Erasure - Erasure (anniversary celebration)

UK release date: October 23rd 1995
UK album chart peak: #14
US album chart peak: #82

Buy Erasure (the album) here (Amazon UK)
Read my Erasure album anniversary posts here

It seems incredible (yet absolutely true) that Erasure are celebrating nearly 35 years of being in the music industry. And not just being in the music industry but being pioneers of an incredible & constantly evolving pop sound that has served them and their (rightly) enthusiastic fans so well for over three decades. Fans are currently lapping up their glorious new album, The Neon, but - as always - it is worth stepping back to revisit the 25th anniversary of what would turn out to be one of my favourite album of theirs, the self-titled Erasure. It came a mere 18 months after their phenomenal I Say I Say I Say album and was heralded as an experimental sound for the two fellas - to long time fans, however, I think the progression towards this project is clear. Songs like You Surround Me, Am I Right and Take Me Back all point towards their exquisite expertise in delivering a more introspective instrumental whilst tracks like Sometimes and Victim of Love proved their ability in mixing melancholy with exhilarating music. Erasure (the album) took all those elements and - with help from producers Thomas Fehlmann (of The Orb) and Gareth Jones - blended the magic together to craft an album that sounds as beautiful and timeless today as it did twenty years ago. 

Clocking in at ten tracks (plus an intro) and seventy minutes of music, no song on the album was less than five and a half minutes long. While this ensured songs had to be edited down for radio play it meant that listeners of the album got the sense that the music was really allowed to flow and breathe, letting a natural conclusion be reached rather than conform to the three minute constraints that radio often demands. In a way this is probably what made it feel more of an experiment as an Erasure album, although once again the duo had laid the foundations for this with 10 years of extended mixes, remixes and alternate versions of album songs that were equally as intriguing. The album was introduced via the single Stay With Me - and those opening chords from Vince's Oberheim Xpander synthesizer herald in one of the finest pop songs ever written. It's a beautiful love song that focuses mainly on Andy's plaintive and yearning vocal to guide the mellifluous melody forward as the gentle synths that underscore it crescendo alongside the celestial tones of the London Community Gospel Choir. It all becomes a heavenly (action) experience and a song I truly never tire of listening to. The follow up to this was the perkier (musically) Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day). I love that Erasure chose to release a song with the word Summer in the title in the hectic Christmas market (and that -even at one of the most competitive times of the year - it still made top twenty). Despite the effervescent, galloping instrumental it's quite the sad song that considers the juxtaposition of basking in the glory of love's comforting rays and then being left out in the shadows by an ill considered action. Andy once again gives a sterling vocal that sends shivers down your spine - when he sings "how can you say it doesn't matter much to me?" you feel every ounce of frustration in his impassioned delivery. 

A third (and sadly, final) single from the album was released to some European markets in the form of a dramatically edited and remixed Rock Me Gently. As the album version was over ten minutes long and featured a free form vocal from Diamandas Galas it was a necessity that resulted in another gem for the masses. In it's reswizzled format a new drum track was added in a way that complemented the lullaby nature of the song - and while there is no Diamandas in the middle 8, pan pipe effects accentuate the aura of drawing on the organic essence of true love. The London Community Gospel Choir show up again here and gently buffer Andy's vocal as they wrap the song with a wonderfully textured elegance. Though the album perhaps didn't reach the commercial expectations set by it's predecessors there was still an embarrassment of musical riches that could have been mined for further single release. I was always entirely smitten by Sono Luminous - and while it showed up as a live version on the Rock Me Gently CD single it surely deserved a wider audience that single release could have given it. Those haunting, echoing underwater sound effects that open the song make it feel like it's emerging from the briny deep to present itself to the world. The redemptive power of love runs through the song and Andy's vocal is as edifying as the narrative he sings. It's a song of hope, joy and optimism; a song that restores my faith in mankind every time I hear it merely by the fact that something so beautiful exists at all. 

A taut edit of any of the remaining tracks could have yielded any combination of fourth single possibilities. Each fan of the album will have the own preference and opinion. Beyond Sono Luminous, the lustrous Love The Way You Do So is a track that always grabs my attention. I don't know whether it is the poetic nature of the lyrics, the opaque reference to ABBA (via the On & On & On lyrical refrain) or the gorgeous synths that appeals - perhaps it is the combination of all 3. The way that synth is an equal duet partner with Andy is quite beguiling. I also love the sequencing of the track's production - and how it ebbs into the equally lovely song which follows it. Angel continues the theme of the all-consuming nature of love with vivid, poetic lyrics that are like bold brush strokes against the musical tapestry they sit alongside. I remember listening to this song and longing for a relationship that would make me connect to the power I felt emanate from the music, giving me the dreams of endless possibilities that I hoped one day would come true. Words I type here will fail to do the songs and album as a whole any justice - I can only urge you to a) dig it out and listen to it all over again if you quite rightly already own it or b) shuffle yourself on down to your nearest record shop emporium or online retailer of choice and dive into the inviting waters that is this superlative piece of work. An absolute diamond of an album that deserves all the praise it can get :)