Lopez Blogs

Good gravy. (And last Sunday it was. Darren mixes up a lovely batter!). After the last slightly fact orientated Erasure post of just two days ago, I was trying to recall why I stuck with Erasure after the giddy highs of ISISIS and Erasure through the lows of Loveboat and Other People's Songs (more on that below). One reason is that I am generally quite loyal to artists who i've supported for a long time (i'm still kinda rooting for a decent Whitney comeback, and god knows Deborah Gibson must have a brilliant album in her, 8 years after her last set of original music) and especially loyal to those who injected a little colour and excitement into my youth. After all, growing up a gay Mormon could've been fraught with challenges. However, as the picture above shows (guess which one i am - clue, i have a hideous flick of hair and detestable trousers on, but at least no flash of white socks. Even then i knew white socks with formal attire was a neddy no no), I had a pretty balanced childhood. I wasn't itching to run away to the big smoke or anything cliched like that, in fact church was one of the few places i didn't get teased about being a big homo. Church dances were a pretty regular occurence, and though Darren mocks me for it now, it was there that I first heard Erasure's Sometimes and A Little Respect and fell in love with the band. It was also with a friend from church and school that at age 17, we skipped class and drove down to London for our second row Erasure tickets concert. I was absolutely surrounded by hedonistic, colourful gays and drag queens, opening my eyes to a world I hadn't seen before. I even kept some of the feathers from Andy Bell's boa that made it into the crowd, and naively fought off a lot of attention from the older guys round me. Boy, could I have been a human pin cushion that night :P And even though the bright lights of London couldn't lure me (I've always had the need to be quite close to my family), I swore there and then that I would love Erasure forever for showing me how to be comfortable with myself. And thus it was so. Even during the Other People's Songs years...:P

Other People's Songs - Erasure have done some quite decent cover versions in the past. Their Abba-esque EP remains a classic. Magic Moments is lovely. Even their blondie covers (Heart of Glass and Rapture) are palatable. For some reason though, the majority of this 2003 set of cover versions didn't click with me. Sure they erasure'd up the songs so they do actually sound like Vince/Andy tunes but at best this is a bit of a vanity project that is top-end karoke. I think at the time, I was just eager for some self penned Erasure tunes and this didn't really scratch my itch. Fair do's though, the way Come Up And See Me is sung, is positively filthy.
Singles: Solsbury Hill (#10); Come Up And See Me (#14); True Love Ways (NR)

Nightbird - Mercifully there was a great return to form with this next album. The lead off single, the gracefully mature Breathe (even more magnificent in acoustic format) managed to become one of my top ten Erasure songs of all time. The tune (and ultimately album as a whole) bear more than a passing resemblence to the great tunes they put out in the late 80s and early 90s. Once again, the songs are about the good and bad sides of love and are presented in an intimate personal way - perhaps more so because the album was solely produced by Erasure. Thanks to a seemingly renewed confidence in their abilities, and an endearing sense of optimism, the lyrical beauty and melodic dancing throughout this set could've easily spawned five-six singles. All This Time manages to be both inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time, while shades of the mighty OMD run throughout Here I Go Impossible Again. Abba influences are apparent on the mighty Don't Say You Love Me while it's a trip back to ISISIS with the epic Let's Take One More Rocket To The Moon. But for a sad, autumnal sounding affair you can't go far wrong with I Bet You're Mad At Me. All quite, quite lovely indeed.
Singles: Breathe (#4); Don't Say You Love Me (#15); Here I Go (#25); All This Time (#25)

Electric Blue (Andy Bell solo) - Barely 10 months after the excellent Nightbird was shockingly rejected by the British public (though was their most successful album for a while), Andy went solo on the mixed bag club-orientated album Electric Blue. And for sure, the album is more Sylvester than Erasure - and more celebratory than the sombre Nightbird. Despite the fact that Andy Bell looks like Grace Jones on the cover, it's a decent set of songs designed to get you on your feet. For me, it does lack Vince's synths, though of course if they had been there it wouldn't really have been a solo project would it?! Dogged by bad singles choices (Crazy instead of the gorgeous ballad Rest of Our Lives; I'll Never Fall In Love Again instead of dancefloor stomper Delicious), there are still gems to be found. I'm not a massive fan of the Jake Shears duet I Thought It Was You (though that could easily have been a club hit), but Caught In A Spin and Shaking My Soul are proper good slices of electronic dance. A woeful lack of promotion meant that only hardcore Erasure fans checked this out...
Singles: Crazy (#35); I'll Never Fall In Love Again (NR); Rest of Our Lives (NR); Delicious (NR)

Union Street - the third Erasure/Erasure linked album in less than 18 months was an acoustic rendering of some of their smaller hits and album tracks. As I have always loved a more reflective melancholy Erasure, this set of tunes was custom made for me. The track above is their gorgeous Nightbird track I Bet You're Mad At Me, which wasn't on the album, but on the lovely Boy EP which fleshed out the Union Street tracklisting even further. Stay With Me is by far a highlight for me, but as it is one of my favourite Erasure songs ever, that is hardly surprising. Home and Tenderest Moments are also beautifully presented here. Yes it's true that often Andy Bell's voice benefits from a more vast production scale, this set of lesser known tunes stripped down to their purest form show that Erasure really do know how to write a decent tune and can sometimes pull off a more restrained performance. Their acoustic tour accompanying this album was quite lovely.
Singles: Boy (NR)

Light At The End Of The World - (check out my original review here) It stands true that Erasure (and probably pet shop boys/depeche mode) are past the point of winning over masses of new fans with each release. That certainly doesn't mean they should give up making new albums, especially when they are as peppy and upbeat as this one. It's almost like taking Wild and Chorus, putting them on the same stage they were many years ago but giving them different lighting - it's certainly a more *pop* album than anything since Chorus. I Could Fall In Love With You has Vince's traditional synth wizardry running through it, while the lovely Sunday Girl is epic electro-pop heaven. An EP of alternate mixes and remixes (Storm Chaser) was released which enhances the album and gives the listener the opportunity to put together their ultimate version tracklisting. The extended mix of Sucker For Love brings out the beauty of the song, while When A Lover Leaves You really should have been a single - it's as lovely as Happy Ending by Mika (particularly with the lovely strings intro from the EP). It wasn't particularly revolutionary or cutting edge, but it was a consistent set of well composed emotive love songs, and really after 25 years that is what Erasure does best.
Singles: I Could Fall In Love With You (#25); Sunday Girl (#32); Sucker for Love (NR); Storm In A Teacup (NR); When A Lover Leaves You (NR)

Seeing as Pop - The First 20 Hits had a perfect chronological tracklisting, I can only wish that Erasure had been given more singles success from their latter albums. My own personal Pop 40 tracklisting would be as follows...

DISC ONE - Enough Is Enough (With KD Lang)/Rage (with Lene Lovich)/Always/Run To The Sun/I Love Saturday/So The Story Goes/Stay With Me/Fingers and Thumbs/Rock Me Gently/Sono Luminous/In Your Arms/Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me/Rain/Worlds On Fire/Freedom/Alien/Here In My Heart/Perchance To Dream/Always (2009 mix)/Fingers and Thumbs (Soundfactory Edit)

DISC TWO - Solsbury Hill/Come Up And See Me/True Love Ways/Magic Moments/Breathe/Don't Say You Love Me/Here I Go Impossible Again/All This Time Still Falling Out Of Love/Crazy/I'll Never Fall In Love Again/Rest of Our Lives/Delicious/Boy/I Could Fall In Love With You/Sunday Girl/Sucker For Love/Storm In A Teacup/When A Lover Leaves You/A Little Respect (Avantara Remix Edit)/Always (Manhatten Clique remix edit)