I’ve always found it hard to get a handle on Erasure. I end up filing them in the same headspace as ELO: remarkably successful, remarkably long-lived pop craftsmen who are generally – as here – enjoyable but only very rarely hit any sort of emotional or even conceptual payday. After playing all four ABBA-esque covers I couldn’t help myself: I cued up the Pet Shop Boys’ “Where The Streets Have No Name / Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” medley and had forgotten anything I might have liked about Erasure within ten seconds.
But they were never a poor man’s PSBs – there was something intriguingly different about Erasure, the way their two halves never quite gelled: Vince Clarke’s sleek, tidy, heads-down synthpop and Andy Bell’s roaming, reaching vocals. On their best singles the clash was productive – a track like “Drama” seems lopsided and unwieldy but it absolutely works: both men are fizzing and they end up going in the same direction. More often the potential was missed: on their worse tracks one or the other seemed bored.
The problem with ABBA-esque is that they both seem scared to cut loose and play to their strengths instead of the songs. Bell is subdued, in the shadow of Frida and Agnetha’s pristine takes. Clarke fiddles around at the edges of the tracks but only on “Voulez-Vous” shows much sign of wanting to strip them down and refit them. The whole project roars to life exactly once, when MC Kinky takes over for thirty delightful, crass seconds in the middle of “Take A Chance On Me” and shows the song a little creative disrespect at last.
The “Take A Chance” video, on the other hand, caught the tone of the next several years of ABBA revivalism: wigs out, tunes ahoy, kitsch as you like. Like most great pop bands ABBA fitted their time so well that they were utterly vulnerable to shifts and revisions in the meaning of that time. This was the high point, the crossover moment, in a long-building rehabilitation of the 70s, an acknowledgement that if it was (as The Face sniffed) “the decade that taste forgot”, maybe forgetting taste was a pretty smart idea? The 70s were proudly naff, therefore ABBA were proudly naff. I’m not against that – it opened up the space for the other sides of them to be remembered, and it’s quite possible that without the Bjorn Again-Erasure-Gold domino topple I wouldn’t love them so much now.
But this EP seems overshadowed by the rediscovery it helped spark – Erasure’s versions, zesty at the time, simply don’t touch the originals on any level. The songs are terrific, of course, and the record is in a different world of care and effort than a KWS. But if a singer as florid as Andy Bell can’t have fun with “Lay All Your Love On Me” then somewhere an opportunity is being missed.
Score: 5
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A lot of acts survive on having a bit of mystery, and Erasure fitted into this. Their first hits followed on from the Mode / Assembly / Yazoo / continuum, all different in their way but clearly made by the same person.
In some ways it was more of a surprise that Erasure continued together for as long as they have, seeing as how Vince left (or broke up) his other units.
Anyway, this one made them break overground, they were now in the same bracket as Abba, they achieved a pre-sold public who would continue to buy their records in slowly diminishing numbers without adding new takers.
At some point they stopped being ‘classic’ pop radio certs, maybe because Radio moved on as much as Erasure ‘matured’.
Oh, and it’s difficult to recall the video for this without accidentally including French and Saunders in it.
A classic example of a great pop act getting a long overdue #1 with one of their very worst recordings, and ruining their legacy in the process.
Actually I’m not entirely sure Erasure would have been well remembered regardless, but it’s a shame they aren’t – beyond A Little Respect and Sometimes – because they had some absolute corkers at their peak.
Special mention must go to arguably their only truly significant hit post ABBA-esque – Always. What a beautiful melody that song has. In fact despite their gaudy imagery, it’s the more downbeat numbers that really stick out for me in their catalogue. Always, Ship of Fools, Fingers and Thumbs. Wonderful.
But yeah, this was fun at the time but outside the context of the ABBA revival it helped to inspire, the covers are at best unnecessary (LYLOM) and at worst utterly ghastly (Take A Chance On Me).
Plus the video was a career killer if ever I saw one.
My main issue with this version is that it isn’t in the right key, so Andy Bell sounds thoroughly constricted.
Tom, I see your ELO and raise you a Hot Chocolate. Erasure were almost permanently in the Top 10 in the mid/late 80s but are generally remembered for a couple of songs – Sometimes and A Little Respect – while things like Victim Of Love and Ship Of Fools, more than decent, super-catchy, are in the same lost boat (ship?) as HC’s Put Your Love In Me and Love Is Life.
Ha! I like the way JLucas and myself are in such complete agreement on Erasure’s legacy.
It’s not quite a Belfast Child but this EP did kill their imperious chart run stone dead (eleven Top 10 hits, two more stalling at no.11), didn’t it?
(actually bothers to check… no it didn’t, 3 straight Top 10 hits followed this, but I don’t remember any of them).
RD Cook’s early (1982) warning shot aside, the critical and cultural reappraisal of Abba did not begin in earnest until the early nineties. In the intervening decade since their split they had continued to be regarded with slight suspicion, and the general consensus, from a music press which still couldn’t find it in itself to forget 1976, was one of a somewhat embarrassing MoR hand-me-down looked at with only the remotest corner of the farthest eye. Erasure’s original intention had been to record a full album of Abba covers, but in the end they boiled it down to a four-track E.P. featuring industrious interpretations of “Lay All Your Love On Me,” “Voulez-Vous,” “Mamma Mia” and the lead track “Take A Chance On Me.” The project, with the associated diligent period and dress recreations in its videos, and the unavoidable side-effect of camp, was unexpectedly successful, and an important floodgate towards the parent group’s rehabilitation. It came in the wake of the Abba Gold compilation, which is likely to continue selling forever; “Dancing Queen” was reissued and returned to the top 20; the tribute acts thrived, especially Australia’s Bjorn Again, who later in 1992 repaid the compliment by releasing an E.P. entitled Erasure-ish, featuring four of their songs redone in the Abba style, and outsold virtually every other group who played at the Town and Country Club that year. You are right to feel a shiver.
No doubt there was an element of the nascent and wretched guilty pleasures phenomenon in all of this, which was still missing the point of Abba somewhat. And it has to be said that Erasure’s readings, though clearly heartfelt, are aesthetically scarcely one rung on the ladder up from KWS. The duo can best be described as the Hollies of their era; solid, reliable hitmakers, rarely innovative but always craftworthy, with the occasional flash of true inspiration (“Blue Savannah,” “A Little Respect,” “Chorus,” “Stop!,” the latter their best and most euphoric hit) peeking through the general electro-studium. As proven by the show we caught at Hammersmith Odeon in mid-1991, they were capable of superior entertainment, but this didn’t always translate to their recordings. They were among the most consistent hitmakers of the 1986-92 period covered on their Pop!: The First Twenty Hits compilation (as doomed a title as Abba’s The Singles: The First Ten Years); again, as with the Hollies, scarcely out of the top ten but hardly ever at number one.
Their “Take A Chance On Me” suffers on three distinct levels; firstly, because the song was conceived for female voices, Andy Bell can’t attain the high ranges of Agnetha or Frida, or would come across as ridiculous if he’d tried, so sings it in mid-register. Unfortunately this means the song being stripped of its theatrical peaks and bows – he can’t recreate the aghast exasperation of “some say that I waste my time,” nor lends the song sufficient depth to lend the “I’m gonna get ya/I ain’t gonna let ya” couplet the carnally conspiratorial whisper it needs. Secondly, in an effort to simplify the song to accommodate Vince Clarke’s usual, bustling electrothrob, its many subtleties are steamrollered over; for instance, the crucial question mark harmonic two-step ascension which follows the “It’s magic!” in the original bridge is ignored entirely, thereby turning the track into a rather blustering blunderbuss of a cover. Thirdly, although guest rapper MC Kinky was ideal for “E”-Zee Posse’s thundering 1990 hit “Everything Starts With An ‘E’,” her chortles about Special K and machine guns are in this context crass and thoroughly unwanted. One ignores the holding back in Abba’s music at one’s peril.
#4 A look at everyhit seems to suggest this is untrue. Many hits between positions 20 and 10. As it was before this one.
(ach, you edited as well.. anyway, continuing..)
Then again, a lot of cover versions…
Aside from the aforementioned ‘Always’, their biggest hit in the USA and a long-running (though sadly seldom played now) hit over here, yes, totally killed their career.
Another good comparison (though a much lesser pop act) is Geri Halliwell’s cover of It’s Raining Men. Conversely her biggest hit, but also (particularly in the wake of the equally crass ‘Bag It Up’) made sure she was strictly gay interest only from then on.
I’ve heard compelling arguments that Kylie Minogue would have suffered a similar fate if she’d released the ace but extremely OTT ‘Your Disco Needs You’ from Light Years.
To clarify, Erasure have had many chart entries since ABBA-esque, but only Always was anything more than a fanbase hit. Who Needs Love Like That was a reissue of one of their earliest recordings, and Run To The Sun was a total blink and you’ll miss it top tenner (though a very nice song).
Of the four tracks I thought their ‘SOS’ was best (and I can hear an Erasure rendition of ‘The Visitors’ all too well in my head). Not a patch on their singles from even the previous year (I like ‘Chorus’ and ‘Love To Hate You’ a lot) but they deserved a chart-topper having scored seven top 4 hits by this point.
#8, yes but “Who needs love like that” nobody really got to hear it at the time, and “Oh l’amour” had been grabbed by Dollar by then.
I view Vince and Andy’s homage as a parallel to Carter/Carnavon’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. ABBA had been largely forgotten/passed over/disregarded by the tastemakers, but of course, ABBA were as close to the personification of Pop, as King Tut was the perceived personification of Amun Ra. So we have a kind of Hall Of Mirrors effect going on here, where the source of light is obscured or just around the corner. If I had never heard an ABBA record before, this would have fuelled my curiosity to explore further.
The songs are resistant to parody, but ABBA themselves…?
Thankfully, Vince and Andy plus Bjorn Again have no curse to haunt them.
the consensus up-thread is that they WERE cursed by this release — which makes Erasure Caernavon and Bjorn Again Carter if i recall my cursology correctly
I think this is probably around the time when I realised that ABBA were a) disco b) AMAZING. My only prior experience of them was a mouldy tape with Fernando and The Winner Takes It All on one side and a top 40 from 1987 on the other that lived in the car glovebox. I thought they were OLD and RUBBISH and on a par with Dire Straits in terms of boringness. Scratchy, sepia and dirt-encrusted, like the cardboard inlay of that tape which had been left out in the sun too long. Obviously I’d heard Waterloo and Dancing Queen by that point, but surely they were by a completely different band who were FUN and COLOURFUL? That ABBA lived on the TELLY, not on a crusty tape. Shortly after this I inherited my very own tape deck and speakers for the first time and realised that all these dualistic conundrums could be solved by continually rewinding All Songs Ever and copying down the lyrics on pink notepaper.
3 for Take A Chance On Me (the one that got all the radio play), 8 or 9 for Voulez Vous, 7s for Lay All Your Love On Me and SOS, so I guess that makes an average of 6 or so. Is it a shame that the one track I don’t like was the only one that most people have heard? Or is it just that my taste is at odds with popular opinion? If TACOM hadn’t been so popular, we’d probably not be discussing this here, after all. But I bought this EP at the time, listened to Voulez Vous and SOS a lot, don’t feel any regrets, and would advise anyone else to listen to the full EP before coming to a conclusion.
ps i really like this metaphor as a route into thinking about retro and revivals and so on: the Tut-effect exploded into everything from Art Deco to Sun Ra and the Nation of Islam, and the idea it stretches from “wonderful things” to deadly infected mosquito bites is excellent…v
Abba-esque EP was released three months *before* Abba Gold (3rd best-selling album of all time in the UK). So Abba-esque perhaps served as a greatest hits trailer – or at least a reminder – in the public consciousness (I presume Polygram had already slated Abba Gold for release by this time).
It’s perhaps worth mentioning that Depeche had a *very* Abba-ish track, Photograph of you on their first post-Clarke album (it breaks down to Mamma Mia piano at the end).
And U2 covered dancing queen all through 1992, most notably in June in Stockholm with Bjorn and Benny on stage with them.
Anyhow, I agree with Tom’s review, except that I’d be a little more negative about Erasure generally (Andy Bell’s voice just has no character as far as I’m concerned and that then seems to expose the limits of Clarke’s musical imagination) and about these tracks in particular (only the Voulez-vous sounds at all good to me). I suspect that this this e.p. would have been much less of a hit if Gold had come out four months before it rather than four months after:
4
I’ve always thought of Erasure as being an excellent singles band, which I’m aware is both a cliche and a backhanded compliment. It’s something of a simplification, but Clarke’s career post-Depeche seemed to focus on adding depth, intricacy and class to the basic pop he’d created during his brief tenure with them – a lot of his contributions to “Speak and Spell” sound incredibly immature and basic now, minimal in an amateur demo tape way rather than an “arty” way. Depeche Mode, on the other hand, went on to emphasise their more introverted, moody, neurotic tendencies apparent on the first album with the likes of the less-than-subtly-titled “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead”. There’s plenty more I could say on this topic, and I know there’s way more to both acts than just that, but that’ll do for now!
I could list the Erasure singles which still stand out as excellent pop to me, and even some rare gems, such as “Drama!”, which were arguably as skewed and interesting as Depeche’s prime work (a friend has actually mentioned to me that “Drama!” picked up quite a bit of evening Radio One play but not so much daytime play, but I don’t have the stats to hand). The trouble is, “Abba-esque” just didn’t do it for me at the time. It felt like a dry, ironic joke of a record rather than the exercise in appreciation we’re all told it was supposed to be. The truth is you probably could do particularly interesting synth-pop or techno interpretations of many Abba tracks, but none of these bring much new to the party, and the fact that the video for “Take A Chance On Me” just seemed like a particularly poor comedy sketch helped matters none.
I bought a lot of Erasure singles and albums during the eighties and nineties, but this was one I passed on. If only we could have been discussing “Sometimes” on here… a much more deserving number one.
I remember reading elsewhere that “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” was essentially Vince Clarke taking the piss out of the idea that they should fit into that pre-Dare stereotype of early synth bands (c. late 1970s) being po-faced, gloomy and/or austere. (A bit of checking does confirm that the song is his work.)
The fact that Clarke did this whereas Depeche Mode minus him quickly turned- unironically!- into their spiritual heirs and *the* dark, gothic (etc.) synth band of the 80s and 90s just makes more obvious that wondering how DM would have turned out if Clarke hadn’t left is academic.
Even if Clarke hadn’t left as soon as he did, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have done so sooner rather than later due to the band pulling in two completely different- and incompatible- directions.
Frankly, by this point, with each band at or approaching its commercial peaks- Erasure releasing this uber-camp ABBA cover, and Depeche Mode during their post-“Enjoy the Silence” 90s heyday- they were so different, it’d probably have been incongruous to think that the guy who went on to found the former was ever in the latter, let alone its dominant creative force…!
Oh, I wasn’t suggesting Vince Clarke didn’t write “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” – the only non-Clarke song on “Speak and Spell” is the unfortunately titled instrumental “Big Muff”, which prior to “A Broken Frame” was the only Martin Gore song which had ever been committed to record. It can’t have given the press much to enthuse about when Daniel Miller insisted he was a capable songwriter too.
Depeche carrying on with Vince would also involve us having to imagine what “Only You” would have sounded like with Dave Gahan on vocals, something which doesn’t feel workable (that may be because Alison Moyet did such a brilliant job, but it’s not just that – The Flying Pickets managed, after all). DM were offered the song as a parting gift, but turned it down. What might have been…
If I remember rightly, radio and TV (including TOTP) got sick of Take A Chance once the laughs had dried up, about halfway through the EP’s chart run, and instead started playing Lay All Your Love On Me (complete with naff-looking forest-set Snow White/Little Red Riding Hood video)?
there’s something too pantomime-like for me about the TACOM video and a lot of Erasure’s performances – where I suspect they were trying to add something more captivating than Andy Bell’s rather earnest yet anonymous vocals. not only does this attempt a 70s pastiche but the synths still sound as if they’re stuck in the 80s.
I have distinct memories of quite a lot of props for Abba from various people in the New Pop/New Romantic era and IIRC Phil Oakey was always biggin them up and that respect never really died away in the around 10 years until this* and the more ironic take on them.
Personally I found the post-early 90s ironic/camp interest in Abba as annoying as one of those terrible Channel 4 Saturday night countdowns of various things (a personal bugbear of mine) which often seem to mine the same vein.
*Not the actual Erasure recordings as its obvious they actually appreciate the songs for what they are ie great pop songs and not as part of something that’s most important function is to spark feeble ‘jokes’ about 70s fashion.
one of the things i’ve always been struck by about erasure — without exactly admiring — is the degree to which they seemed to want to make “being gay” be more about “being a bit earnest and ordinary” than “being amazing and witty and glittery and special”, a sort of “dowdy second-hand camp”, on the (correct) principle that “special” is actually always a bit double-edged in this kind of territory (as “prejudice suspended for celebrities only”)
problem is this is an interesting idea which somewhat squelches the possibilty of interesting music or performance: it’s true that if difference isn’t being noticed, it isn’t being discriminated against, but pop that isn’t being noticed is a bit of a sad phenom
and this may be no more than me rationalising the fact that i vaguely approved of erasure without once ever actually enjoying them
By the way, many thanks to P^nk S for the big up @15. The whole Retro thing is something I feel I need to investigate further. I bought Simon Reynolds’ book, but alas have not had time to read it yet. Also, I’d like a differnt perspective on this subject. Are there any other recommendations out there?
I had no knowledge of Erasure’s chart stats post-ABBA-Esque, so the curse did strike in a way. Bjorn Again, however seem to have gone from strength to strength in the nicheWorld the have created for themselves. I would recommend seeing them live if you get the chance.
#21 – I remember listening to Capital Radio in the mid-eighties when they were doing a charity show where members of the public had to ring up and pledge money to hear records by particular bands. The DJ seemed shocked and stunned (and said so) when Abba’s “Dancing Queen” got the lowest pledge score of all the records broadcast across the four hours or so, which seemed to suggest to me that their audience had abandoned them. Their last few singles were also (comparatively speaking) poor sellers in Britain.
I don’t remember the eighties being particularly accommodating to the band, but then nor do I remember people laughing up their sleeves at them much. They just seemed to spend a surprising amount of time being ignored.
It’s interesting that some of the smartest and most creative figures of eighties pop – Oakey, Horn, McKenzie/Rankine, McCulloch, Costello, Tennant/Lowe were the ones who stayed true to Abba when they were unfashionable. It seems right to mention that I was pleasently surprised by Blancmanges cover of The Day Before You Came (for me the finest of all Abba songs) when I first heard it about 3 years ago as it turned out to be (almost) as moving and enigmatic as the original, I say almost because the Blancmange singer didn’t quite have the lonely yearning in his voice that Aghneta had.
Vince Clarke hinted at being another Abba loyalist with that piano interlude on A Little Respect but Abba-esque just seemed like a bemusing diversion. Also like the majority of 1992s number ones it seemed to outstay its welcome a bit.
I’m in two minds about Erasure too. I was sitting in a pub a few weeks ago where their greatest hits were being played and each one sounded just fine. This is a group who wrote the glorious Oh L’amour after all, and that was one of their flops. The strange thing is if someone were to ask me was I an Erasure fan I wouldn’t instanly say yes. Why is that? In the current relativist climate we’re all suppossed to be ever so comfortable in our tastes and yet still I find there are some artists who it just feels odd to admit to liking.
#19 etc. Something went gloriously right here, for Erasure, and each track got its fair share. TV and TOTP went for Take A Chance On Me (though Voulez Vous got an early TOTP, I think). The most heard of the 4 tracks at radio (Radio 1 + ILR) was LAYLOM, then SOS got significant airplay (though not usurping LAYLOM). TACOM was preferred by the time of Radio 1’s year end Top 40.
@19 My recollection is, conversely, that “Lay All Your Love On Me” was the track that got all the initial attention and airplay (I had the sense it was being promoted because it was a lesser known Abba track than the others on the EP – back in those final days when Abba were still a bit associated with dusty 1970s naffness), and that “Take A Chance On Me” (and its inappropriate rap, and emotion strained beyond Vince Clarke’s capacities) only really got attention later on – possibly with the video being released later, too. I wonder if this recollection is correct, or if my mind is playing tricks on me…
Not sure I quite agree that this EP killed Erasure’s career: I think it’s just that their relatively limited (if deep) pool of songwriting/performing talent more or less dried up.
“Pop!” is a fine album, it’s true – some wonderful, often quite understated, singles – “Breathe of Life”, “Am I Right?” stand out for me, as well as the more obvious gems of “Ship of Fools”, “Sometimes”, “O L’Amour” (although it must be said that the pale nodders towards Abba that were Dollar did a better job of it – perhaps Erasure should have got a female lead singer to increase their range) or “The Circus”.
Because essentially they ploughed a narrow seam: they were great at expressing vulnerability, loneliness, and occasionally (as on “Drama!” a kind of lopsidedness and awkwardness) – and perhaps the level of commercial success they had for a few years (in a way, quite strangely: as they weren’t really a conventional pop/chart band, despite superficial appearances on the contrary) made excessive demands on them, that lesser known colleagues at Mute Records remained untouched by.
And so they ended up, post-Abbaesque, with some quite dull stuff, before temporarily being reduced, a la Beautiful South, into doing cover versions that didn’t suit their style at all.
The real problem was that Andy Bell’s voice – despite the odd flight of fancy – had a relatively limited emotional, as well as technical, range, while, secondarily, the stiltedness of Clarke’s keyboarding – which had worked so well, when organized on a strictly formal pattern, as in Yazoo’s “Only You”, or Erasure’s “The Circus” – became increasingly restrictive (as is readily apparent on the Abbasesque EP); there was only so far they can go. And after they lost that path it appeared there was no way back. Although, with sunset falling on SAW and the re-ascendancy of guitar-led pop that had been gaining ground from 1989, and really soared forth from 1991, something culturally had changed, leaving Erasure behind. So the fault was not entirely theirs.
All that said, this isn’t a bad or even mediocre set of performances.
@22 I think that point about Erasure and their presentation of “gayness” is quite astute. The comparison that Wichita makes early on in the thread with Hot Chocolate (albeit for different reasons) I think also has something to it, in as much as Hot Chocolate perhaps suffered, at least in terms of perceived credibility, for not quite fitting into the contemporary British expectations of what constituted “black music” stereotype, Erasure were often dowdy, grey rainy day at a run-down seaside town, not sparkly and spangly and shiny. Neither group quite fitted in with contemporary prejudices or categorisations, and perhaps suffered, at least at the time, for it.
Don’t forget Vince’s Yazoo song “Goodbye 70’s.”, which is a very honest appraisal of the horrible disco years.
On my CD copy of the EP “Lay All Your Love On Me” is the lead track, and I believe the vinyl is the same way. But it’s “Take A Chance On Me” that’s collected on Pop! so I can’t be sure.
I like Erasure. I say this only actually owning Pop! (I got it from a charity shop for £1, and in fact that was only because I always feel guilty exiting a charity shop without buying anything). But it’s wormed its way into my heart (the fact I spent an evening with only it for company as I pulled an all-nighter on some Physics probably helps) and it’s clear Erasure were capable of magic – “Sometimes”, of course, “Oh L’amour”, “Victim of Love”, “Ship of Fools”, “A Little Respect”, the exclamation-pointed triumph of the immediate and obvious “Stop!” followed by the wonky “Drama!” (which gave, of all people, The Jesus & Mary Chain their highest chart appearance), “Love to Hate You” (that couplet about “I like to read a murder mystery/I like to know the killer isn’t me”)… and “Take A Chance On Me”. Most of its sheen is probably that of the original tune (conversely I don’t like Erasure’s “Lay All Your Love On Me” much chiefly because I don’t like ABBA’s all that much), but it’s bouncy enough. I veer more to punctum’s side on the rap than Tom’s (an act of mischievous tampering that in this case destroys more than it creates, mainly because everything grinds to a halt before it begins).
Amusingly enough despite the agreement upthread that they were a great singles act it’s Then Play Long that has to deal with them five times (though it’s nice to see Lena will get to grips with two of their finer numbers).
Oh, one last thing: the only #1 single for Mute, I believe.
#27, The recollection about radio’s preference (in the first para) – is correct (see #26). Radio went for “Lay Your Love On Me”. Guess you were writing when it was posted.
As for the reason, I too definitely thought at the time that the Radio 1 arbiters were self-consciously opting for the least known track of the four. Now, I wonder if I missed the obvious: Was it simply that Track 1 Side 1 (see pic, and #29) was the easiest option?
What are Erasure’s total sales in the UK versus the Pet Shop Boys’?
My recollection is that Radio 1 (especially the top 40 countdown) and TOTP only played ‘Take A Chance’, but my view may have been narrowed a bit by a focus on those two programmes. The Chart Show only played ‘Lay Your Love’, which is, I suppose, the reason I bought it.
At the time it seemed very strange that producers faced with an EP with four tracks (with four professionally produced videos) would always choose to play the same one, week after week.
Things like Oh L’amour and Sometimes are OK I suppose, but, honestly, the first thought that occurs to me in both cases is ‘Would be measurably, perhaps 50% better if Moyet was singing it’. That is, now I think about it, it isn’t just that Bell’s voice strikes me as somewhat anonymous, it’s that the character it does have inclines towards and seems to invite comparison with Moyet’s. Compare with Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17: his voice is slightly anonymous/generic, but he never sounded like an approximation to Oakey so at least Heaven 17’s stuff got to stand on its own merits, didn’t come pre-shadowed/pre-refuted as Erasure’s largely does for me. Is my sort of reaction unfair? Possibly, but it’s not as though Clarke’s changed things up musically to help avert or forestall the problem. Bernie Sumner would have have always just been a poor man’s Ian Curtis (and New Order probably wouldn’t have amounted to much) if they hadn’t evolved their sound away from the original Joy Division template. But by 1983 NO were already playing plenty of songs that you really couldn’t even imagine Curtis as we’d known him singing – the break was accomplished. Clarke didn’t do anything like that, and he’s paid a price for it. Erasure are, in my view, essentially, ineliminably a minor group.
Ha, I was going to say I was surprised nobody had mentioned French and Saunders yet, until I noticed Mark had alluded to it in comment #1! Just checked and their Abba spoof “C’est La Vie”, with Raw Sex, dates from 1988, so was already getting on for four years old when “Abba-esque” came out, and it really colours your impression of Erasure’s “Take A Chance” video. It looks more send-up than tribute, which is unfortunate. It’s also striking, and I say this as a straight male, how attractive Andy Bell is – and I don’t mean in drag. I’m siding with Punctum on the rap though.
I must not have been paying attention at the time, as the other tracks are pretty new to me. I agree with Tom that “Voulez-Vous” is the only one where they produce something that sounds like it comes from Erasure-world as opposed to a homage to the original. With its sonic effects VV could be up there with the Erasure canon we’ve been enthusing about, “Blue Savannah” a particular favourite of mine.
#29, don’t get the J&MC reference.
@32
I recall, when Erasure had a big hit (Xmas no 2?) with the “Crackers International EP” (perhaps a much more nominal EP than this one) in ’88, while “Stop!” was clearly the lead track and got most of the airplay, Capital Radio also played (increasingly, as the EP’s chart run dragged on) what I think was Side 2, Track 1, “Knocking On Your Door” (which was clearly inferior).
Not exactly the same phenomenon, but there’d been a couple of instances in the period leading up to that, where the “lead” side of a highly selling double-A single had effectively been “swapped” mid-way during a single’s chart run (Rick Astley: When I Fall In Love/My Arms Keep Missing You, Matt Bianco: Don’t Blame It On That Girl/Wap Bam Boogie) – even, in one case (the Matt Bianco one ) to the extent of releasing a new cover sleeve with a different design to highlight the previously neglected track. In the latter case it was certainly an effective way of extending the single’s chart life (and probably also highlighted the better track)
I think that Rick Astley one had worn out it’s welcome pretty quickly, also Nat King cole had his single re-released to cash in (successfully), whereas Matt Bianco’s b-side got a lot of club play.
I believe there’s a bunnyable Number One from July 97 which had its side ‘flipped’ by Radio One.
The whole Abba revival brought a wry smile to my face around this time. I remember all too well having the piss taken out of me aged 9 for saying I liked Abba (‘girls’ music’ was the concensus amongst my peer group.) So to have my original instincts confirmed so emphatically was quietly satisfying.
Either I’m listening to something else, or totally missing something important that everybody else is hearing and I’m not (or vice versa).
Andy Bell’s voice, to me at least is one of the more distinctive voices that emerged from the 80s. There is the hint of a wobble on tracks like Sometimes and Stop! which I hear quite clearly as “well that’s Bell’s trademark, innit?”. Someone upthread said “constricted”, but I don’t get that sense at all. He’s not on the verge of sobbing like, say Kevin Rowland but there is in my mind some element of emotion in there; that sense of affrontery which precedes the sobs, the cusp of losing it, even on Erasure’s more joyful outings it’s evident to my ears at least.
@36 – there’s probably no need for me to add to this list, but when the festive season finished, I distinctly remember that Wham’s “Last Christmas” was ditched on the radio (and Top of the Pops) in favour of “Everything She Wants”. I did wonder whether the switch would be enough to propel it to number one at the time, but it didn’t happen.
Re:35, aren’t they supposed to have sung the backing vocals on it?
This was the first record (well, cassette) I ever bought with my own money – I’d heard and liked all four tracks so as an EP it struck me as great value. The ‘trailer’ effect Special Girl AKA mentions certainly worked on me as by the end of the year I owned both [i]ABBA Gold[i] and [i]Pop! The First 20 Hits[/i]. Having revisited the EP fairly recently only ‘S.O.S.’ really holds up but I do have a fondness for a fair few of Erasure’s earlier singles, particularly ‘Chorus’ and ‘Ship of Fools’. Punctum’s “rarely innovative but always craftworthy, with the occasional flash of true inspiration” sounds about right – by the mid-’90s the spark had gone completely I guess.
I should mention that 1992 was the year I really started paying attention to the charts and I [i]really[/i] wish I’d kept the compilation tapes I’d made by recording songs off Radio 1 (or at least the tracklistings) – from what I can remember, my tastes as an 11-year-old were quite, er, AOR.
#41 Ah, now that rings a (and e) bell.
Will @38 – At risk of enraging the bunny, are you thinking of May ’98? None of the memorable #1s in or around July 97 seem to fit the description.
More like September 1997, I surmise. It was all very sad.
I don’t think Radio 1 flipped that one..
TOTPWatch: Erasure twice performed ‘Take A Chance On Me’ on Top of the Pops;
4 June 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Take That, Lionel Ritchie, Utah Saints and KWS. Tony Dortie & Claudia Simon were the hosts.
9 July 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Smart E’s, Dina Carroll, Joe Cocker, Urban Hype and Bryan Adams. Femi Oke & Adrian Rose were the hosts.
They also performed ‘Voulez-Vous’ on the edition transmitted on 13 June 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Incognito, The Wedding Present, Manic Street Preachers and Cyndi Lauper. Adrian Rose & Femi Oke were the hosts.
Light Entertainment Watch: Erasure’s many UK TV appearances include;
BIG WORLD CAFE: with Eagle Eye Cherry, Mariella Frostrup, Erasure (1989)
THE BRITS: with Richard O’Brien, Shakespears Sister, Right Said Fred, Annie Lennox, Tasmin Archer, Genesis, The Cure, Erasure, Simply Red (1993)
DES O’CONNOR TONIGHT: with Erasure (1991)
LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND: with The Pretenders, Erasure, Jonathan Richman (1994)
LIVE FROM THE PALLADIUM: with Dionne Warwick, Ronnie Corbett, Rick Astley, Erasure, Dave Lee (1988)
THE O ZONE: with Erasure (1992)
THE O ZONE: with Erasure (1994)
THE O ZONE: Erasure Special (1995)
PARAMOUNT CITY: with Curtis & Ishmael, Jo Brand, Erasure, Sweeney & Steen (1991)
THE ROXY: with Erasure, Broken English, Alison Moyet (1987)
SATURDAY LIVE: with Ben Elton, Erasure, Chris Barrie, Kit Hollerbach (1987)
THE SMASH HITS POLL WINNERS PARTY: with Dean Cain, Andi Peters, M People, Erasure, East 17, Take That, Jack Dee, Mark Owen, Gabrielle Reece, Michelle Gayle (1994)
TOM JONES: THE RIGHT TIME: with EMF, Erasure, Shakespears Sister (1992)
THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, Simply Red, Erasure, Los Lobos, Yargo (1987)
WOGAN: with Ronnie Barker, Barbara Cartland, Erasure, Elaine Stritch, Sue Lawley (1988)
WOGAN: with Chris Rea, Chris Eubank, Amelia Bullmore, Philip Middlemiss, Erasure, Albert Brooks, Amanda Donohoe (1991)
@11 and @12: And the original victims of the curse were, of course, Abba themselves: Bjorn and Benny the pharaohs sacrificing their marriages to the gods of music, money and fame.
@29: Charity shops always have an Erasure CD, don’t they?