Jase on Erasure

Cowboy

Erasure's latest release is one of their best. The songs are quick pop masterpieces, with great music and vocals. My favorite tracks are "Rain", "Don't Say Your Love is Killing Me", and "Save Me Darling". I could do without the remake of Blondie's "Rapture", but the Burt Bacharach tune "Magic Moments" from the Lords of Illusion soundtrack is very catchy.

"In My Arms"

"In My Arms" is an interesting song that wants to be both a ballad and a dance track. It works at a certain level, as the memorable tune sticks in your head. "In the Name of the Heart" is a somewhat forgettable b-side.

"Rain" Plus

This is a nice little package from Europe. It's pretty rare for a European single to have so many tracks. I guess that's why they added the "Plus" to the title.

Erasure

Have I mentioned that I think naming the album after the band is dumb? Erasure is an album full of well-written songs. "Stay With Me" and "Fingers & Thumbs" are classic Erasure songs. So why did I give this album a less-than-stellar rating? Because this album is way too long. Listening to this album is like listening to a collection of extended remixes. I would rather just listen to a short version of the song on the album, but these 11 songs rack up about 70 minutes between them. This is way too long. The beautiful "Rock Me Gently" is interrupted by four minutes of wailing by guest vocalist Diamanda Galas. This album would be perfect if it were just a little shorter.

By the way, there is a great acoustic version of "Stay With Me" on the single for that song.

This is a good single principally for the short ("commercial") version and the beautiful guitar mix of "Stay With Me". "True Love Wars" is the song from which the Erasure album intro "Guess I'm Into Feeling" comes.

"Rock Me Gently" is a beautiful song that is way too long on the album. The single mix is thankfully shorter and has a little bit more of a beat. "Chertsey Endlos" is a fantastically catchy b-side. The live version of "Sono Luminus" features Andy singing along to Vince and Nic Johnson playing guitar. For a minute Andy can't remember how the song goes and exclaims, "We can't do it without a computer!" Once they get started, though, the performance is great.

I Say I Say I Say

Erasure comes back several years after Chorus with this great album. The songs on this album are less "poppy" and more thoughtful. The programming is very well done, and it sounds great on a good stereo system. "Because You're So Sweet" is my favorite song on this album. There are a few dumb rhymes in "Always", and the choir in "So the Story Goes" is not my favorite. Still, this album is one of their best.

The singles from this album have cool covers. They look similar to the cover of the album, but each one in a different season. There is a nice version of "Because You're So Sweet" on one of them.

This single is worth picking up for the great instrumental b-side "Tragic", which sounds as its title would suggest.

"Run to the Sun"

Despite its short running time, this is a great disc. The remix of "Run to the Sun" is fantastic, and it's pretty rare for me to like remixes that much. "Tenderest Moments" is also a memorable b-side.

Pop! - The First 20 Hits

This disc is a fine collection of Erasure first singles. There isn't much here to attract faithful fans of the duo, however. The single versions aren't much different from the album versions and there are no new tracks here. Consequently, I didn't pick this album up until seven years after it came out.

"Who Needs Love (Like That)" (Hamburg Mix)

With the release of Pop!, Erasure re-released its first single. This time it added parentheses to the title. This disc has a new remix of the song, which is pretty good. There are also two resurrected b-sides and a remix of "The Circus". It's a good collection.

"Who Need Love (Like That)" (Phil Kelsey Remix)

I ordered the Hamburg Mix disc and got this one instead. I can understand the mistake. Both discs have the same label number. Luckily, I did eventually get the one that I ordered, but they never asked me for this one back. Luckily (again), I didn't have to pay for this one because it's not very good. The remix of "Ship of Fools" is as long as its mix name, and the rest aren't much better.

Abba-esque

This little collection of ABBA covers is fun to listen to every once in a while. My favorite here is "Lay All Your Love on Me", although "Take a Chance on Me" was the designated "single" from the EP. (This latter song, unfortunately, includes a dumb rap segue by MC Kinky.) Of course, this isn't the first time that Erasure has covered the Swedish fab four; they released a live version of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" (with a "Money, Money, Money" intro) on the Two Ring Circus album.

Incidentally, the ABBA-imitating band Bjorn Again did a two-track disc of Erasure songs ABBA style. It's called Erasure-ish.

Chorus

The song "Chorus" starts off with this kind of "winding up" sound. (I don't really know how to describe it.) It's kind of cool, but I'm not sure it's worthy of using over and over in the album. Chorus is not a bad album, but I was a little disappointed when I bought it. The songwriting doesn't seem to be up to snuff. "Waiting for the Day" is my favorite, and "Perfect Stranger" is good (except for an annoying "La La La La" at the end).

"Chorus"

None of the remixes here put me in a trance, but "Over the Rainbow" is a very good b-side. "Snappy" is an OK instrumental.

"Love to Hate You" is a pretty good song, although I'm not sure why they tried to make it sound like a live recording. The remixes here aren't very interesting, and the b-sides are equally ho-hum.

"Breath of Life"

I don't think this is one Erasure's better songs, so a bunch of remixes doesn't do a lot for me. The b-sides don't sound too bad, but I've purposefully not paid attention the the lyrics to "Waiting for Sex".

Wild!

Wild! is an appropriate title for this album. You have to give Erasure credit for creating a very diverse-sounding album. There's something about this album that I'm not too "wild" about, though, and I'm not really sure what it is. I think there is something about the sound of the album that I don't really like. It could be because the music and the vocals were produced in two separate sessions. "2,000 Miles" is a stinker, and "Star" could be better if it had a bass line. Still, Wild! is not bad.

"Drama!"

"Drama!" is the kind of flamboyant song I would expect to get from Andy Bell more often. This CD is good for the b-sides, especially "Paradise".

"Blue Savannah"

This is a very good single despite "No G.D.M.", a lame gay song. The mixes aren't bad, and the rendition of Lene Lovich's "Supernature" is very cool. "Runaround on the Underground" is a decent instrumental.

Thankfully the single version of "Star" has a groovy bassline, unlike the album version. "Dreamlike State" is a slow tune... kinda dreamy...

Crackers International

This EP is really like two singles put together. "Stop!" and "Knocking on Your Door" are both catchy songs, although a little over the top. "The Hardest Part" and "She Won't Be Home" are both good tracks, as well. It seems to me that Erasure played both on the Wild! tour.

The Innocents

The Innocents is most Erasure fans' favorite album. It is very good. I think some of the songs could have been mixed better, but the songwriting is top-notch. "A Little Respect" is my favorite Erasure song. "Phantom Bride", "Heart of Stone", and "When I Needed You" are all very good songs. "Sixty-five Thousand" is a dumb instrumental, and I could do without the cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" with unchanged lyrics.

"A Little Respect"

"A Little Respect" is one of the greatest songs ever written and my favorite one by Erasure. The b-sides here are OK, but the single is great for the a-side.

The Two Ring Circus

This album is a collection of alternate versions of the songs from The Circus. The first seven tracks are remixes, and are pretty standard as far as remixes go. The last six tracks are live recordings. Like the remixes, these are OK, but nothing special. The great portion of this disc is the three songs set to an orchestral accompaniment. These are really beautiful recordings, especially "Spiralling".

The Circus

This is my favorite Erasure album. The songs are extremely well-written, and I love the mechanical sound of the music. The music reminds me a lot of Bach. The only stinker here is "Sexuality". All the other songs are great; "Sometimes" is probably their best single. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt suite is a nice addition.

The European version of Erasure's debut album is a bit different than the U.S. version, mainly from the inclusion of "Push Me, Shove Me" and "Pistol". There are also different bonus remix tracks. Wonderland is full of corny pop songs, but they work pretty well. The music is pretty good, and the production is thin. Vince and Andy started writing together better after this album, but it's not too bad. My favorite song here is "Cry So Easy".

Wonderland (U.S.)

There are no unique songs on the U.S. version of Wonderland, just unique mixes. Here you get the original mix of "March on Down the Line" and a few bonus remixes. The U.S. version falls short of the U.K. version mainly from the exclusion of "Pistol".