ERASURE OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS ALBUM MUTE, PLAYGROUND RELEASE: JANUARY 27, 2003 REVIEW: JANUARY 28, 2003

It was with some trepidation I started to listen to this album. Erasure’s latest effort “Loveboat” is really bad in my opinion, with boring songs, annoying singing and pretty sloppy mastering. So what have the lads done this time? Well, this album started out as Andy’s solo project, but Vince thought it was so much fun to do covers he wanted to be in on it. Said and done, they started choosing songs, and called in producer wiz Gareth Jones.
The end result is a solid cover album with some really good tracks and some more uninteresting ones. It does sound unmistakably Erasure, and the sound leans towards the “Chorus” album, I think. I’m glad this album is more enjoyable than "Loveboat", because I have been listening to Erasure for a long long time, and they are one of my favourite bands ever. Thus it has been sad to witness their decline the last couple of years. That said, this album hasn’t completely restored my faith in them, because I want a really strong album with their own songs. I want the duo back that made classics like “A Little Respect”, “Sometimes”, “Leave Me to Bleed”, “Siren Song” and many more. And this album contains a little too many dud tracks. "Video Killed the Radio Star" for example, could have been wonderful, but is actually kind of boring to listen to. The first single "Solsbury Hill" is fabulous though, as is the upcoming single "Make Me Smile (Come up and See Me)". Both are true pop gems.
I have a feeling Erasure are going the safe route by making a cover album, partly because of the great success they had with “Abba-esque”. It seems they don’t trust their own songs anymore, which is a shame. On the other hand, Andy and Vince are doing what they do best; three minute pop songs about love. And they sure have made the songs sound like their own, which is what covers is all about for me. Also, there’s always that unmistakable superb synth sound to make a song more interesting.
All you synthesizer freaks out there, check out the pictures of Vince Clarke’s collection of analogue synthesizers at www.garethjones.com.

JOHAN CARLSSON