Erasure: Total Pop!
Erasure go Total Pop! on a greatest hits collection
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Tuesday, 03, Mar 2009 03:19
Mute Records, out now.
In a nutshell...
Full-on Erasure pop goodness
What's it all about?
Total Pop! boasts 40 tracks from the kings of 80s and early 90s synth-pop Erasure on a two-disc set.
The collection features all the hits from the band's five number one albums and includes 17 Top Ten singles such as A Little Respect, Blue Savannah and Victim Of Love.
As well as a double CD package and download, Total Pop! will be released as a special four-disc deluxe edition that includes a live disc and a DVD featuring classic BBC performances by the band from 1986 to 2005, ranging from Top Of The Tops to Later.. with Jools Holland.
Who's it by
Erasure are Andy Bell and Vince Clarke and for more than two decades they've been working together, in the process they've sold in excess of 15 million albums worldwide.
Their pop anthems of love, lust and longing first rose to the fore in 1985 with Who Needs Love (Like That) reaching their apex at the end of the 80s and into the 90s with A Little Respect and the Abba-esque EP.
Perhaps their star has faded since those heady days but their sound and fan base has matured, as has their talent for crafting exquisite pop.
As an example...
"Angel made in Heaven/I don't want another/My angel from Heaven." - Heavenly Action
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Not with, what is essentially, a greatest hits package, however, a Brit or an ME gong for distinguished service to the vagaries of pop might well be in order.
What the others say
"Total Pop! shows just why Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have sold more than 15 million albums around the globe, proving themselves masters of every kind of song, from disco symphonies to unplugged ballads. Total Pop! is choc-full of Erasure's special blend of danceable, tinkley-bomp pop campness - what's not to love?" - Gaydar Nation
So is it any good?
Ah, it brings back fine memories of taping the Top 40 off the radio back in the 80s when you had to be very nimble or you'd get inane DJ waffle over a song's intro, and there in the thick of that blessed pop wonderland were Erasure, firing on all cylinders with the twinkliest odes to modern love and yearning.
When you heard early songs like Who Needs Love (Like That) and Oh L'Amour back in 1985 and 1986, the latter given a second bite of the cherry thanks to Dollar in 1988, you just knew this band had captured the mid-80s zeitgeist and could craft classic pop records.
Both tracks get an airing on the two-disc collection that is Total Pop! as does the Top Ten breakthrough hit Sometimes from the autumn of 1986.
It was that track, a blend of hi-energy synth, brass and Andy Bell's torch singer vocals which sent a shiver up people's spine, and still does, while confirming the arrival of definite musical talent.
Throughout their career, Erasure haven't been afraid to experiment and follow-up hit It Doesn't Have To Be (Like That) from February 1987 adds a brilliant set of African rhythms to the sparkly pop mix and Victim Of Love, released in May of that year, heralds the summer, full of sunshine perkiness amped up thanks to Bell's versatile voice.
With the haunting and accomplished Ship Of Fools we're into 1988 and quite possibly Erasure's greatest year. They had four massive hits that year and their sound had developed into a majestic soundscape to rival that of Phil Spector.
The year opened with Ship Of Fools which reached number six in the UK charts and saw Andy and Vince working with producer Stephen Hague, who returned to produce the band's masterful output throughout 1988.
Chains Of Love, released at the end of May, was a soaraway synth-assisted ballad that oozed bravado.
In the autumn Erasure delivered, with Hague's presence, the anthemic A Little Respect which solidified their position as Britain's kings of pop. A Little Respect was radio-friendly in the extreme and simply magical.
Into the 90s and Erasure greeted the new decade with the Enya-goes-synth charm of Blue Savannah. It was overwrought and wonderfully over-produced but there was no doubting the boys' ability to stay at the top of the pop pile, as the song reached number four in the charts.
The early summer of 1992 saw grunge, rave and the emerging sound of Britpop asserting control of the UK charts but Erasure undermined all that with the marvellously OTT Abba-esque EP, that also features on this collection and still brings a smile to one's face, fusing the ultimate pop of Abba to the bleepy-bleepy syntho quality of Erasure, while the rap supplied by MC Kinky, in perfectly in tune with the fusion-led music scene of the early 90s.
Later in the year, Erasure re-released Who Needs Love (Like That), albeit a high camp amped to the max version remixed by the band and Andy Bascombe. Who Needs Love '92 charted at number ten.
The second CD opens with the beautiful Always from 1994, a track that could be seen as the band's swansong in terms of chart success, as from then on the hits didn't come as thick and fast despite the kinetic yet vaguely embarrassing attempt of capturing the undeniable energy of rave culture with Run To The Sun which charted at number six in the summer of that year.
Perhaps Erasure were hoping to emulate the success of Abba-esque two years before but by 1994 the charts were beginning to unravel and their fans were no longer in thrall to the dictats of the Top 40.
The rest of the second CD features the band' late 90s and early 21st century output which includes gems like Rock Me Gently and the acoustic guitar-meets-lo-fi splendour of the seriously underrated Freedom, a track that marks the band's fondness for musical experimentation.
There's also their bravura electro take on Solsbury Hill from 2003, fusing cyberspace with folk magic.
Another 21st century Erasure highlight on this disc is Don't Say You Love Me from 2005. It's a track that is part-Goldfrapp, part-Embrace and all the better for it.
Even though Erasure haven't regained their late 80s peak, these later tracks have charted rather respectively with Solsbury Hill at number ten and Don't Say You Love Me at number 15.
For your money, you get two discs full of the zing of pop nostalgia and the thoughtful and equally thrilling more recent material that prove Erasure are not out of the game just yet, and rightly so.
10/10
Lee Davis