Drama by Erasure

By 1989, Erasure had become relatively popular. Wild! was their fourth studio album, and the last two had been big hits; The Innocents on both sides of the Atlantic. Their first album, Wonderland, had become a collector classic by this time as well.

However, I had one friend in the early 90s who claimed that of Erasure's catalog, only every other album was any good; he discounted Circus and Wild! as too weird and "artsy" as opposed to the more conventional catchy synthpop (focusing on pop) sound of Wonderland and The Innocents. I'm still not sure I agree with him completely--and his pattern was broken after Chorus anyway--but he has a point. While Wild! does have moments of weirdness, it's also hard to argue with some of the classic hits that it spawned, like "Blue Savanah", "Star" and today's selection, "Drama." "Drama" does, in fact, remind me sharply of some of the material from Erasure's mid-album EP Crackers International… maybe not quite as aggressive and dark sounding as "Knocking At My Door" but just as obviously club focused, and well, similar. Crackers International actually makes a nice bridge between The Innocents and Wild! in more ways than one. The dance anthems get more dance centric, and the non-dance songs get a bit more artsy and perhaps a bit less accessible at first blush. Wild! is one of those albums that has to grow on you.

Oh L'Amour by Erasure

When synthpop legend Vince Clark teamed up with newcomer Andy Bell to form Erasure, they would become one of the most enduring collaborations of the genre, and one of the most successful and iconic. It seems odd looking back at it now that their first releases from 1985 and 1986 were actually commercial failures… the album Wonderland charting low and the three singles charting low in the UK and not at all in the US. The singles did get some play in the dance clubs, and made some headway on the dance charts, however. And as Erasure later became big news, starting with The Circus in the UK, and especially with The Innocents in all regions, Erasure's back catalog became a hot item, and their club anthem "Oh L'Amour" became extremely well known, well loved, and well played. It's fair to say that it's become the iconic Erasure song, actually. For me, in the later 1980s, three or four years after it was initially released, "Oh L'Amour" became a fixture of my high school musical experience; I listened to it a lot, I danced to it at almost every dance I went to, and it seemed to become almost ubiquitous. And I still stumble across new remixes of it repeatedly; it's become a staple of the 80s scene, and quite well remembered. For that matter, Erasure seems to have been one of the synthpop bands that weathered the synthpop crash relatively well, continuing to put out reasonably successful releases for many years before the change in taste finally caught up to them.

The song was later re-released as part of a greatest hits compilation, and charted very well at that time. This remix below is actually one of those later remixes, but it's among my favorites.

A Little Respect by Erasure

In 1988 Erasure burst onto the mainstream airwaves of US radio with "Chains of Love" and "A Little Respect." Of course, Erasure had been kicking around for some time already by then, but they hadn't made a splash on mainstream music in the US until then, so I, as usual, had to scramble to collect their back catalogue after I discovered them. Of course, in 1988 that wasn't very deep; it meant, basically, buying Wonderland, Circus, and the compilation/remix album Two Ring Circus. I also, of course, bought the current CD The Innocents as well as the CD single for "Chains of Love" and the 12" vinyl of "A Little Respect." which included a nice extended mix as well as the fabulous Big Train Mix. Erasure has an interesting pedigree, being Vince Clarke's longest running project by far, with a (now) 12 full length albums (not counting compilations, remix albums, and greatest hits affairs) and several EPs as well. Vince Clarke, of course, was the original genius behind Depeche Mode, writing almost all of the tracks on Speak and Spell and all of the singles that were released, including "Just Can't Get Enough." He then had significant success with Alison Moyet in Yaz (Yazoo) and even a hit as a temp project The Assembly.

The soulfull, warm sound of Andy's distinctive vocals and Clarke's distinctive instrumentation really make Erasure what they are. Clarke eventually even further refined his trademark sound in later releases (such as Chorus) to wring warmth and life out of even more artificial and synthetic sounds, which makes his touch instantly recognizeable. I've got a number of Vince Clarke remixes of other songs, and hoo boy can you instantly tell that it's Clarke's.