Tag: Erasure

Saturday Flashback: Erasure – Take A Chance On Me

“There were several interesting choices here.”

Tom: Erasure: synthpop legends. Thirty-two top 40 hits. Four number 1 albums. And “A Little Respect”, which has joined the understated but incredibly lucrative pantheon of “songs most people know”.

But they also had a number one EP, with four Abba covers on it. It was enormously popular, which makes sense given how well Abba write songs, and how well Erasure produce them.

There were several interesting choices here.

Tim: Oh, blimey. That’s…not what I was expecting. Well, the music is, anyway, as it sounds exactly like I’d expect an Erasure cover of this song wou– WOAH that middle eight has hit just as I’m writing these words, and suddenly the video’s no longer the most interesting part of the song. Really quite something, isn’t it?

Tom: I am reliably informed – by Wikipedia – that the middle eight is a “ragga-style toast performed by MC Kinky” who is “the first white female reggae/dancehall MC”, and that there is a list of things that I am utterly unqualified to even speculate about. It is basically the early 90s in musical form, and yes, it’s really quite something.

Tim: It’s not something I’d choose to hear again, nor probably something Benny and that lot had in mind when they wrote it, mind, but still something.

Erasure – Loving Man

“It doesn’t have a Big Pop Hook anywhere.”

Tom: It seems like every band’s chucking out a Christmas album this year in an attempt to rake in the cash. And Erasure, who’ve been going for nearly thirty years now, have provided with a new Christmas album called “Snow Globe”.

The first single is called Gaudete, and it’s an electro cover of a traditional Latin hymn. It’s also a bit dull, as are most of their Christmas covers, so instead here’s something a bit more, well, a bit more pop.

Tom: It doesn’t have a Big Pop Hook anywhere — have you noticed how all Top 40 songs are all about the hook now? — and so it feels more like the album track it is rather than the big single.

Tim: I don’t know, maybe not a Big Pop Hook, but it’s a got recognisable chorus line to it, and the “I’ll be your loving man” is fairly memorable. And it a good way – it’s decent, even if it is just a hook with a small h.

Tom: But it is a lovely album track, even if it is sitting oddly between much more calm Christmas fare.

Saturday Flashback: Erasure – Love To Hate You

Everything about this is brilliant.

Tom: As regular readers may remember, I’m in Australia for most of this month. I was meant to be reporting back about Australian pop music, but since it’s basically identical to the UK (as I write this, “Gangnam Style” is number one) there’s not much to tell.

Tim: You know, if this was a serious site we could have a talk about globalisation and why it applies to some tracks and not others and oh God, I’m bored already, so let’s move on.

Tom: Instead, here’s an absolutely amazing 1991 single from British synthpop duo Erasure, that I first heard last time I was in Australia. Close enough.

Tom: Everything about this is brilliant. The subtle sample (or “blatant rip-off”) of I Will Survive. The nonsensical lyrics. The disco beat.

Tim: That is brilliant – especially the sample.

Tom: And the video: oh my, the video. It’s like they had a hundred brightly-coloured ideas and said “screw it, put them all in”.

Tim: I particularly like the sweater he’s wearing in the flat that looks like they’ve shorn a sheep, gathered it all up and thought “this is what clothing’s made of, right? Let’s just wear it as it comes, then.”

Tom: One of you dancing in a wetsuit while the other looks on like a Michael Stipe impersonator? Sure. Do it. Give us another chorus.