'd say that applies again to World Be Gone, which is also pretty enjoyable. I briefly forgot, during "Take Me Out of Myself," that I wasn't listening to the new Perfume Genius.

I didn't like World Be Gone at all - finding it a bit drab, lacking in energy and memorable material. I really wanted to like it, too.

^ Or at least that's how I felt the first couple of times I heard it - I'm finding this one is slowly growing on me.

Okay, so I couldn't be any less arsed about World Be Gone the first couple of times I listened to it, but there's something about this record that keeps making me return to it... it's possibly their most ballad heavy "proper" studio album since Nightbird. It's grown on me a hell of a lot, and I've listened to this one far more than the last two.

The previous one sounded like the most autopilot thing on Earth.

I did think that 'When I Start To (Break It All Down)' from earlier was probably their best song since 'Fingers & Thumbs' though, ignoring the processing on Andy's voice and the poor use of brackets

Yeah, I didn't really enjoy Tomorrow's World - I'm not against vocal processing but it was overused on that album and Frankmusik had such a stamp on the end product that I was left wondering where the fuck Vince was.

The Violet Flame is probably the best sounding album they've made this decade, but I think the songs on World Be Gone are better, even if the production isn't as good and it takes a few listens for the songs to click.

So, it turns out that World Beyond, the piano'n'strings version of World Be Gone, is better than the original album. The songs make far more sense like this, and I wish they'd put the album out like this to begin with.

Seeing them tomorrow with a couple of superfans. Not sure what to expect. They still good live?

Long time listener, first time concert goer -- that was a great show tonight here in SF. Much like Pet Shop Boys two years back, this was the first time I’d actually seen them over all these years — thirty plus since I heard “Sometimes” being played incessantly from my sister’s bedroom. Of the newest songs “Just a Little Love” and “World Be Gone” were my faves. As for the hits, besides all the others throughout the set (that they opened with "Oh L'Amour" was a pretty clear sign of how deep the catalog is), they busted out two amazing trifectas towards the end — “Love to Hate You,” “Blue Savanna Song” and “Drama,” then later “Sometimes,” “Always” and a set closing “Stop!” And then a single song encore of “A Little Respect,” of course. Only one I wish they’d done was “Chorus,” but otherwise pretty much all I could have wanted.

oh man, that sounds amazing

Oh and a midset cover of Blondie's "Atomic" as well. That'll do!

O:

'World Be Gone' is a beautiful little song indeed - it took a while for that album to grow on me. Did they play 'Oh What a World'? I think that's the "fan favourite" of the new stuff.

Never mind, I can see they didn't... I'd swap 'Sweet Summer Loving' for that and the setlist would be pretty much perfect.

https://www.lexermusic.com/erasure-wild-30th-anniversary-deluxe-edition

ooh cheers for that - my brothers favourite album of all time :D

I'm surprised they've felt the need to have a deluxe edition of this one. I'd rather have a really, really good B-sides compilation as they've had some good ones over the years. I'm particularly fond of 'Let It Flow' and 'Waiting For Sex' from the Am I Right? single.

Saw them over the summer and it was honestly one of the best nights of my life. Beyond fun. They were delightful.

Yes, lovely show in August.

That Wild! is great but flawed, because this is THE remix of their "Supernature" cover AFAIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JmE4hgBp3U

Richard shared this little titbit of information over on FB

This is the second time I have mixed Erasure. The first time (with David Ball) was a little unnerving as Vince Clarke had very specific instructions. No 909 kick drums were to be used, for example...

So I was a little apprehensive about sending this mix back. They liked it though, thankfully

I'm surprised they've felt the need to have a deluxe edition of this one. I'd rather have a really, really good B-sides compilation as they've had some good ones over the years. I'm particularly fond of 'Let It Flow' and 'Waiting For Sex' from the Am I Right? single.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 15 December 2018 22:59 (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Classic, obviously. My first musical love.

https://thequietus.com/articles/25925-erasure-wild-reissue-richard-norris-remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi1--FQUf3c

I've been on such an Erasure kick lately, basically starting from the beginning, having never heard most of their albums in full. I'm up to Wild now myself, and even the stuff that is more album track-y sounds great to me* - think I'm just in the right mood for them atm

*not "La Gloria"

also, why do they have like five albums since 2000 with the word "world" in it

Briefly summing them up.

Never much of a fan, but this ^^ list reminded me to pull up this song last night for the first time in 20 years, and I promptly listened to it 10 times in a row before going out dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMbBMxX2nB0

in a deep Vincent Clarke hole right now, don't think i'll ever get over how much this one man has totally shifted my perspective on pop music.

also this first comment from the "Always" video just made me rofl:

"i love how the prince saves the princess with the ultimate power of gay"

Classic

https://attitude.co.uk/article/erasures-frontman-andy-bell-claims-he-refused-to-have-a-sex-with-an-alien-because-he-is-gay/22550/

felt like doing an Erasure top ten, hear it is

1. Joan
2. Oh L'Amour
3. Brother & Sister
4. Chorus
5. Take Me Back
6. You Surround Me
7. Ship of Fools
8. Cry So Easy
9. Rock Me Gently
10. A Little Respect

The new single is the first erasure track that’s pricked up my ears in... a few decades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n77X65Aquw

Their 1995 self-titled album that arguably strangled their Imperial Phase might be the masterpiece that contains their best songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgIU8D--cuw

Superior to A Little Respect etc IMO. what an album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di1mBv3iHMQ

And there's Grace, which no one ever mentions. Truly beautiful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptApotnluTc

Agreed generally. One of two albums I can think of that not only derailed a healthy chain of no. 1 albums but did so by missing the top ten altogether (the other is ahem Stereophonics' Keep Calm and Carry On). 'Wilfully obscure' in the sense that they sound like they're forcing their own transition to fans-only territory by focusing for a time on open-ended, amorphous music.

It's a really gorgeous record and I wish it was better known.

As much as I love Fingers & Thumbs (and consider it most likely the best Erasure song), it was never as hooky as the likes of their biggest hits, so I reckon the arguments that suggest it should have been the lead single fall flat- I mean, "a shattered heart in love's debris" may be a fantastic line, but it simply is not a hooky enough song to fulfill that criteria.

I think Stay With Me must have been chosen as the single as it represented the album best as a whole. I still maintain that had they led off with it in 1991 then it may have been number one for many weeks. Who knows.

Regardless this album is a masterpiece

I mostly think the album works but the songs don't always justify their longer lengths. "Rock Me Gently" is the most successful track here imo, the long atmospheric section pushing them into places they hadn't really explored before. 10 minutes goes by quickly! Whereas some tracks like "Sono Luminus" and "I Love You" feel more like those extended remixes that are mostly stretching out an existing short song. I like both tracks, but I may just prefer a 3-4 minute version. I might even prefer the single edit of "Stay With Me" to the album one

Agree with you that "Grace" is awesome, another track that uses the time well