Erasure 'Stop!'

Chart Peak: 2
YouTube

Vincent "No Middle Names" Clarke and Andy Ivan Bell have had consistent chart success since 'Sometimes' in late 1986... 'Stop!', taken from the Crackers International EP, made No.2 in January 1989.

That middle names thing would have worked better the other way around, surely?
I must admit that even though I remember the EP charting at the time, it didn't occur to me until I looked it up yesterday that the title Crackers International was because it came out in time for Christmas. There was even a second 12" format which included a version of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', though the release finally reached its peak at the turn of the year, when 'Mistletoe and Wine' dropped 1-5 after Boxing Day. It shares with 'Sometimes' the honour of being their highest-peaking original material.

Though the duo offered four brand new songs here, 'Stop!' was the undoubted lead track and one of their catchiest efforts despite some rather daft lyrics, including the "jump before you look/get hung up on a hook"  rhyme that I remember kids at my school making fun of. At less then three minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome either: for those taking notes at the back the version here is the fadeout edit from the original 7", not the slightly longer version that appears on some other formats.

Also appearing on: Now 9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54
Available on: Pub Jukebox: 120 Original Hits

Erasure 'Sometimes'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

Charted at No. 68 on 21st October 1986, made No. 2 for Vince and Andy in early December. The follow-up 'It Doesn't Have To Be' has already charted.

I don't want to give the impression that the structure of this blog is any more thought-out than it is, but one advantage I've discovered of it not being in chronological order is that I sometimes get to revisit the same acts over a wider span of time than I otherwise would have done, and on occasion that means that my view of an act changes over the years. It seems to have been the case with Erasure, whom I started out thinking I didn't like at all, but as I've listened to more and more of these albums I feel I've caught up with them a bit and I even have this particular track on my MP3 player, ripped from a cheaply-acquired compilation CD; not this one though, as this is one of the tracks dropped from the CD version of Now 9 (which I haven't got anyway).

I must admit I have no memory at all of 'It Doesn't Have To Be', although I can see it got as high as 12 (actually a relatively low position for Erasure in the late 80s). It wasn't always like that, as Erasure got to the slowest start of any of Vince Clarke's big acts; their first three singles peaked at 55, 100 and 85, so this hit came along at the right time to launch them as a successful act - nearly 27 years on they have become easily the longest partnership of Clarke's career, even if they're no longer a major singles act. Knowing roughly when it was released, I'd falsely believed that this was one of those breakthrough hits helped by the post-Christmas lull, but as the note above makes plain it was actually before that, and was still Top 5 at Christmas, ironically outperforming an Alison Moyet single, though Depeche Mode didn't have anything out at the time.

I realise at this point that I started the first two paragraphs with "I", and this is now the third. But I do remember the song well, even if I didn't quite recall the release date correctly. Somehow, the line "It's not the way you leave your clothes upon the bathroom floor" stuck in my mind, perhaps because it wasn't the sort of thing I was used to hearing about in pop music then; of course it also made more sense to my eight-year-old self than all the lyrics about going to bed together that I didn't really understand then. I couldn't quite figure out the lyric about "sometimes the truth is harder than the pain inside" either, but then again I was used to not understanding songs back then. Looking back, I guess it's about a man going back to a partner who's mistreated him ("it's the broken heart that decides") somebody he possibly doesn't even like that much but is still drawn to because of their sex life. He knows it's not really right but he just can't stop himself. I wouldn't call this emotionally intense, but it's a decent pop song and Flood's production has dated surprisingly well, underpinning the synthpop you'd expect with acoustic guitars and what sound like they might even be real trumpets. Possibly this is why they made their debut Top Of The Pops appearance (miming of course) with no keyboards on stage and Clarke unconvincingly strumming on a steel guitar, anticipating the look George Michael would adopt for his 'Faith' single a year later. Anyway, it's a surprisingly satisfying confection. I do like Erasure sometimes.

Also appearing on: Now 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54
Available on: The Circus

Erasure 'Drama!'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

'Drama!' was Vince and Andy's 9th big British hit single in the last 3 years... It reached No. 4 on 1st October 1989 and 3 weeks later their album shot in at No. 1.

I've always had a bit of an ambivalent attitude about the use of punctuation marks in song titles. On the one hand I quite like the idea of them, but on the other they often seem to be an attempt to oversell the song itself. I suspect Erasure were aware of this and used the exclamation mark with some sense of irony in this case, but I must admit things don't start brilliantly; when I started watching the video I found myself looking at the cat  and trying to work out what sort of car Vince Clarke was sitting on more than I was able to concentrate on the song.

Things do pick up a bit as the song digs in a bit. I can understand this more as an adult than I would have at the time, as there's a resigned, exasperated quality about it: as much as Andy Bell bemoans the "infinite complexity of love" he ends up acknowledging the "ultimate necessity" of it too. I also like the big massed backing vocals of "GUILTY!" which seem like a precursor to some subsequent Pet Shop Boys material. It still feels a tiny bit unfinished to me, though, as if it could have been even better.

I think it might be a Hillman Avenger, by the way.

Also appearing on Now 09, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54
Available on: Wild!

Erasure 'Love To Hate You'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Another synth-pop duo founded in the previous decade, this time with a nominally original song, although there's an obvious "homage" to 'I Will Survive'; other parts reminded me slightly of 'There Must Be An Angel' and the theme from the Golden Girls, though these might not be intetional. I don't know whether Andy Bell is trying to look like Tim Booth in the video either...

Anyway, I recalled this song as the point when Erasure seemed to go really weird on us, although I can't now remember whether that was something I'd concluded for myself or just a received opinion. I wasn't quite old enough in 1991 to recognise the hints towards sado-masochism in the song. Either way, it tends to leave me cold, as a lot of Erasure songs do, and whilst I recognise that this may in some ways be intentional, it doesn't really encourage me to keep listening.

Also appearing on: Now 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54
Available on: This Is... 1991

Erasure 'Who Needs Love Like That (Hamburg Mix)'

Chart Peak: 10 [55 in 1985]

YouTube

Once upon a time, Erasure were just the latest Vince Clarke project, and their debut single was a song called 'Who Needs Love Like That', which peaked at 55: not a great success compared to the Top 10 debuts of Yazoo and The Assembly, but still outdoing 'One Day' by Vince Clarke and Paul Quinn, which only spent one week at 99. Seven years later they'd proved themselves to be Clarke's most durable partnership, and marked the occasion with the first of many hits compilations and this remixed version of the song; pedants will note that the title becomes 'Who Needs Love (Like That)' on the cover of the 1992 single.

The record industry being what it is, I can't be sure that what I've found actually is the remixed version. Still, it's indentifiably the right song and it sort of confirms my recollection; one of the catchier Erasure songs (one of the few written by Clarke alone) but not one that dissuades me from making the obvious 'Who needs Erasure" joke. I've developed something of a grudging respect for them over the time I've been writing these posts, not least because I've been returning to the early tracks which I like more than their recent material. Still, they're not an act I've ever really been charmed by.

Also appearing on: Now 09, 10 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 54
Available on: Total Pop!: The First 40 Hits

Erasure 'Blue Savannah'

Chart Peak: 3

Last.FM

Who says I never listen to reader feedback?

Obvious jokes aside, it's come to my attention that Now 17 was suggested as a good album to write about, and here it is. Of course, the slight downside is that my mission to get out of the Eighties hasn't got that far, only a few months into 1990 (and in fact, this first track was available on album in 1989).

Unlike 'The Circus', 'Blue Savannah' is a song that I distinctly recall hearing at the time. As I said last time, Erasure seemed to have taken up permanent residence on The Chart Show around this time, and I remember that odd video with the blue hands; that and joking that it was about a Renault. I also remember that I didn't like it very much then (although if that seems harsh, at least it made some impact on me: I don't remember the other three singles from this album at all). Now I'm older I'm a bit more sympathetic to what they were trying to do, and the mood they were trying to create; and I can see why it wouldn't make any sense to an 11-year old. I still wouldn't say I liked it though - for me it just doesn't capture the loneliness or dryness of the desert Andy Bell's singing about. Vince Clarke had proved with Yazoo that he could convey haunting emotion (admittedly with the unfair advantage of Alison Moyet's voice) and yet Erasure have never really work for me in that way.

Also appearing on: Now 09, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54
Available on: Hits! The Very Best of Erasure

Erasure 'The Circus'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

It came as a slight surprise that this was only Erasure's third Top 10 single, because I thought I remembered them having being more or less a constant run of the things throughout the second half of the decade. They certainly seemed to be in every Chart Show Indie Chart, while I was trying to work out what that word meant.

Mind you, 'The Circus' isn't a song I remember hearing at the time. And indeed, although I remember that I heard it on the radio a few weeks ago, I don't remember what it sounded like from then either. Even when I've listened to it to this, the tune hasn't stuck with me. In some ways, there's an obvious comparison with 'Hey Matthew', in that they both seem to be trying to make some rather vague point about the travails of modern life, and the style is similar. But somehow the Erasure record charms me less, possibly because I've never cared for Andy Bell as a vocalist, or because I know Vince Clarke could do better than this, or because I've heard so many other Erasure songs that sound similar.

Also appearing on: Now 09, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 54

Available on: Erasure Pop!: The First 20 Hits