Erasure - Light At the End Of the World - 2007

To me, personally, I felt that after Chorus, and more so after I Say I Say I Say, Erasure began a steady decline into mediocrity.  Each album continued to get more and more progressively bland, and I was less apt to listen to them enough to even recognize melodies or lyrics.  So, after the incredibly dull Union Street, and then suddenly Andy's releasing solo stuff, I figured "Well, I guess Erasure's done..."

2007 rolls around, and I see this incredible cover that takes me back to Wild days.  Holy cow!  In 2007 around that time, I had started getting bored with the Brit Rock stuff from the previous 4-5 years, and I was in desperate need of something new.  This album fit perfectly in that slot.

It's a great album, probably my favorite in the new millenium.  All of the songs seem happy, bouncy, and full of Vince being inventive and innovative.  Of course, Andy's voice is as good as always.  The melodies he created aren't as creative as previous, but they still have that definitive pop standard that makes it easy to remember the words and melody, so you can sing along.

I have the b-sides and a couple non-album tracks, along with 2 discs of remixes under the Stormchaser cover.  This one brings fond memories for me.....  Haven't listened to the new album yet (I'm downloading it now) but I hope it's a good one, too!

Erasure - Light At the End Of the World - 2007

Storm Chaser

Erasure - Welcome To the Glitterdome - 1992

 

I've never actually seen an Erasure concert.  And not just live, for realz, in the flesh and blood.  I've seen maybe 20-30 seconds of a single song, on a documentary or something, and that's it.  Don't know why...  I also have only heard the concert from the video they did for the Wild! Tour, and this one.  That's it.  (Same goes for PSB)

I find it hard to get a full, live translation of their songs, as they are all pre-programmed studio recordings anyway.  I mean, yes, it would be cool to see Vince and Andy, but you hear this whirlwind of music, and it's just Vince up there 2-fingering a keyboard (that sounded naughty.)  It's not as if all of the sound is being constructed right there in front of you, as it is with guitars and drums and maybe some piano and strings.  That being said, if that's the case, I'd rather just listen to the album.  Better than listening to Andy sing along to an accompaniment track.

Regardless, those two Erasure shows I mentioned are great to listen to.  To me, these shows were Erasure at their best, when I loved them most.  I like every song they play, and Andy is really magnetic as a stage performer.  The sound on this is great, and the covers were fun to make.  I'd slide this double disc set inbetween Chorus and Abbaesque. 

Erasure - Welcome To the Glitterdome - 1992

Erasure - The Circus - 1987

 Yay!  I'm back online!  Amazing, isn't it?!  To be honest, I'm rather impressed with how my technician from AT&T set up our system, and the programming seems to be a lot better, too.  Still too many channels, though.  It's almost overwhelming. Now, all I have to do is get a VPN and I'm back in business....

This one took me a little while to get used to.  I got this after I had Wild and the Innocents, so the style is obviously very different.  But, I now listen to it compared with a lot of later Erasure from the 2000s, and I can see them taking cues from this one.  Although it's not my favorite album of theirs, it is definitely quintessential Erasure, by far.  It's a wonderful listen, even though I don't have any recollection of it from my youth.  Only my late teens and early 20s.

I never did like the layout of the 2-Ring Circus, so I've adjusted and added and taken out all of the live material.  Again, the live material will be "realized" in the next couple weeks with my "Live Week".  But, adding all the mixes really makes it whole.  All of the mixes fit onto 2 discs, but there are still two "single remixes" that didn't fit, so I just tagged those on as a couple extra tracks.  I actually had fun making the cover for the Remix discs, as I got to type along a curve, which I hadn't done before.  I should do it again, sometime....

I've caught up a bit.  I've got cover art made through the 24th of March, and I have scheduled out all my albums through mid-June.  And, there's still a lot more than that still to come.

Master Edition

Remix Edition

two tracks

Untitled - A Compilation

This is the track listing from the very first time I sat down to make a real mixtape.  I was probably 18 or 19, and had dabbled with taping my favorite songs off of the radio or other tapes.  But those other tapes were cobbled together with no rhyme or reason, just a hodge podge of miscellaneous tracks that I had put onto tape so I could listen to them in my Walkman when I was out.  I mean, you can't very well take a record player out with you.

At the time I made this tape, you can look at the track listing and see that a lot of fantastic material had been released pretty much all at once.  I had my favorite tracks from every album release by these artists, and I wanted to listen to them all, without having to haul 10-12 tapes/CDs around with me, trading them out as each track ended.  So, I pulled my favorites, and sat listening to them, then arranging them in a way that sounded good.  Back then, you didn't have any music on your computer (if you even had a computer), so it wasn't like you could load the tracks in your WinAmp and hit shuffle.  No, this was a very careful and deliberate process that took a while for me to come up with the right arrangement.

I made the tape, though, and used it in my car, listened to it while I mowed the yard, and played it when I went to friends' houses.  It was pretty good.

I've rearranged some of the tracks as years have gone by - only added the Ian McCulloch about 1998 and traded the Cocteau Twins track from Heaven Or Las Vegas to Dials (and then plugged it on the end of the mix).  But, as for the rest, this is the same setup I made back in 1990-91.  And, I still listen to it about every other month or so, to this day.  To me, this comp represents the best these groups had to offer, at the peak of their popularity.  Every song is quintessential to what these groups/artists are.  They are all lush, romantic, and full of emotion.  They are perfectly written, and perfectly performed.

To this day, I still don't have a name for this collection.  It's still, to this very moment, Untitled.  But, to me, that might be the best way of describing it, too.

Untitled

Erasure - Crackers International - 1988

I want everyone to know that this is probably my least favorite Erasure album/EP from the 80s and 90s.  I think the lead singles, Stop and Knocking On Your Door are freeking obnoxious.  Of course, the other 3 tracks on the EP are great. The Christmas songs and Hardest Part are really true sounding Erasure tracks.  I'd put them on a GH album any time.  But those other two....  ugh!  They grate on my nerves! The remixes really save the day, though.  Mark Saunders, one of my top 10 remixers, really pulls both of them out of the mire for me.  The other mixes aren't bad either....

I wanted to post this album, though, because of the Christmas theme.  This is my last post until the 28th, as I'll be out of town for the holiday, and I wanted to wish all of you a happy holiday.  Merry Christmas, folks.  I hope you all are able to spend time with the ones you love, eat to your heart's content, and keep the peace and remember HIS gift.  That's all I've got for you, have a great weekend!

Erasure - Crackers International - 1988

Erasure - The Innocents - 1987

Sorry for the late post tonight.  I took my five-year-old to see the Secret Life of Pets at the second-run theater.  Pretty good movie, well worth seeing or purchasing.  Clean and wholesome, without any adult innuendo anywhere.  Plus, I got to spend the evening with my little guy.

As for the Innocents.  This was my second Erasure album, after I had fallen in love with Wild!  I like this one a lot, quite a few great songs on here that aren't singles, but I think they should've been like Heart Of Stone and Imagination.  I love both of those songs.  Even Yahoo! could've been a single.  The b-sides are good, except for their version of Good Bad Ugly.  That one's just plain dumb.

I'm not sure about the cover, in that I like the way I've cut all the empty space out, but I'm still not sure that I like the way I did the Erasure logo.  I couldn't find a chiseled style that matched color with the graphic.  I like the style of the logo, I just couldn't get the color right.  Does it work for the rest of you, or no?

Lastly, I am moving down to one album a day, including the weekends.  I'll try to save my bigger specialized posts for those days.  But one is all I want to commit to, right now, especially with the holidays coming up.  I've been suffering from some burn-out ever since I came back from working on my rental property way back in September.  I used to have a months worth of covers & albums ready in advance, but I'm now down to just about 2 weeks worth.  It may sound like a lot, but I need that buffer just in case of any unforeseen circumstances.  Like now.  Plus, I still haven't been able to get my music hard drive to respond, so we have some issues, there....

Anyway, listen up to Erasure's American breakout album. A solid slice of pure 80s synth.  Gotta love it.

Erasure - The Innocents - 1987

Erasure - Loveboat - 2000

It's always mystified me why Loveboat was so unpopular?  The two singles were just two of the more than excellent songs on this great album.  I was living in Kansas City at the time, and I remember loving it because it felt cold and sterile, yet beautiful and comforting at the same time.  Of course, when I was living in KC, and this album came out, I didn't get it until mid-December, so it was very cold out.  And then I listened to it through the entire winter.  I almost like the fact that it wasn't so popular, as it made it seem like it was more personal.

Regardless, I liked it.  I liked it better than "Erasure", Other Peoples Songs, Nightbird and Union Street, so it can't be that bad.  In fact, of the 16 albums that Erasure has released, I would honestly  put this as #7.  Solid.

I changed the color of the front cover to match the color of the single sleeve I used for the back.  There's only 2 decent b-sides, and I put my two favorite mixes on at the end.

Erasure - Loveboat - 2000

Erasure - Wild - 1989

I posted Wild a month or so ago, so if you'd like to read what I think about it, click the Erasure label on the side of this blog.

These are my favorite remixes from Wild!  I loved the artwork of all the singles, and used the Supernature logo for the cover.  I did a lot of tinkering with the filters on Photoshop, and I think I really did the logo justice by adding some dimension to the letters.

I loved the remixes from this album.  You had Mark Saunders and William Orbit, two of my favorite mixers.  Also, some great mixes from Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones as well.  What I love about these mixes, is that they released some really great versions of b-sides as well as album tracks.  Most artists out there only remix the title track of their singles, so I take that as a bonus.

No fan mixes, though.  I can't find any that are worth a shit.  If you think you've found a fan mix that I should include, drop a link in the comment section, and we'll all take a gander.

"I lie in a dreamlike state and wonder if this fear will go away..."

Great music...

Erasure - Wild - the Remixes - 1989 - Disc One

Erasure - Wild - the Remixes - 1989 - Disc Two

Erasure - Wild - 1989

My Senior Year in High School had a lot of good music.  Cure released Disintegration, New Order released Technique, Depeche Mode released Violator, and Erasure released Wild.

The other groups, I had been familiar with, as I had all of their albums and followed them voraciously.  Erasure on the other hand, I knew Chains of Love and A Little Respect, but that was it.  I knew nothing of the Vince connection to DM, hadn't heard any of their other songs, owned none of their albums.

I just happened to see this album while I was looking for something new to purchase, browsing all the bins, looking for something different.  Depeche Mode had a Mute label, hmmm, and these guys had a Mute Label.  Well, maybe I'll give them a shot.  And that is when I fell in love with Erasure.

It started with that album along with the quick purchases of Drama and Blue Savannah.   Wonderful.  The ACTUAL singles, especially the imports were nearly impossible to locate, and without the internet, the regular 7-inch single mixes of Supernature, Runaround On the Underground, and Dreamlike State didn't happen until well into the 21st century.

I love all of the single sleeves.  They're all very pretty.  That's why I felt compelled to use the Drama 7-inch sleeve for the album this time.  I have TWO remix discs yet to post, and those will have variations of the Supernature Maxi-Single sleeve.  I will be posting those later this summer....

Erasure - Wild - 1989

Erasure - I Say, I Say, I Say - 1994

I have to say, that when this album came out, I was a little disappointed.  Erasure had just come off two spectacular albums, Wild and Chorus, so my expectations were very very high.  This album came out amidst a glut of College Rock and Grunge, along with Britrock and Techno.  So, you've got these guys stuck somewhere out in left field.  I'm glad that they didn't bow to peer pressure and change their sound just to fit in with the grunge/industrial scene, like Depeche Mode did with SoF&D, they stayed true to who they were, and created some well-crafted tunes.  Unfortunately, you could definitely tell by now that the 80s were long gone.

I really did like the album art on this one.  It fit the sound, and every piece was unique despite being almost identical.  When I found the Christmas one, though, a couple years back, I knew I had my remix disc cover, which is what you have here.

Disc one is the album flush with b-sides right down the middle.  All-time favorite b-side is Truly, Madly, Deeply, while my favorite album track is all through the years.

Disc Two is the best of the mixes... well best according to me.  They all fit together, though, and sound really good.  I love the Beatmasters work here and with the Shamen.

Hope you enjoy.

I Say I Say I Say

So the Story Goes - The Remix Disc

Erasure - Chorus - 1991

 I listened to this one on my CD player with big fat headphones, trudging through the snow on the way to class at the University of Nebraska.  Wind cold, bitter chill as my breath left my lips, eyes watering for fear of freezing.  Dim, overcast, winter.

And thrust into Chorus, and Breath of Life, and Over the Rainbow, and finishing it up in the snow again with Home.

Yes, there were bits of Autumn in there, but most of it was cold and snowy. And the music kept me alive.  It exudes warmth and passion, even Vince's instrumental b-sides.  I remember extolling the work of the album to people on numerous occasions.  And, a lot of the remixes are as good as the album tracks, as well (but, that's another disc, another day.)

Favorite tracks? Breath of Life, Love to Hate You and Perfect Stranger.

I didn't do much to this one, other than plug the b-sides in between "side one" and "side two".  Plus, a few unreleased tracks, too.

Great album for a winter's day.  It'll take the chill off.

Erasure - Chorus - 1991