erasure - chorus

... I still like "Chorus", though. If Erasure could keep their tweeness in check, I think I'd like them a lot.

my problem with erasure is that i like almost everything they've done, but that very little of it stands out. "chorus" is the key exception: it's a triumph of electronic genius. and, i find, oddly moving too.

yes, it's very much their environmental number ... what happens in the video?

"love to hate you" came out very quickly afterwards and i loathed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epvADV9Vr2s

bomb ass toon

and fucking genius vocal arrangement too

1st/2nd fave Erasure song depending on day. ACIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AY88BQZWos

lol I had just moved onto that one, although I was on the official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QES-eQ4lR5U&feature=related

it's really a shame that I despise so many Erasure songs because dude is a fantastic singer

One day I'm gonna make a full CD-worth comp of tunes like "Chorus" and NO's "Fine Time" that represent for acts who weren't Acid but did one great Acid-influenced single.

Vince Clark's melodies are undistinguished, even when they're bright and shiny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4h0L6RKKE

This is the 1st/2nd fave Erasure song on alternate days.

would you put PSB's "Music For Boys" on there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy6cjIUEkfw

My favorite Erasure:

"Oh L'Amour"
"Sometimes"
"Chains of Love"
"Blue Savannah"
"Chorus"
"Love to Hate You"

Seek: the Colin Newman remix/reconstruction of "Fingers and Thumbs." Nine minutes of trance guitar.

I'll be a gentlemen and not quote the alternate lyrics I made up for "Chorus" in younger years.

I still only like "Chorus", "Love To Hate You" and "Chains of Love". "Oh L'Amour" makes me break out in hives.

Both the ones Dan posted are great but I wouldn't consider either among my favorites.

x-post

WAHT

can't find Snappy (spice has risen mix) on youtube but its killer.

My favs

Oh L'Amour
Sometimes
Star
A Little Respect
Love to Hate You

still thinking

I HATE Blue Savannah

Little known fact but Erasure were my favorite group between 13-15 so still hold a special place etc.

RE: "Music for Boys" yeah maybe but it's hard with PSBs cos they did Introspective and quite a lot of Acid-y House Influenced stuff.

Vince Clarke is just not my favorite songwriter; I dislike a lot of his input on early Depeche Mode and only has a handful of tunes that I really get behind, and the big problem with Erasure is that there is a specific type of preciousness behind a lot of their songs that I find overwhelmingly saccharine.

xp: oh actually I'm now used to "A Little Respect", I don't despise that song anymore

if you play "Stop!" in my vicinity I might try to kill you, tho

Andy's dancing in the Sometimes video is something special.

"Vince Clarke is just not my favorite songwriter; I dislike a lot of his input on early Depeche Mode and only has a handful of tunes that I really get behind, and the big problem with Erasure is that there is a specific type of preciousness behind a lot of their songs that I find overwhelmingly saccharine."

lol this is precisely why I love Vince Clark. Yaz(oo)'s Upstairs at Eric's and VC era DM are some of my favorite things ever.

Don't think there is any Erasure song I hate. and didn't they do some crazily pointless "Solsbury Hill" cover

Yeah Vince DM is obviously their finest hour.

you could put Sweet Sweet Baby on your acid mix.

Yeah Vince DM is obviously their finest hour.

no it isn't, not by a longshot

potaytoes pototoes ppl

See this is why I could never seriously post on ILM. I'm too "sure man we like different things, it happens" and not motivated enough to argue

I mean, my unambiguous favorite Speak and Spell song is the one written by Martin, and I thought so before I knew who wrote what

I will give Vince props for "New Life" tho, that's a jam

I HATE Blue Savannah

;_;

New Life is a jam.

Sorry to disappoint Crut - I never liked it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ5qZX0qd88

that outfit is outrageous.

Not posting seriously on ILM is the way to go, E. Also not trying to argue against goth era DM :D

also I love how vince clarke's demeanor in these videos is sort of like "once a Depeche Mode member, always a Depeche Mode member"

Oh I forgot about that one. Another not high on my list. Not a big fan of the slow jamz I guess.

Oh Mr. Bell. That outfit. It's just . . . spectacular.

lol crut I hadn't even seen your outfit comment

Actually I should be fair; it usually isn't Vince's songwriting choices as much as it is the way he records songs. I remember picking up the Swedish tribute to DM compilation and being surprised/shocked at how great the Speak and Spell/A Broken Frame covers were, which ended up being the gateway into me not entirely despising those albums.

(I know Vince wasn't on A Broken Frame but you can't deny that most of the album was them imitating his song arrangement aesthetic, something I don't think they really broke out of until Construction Time Again)

the peak: pretty much Circus-Innocents-Wild!-Chorus is as good a solid run of albums as *any* pop band *ever* had. eclectic, clever, often experimental, extravagantly colourful, sometimes political, highly dance-able, hugely popular. what's not to like? a massive shame they've kinda been written out of history as some kind of silly camp thing.

the Daniel Miller mix of Don't Dance is a think of wonder.

also...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o4FGb-CYAI

There's actually a nice, sad holiday song they did back on the Crackers International EP I always dig out this time of year, "She Won't Be Home"

http://www.mojvideo.com/video-erasure-she-won-t-be-home/fd12ca5ffd7861c40e19

Not a perfect success but I think the chorus is gorgeous while the lyrics are a bit like "Hideaway" in terms of separation and distance. I've often wondered who'd be good at doing a cover of this, something without beats perhaps.

The singer makes a difference. I didn't mind Clarke's anemic emotional pallet because Alison Moyet inhabited his scenarios so well. She's a more convincing gay man than Andy Bell.

*in Yaz

ha yeah, it's true that one thing that lets down a lot of early DM tracks is that Dave hadn't actually figured out how his voice worked

Also ideal at Christmas time; their cover of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Oddly enough not on the original Crackers International EP, but on the Remix 12".

I always thought I loved this band in the 1980s. But for some reason, Pop! The First 20 Hits annoyed the fuck outta me. A greatest hits should NOT put a band's shortcomings in relief. I guess along with 'saccharine' they're just thinner than I like my dance music.

And Clarke had it in him. The 2nd Yaz album was a waste of time but "Don't Go," "Goodbye Seventies," "Situation," and, especially, "Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)" all disco hard. They burn buttcheeks where Erasure's oeuvre gives you a nice, polite pat on the bottom.

Their legacy, then, lies in having proved in popular music terms that gay people can be just as dull and Goldilocks-chosen as hets.

Still have a softspot for "Always," though (aka the queer "More Than Words").

One of my closest friends makes the same argument re their gay boringness.

"Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)"

I love you.

I love you too! This is brilliant and dead-on:

I didn't mind Clarke's anemic emotional pallet because Alison Moyet inhabited his scenarios so well. She's a more convincing gay man than Andy Bell.

Occurred me out at lunch that (if they had had a more visible US career) an Erasure-themed episode of Glee would make perfect sense.

I'm kind of amazed they haven't done "A Little Respect" yet

I mean, WHEATUS did "A Little Respect", you'd think Glee could get in there

don't wanna do a song with a gay subtext obv

lol

The 2nd Yaz album was a waste of time

false

There's a great William Orbit mix of You Surround Me and the Trafalmadore mix of Star has always been my favorite version.

The fist song to come on shuffle last night as I was heading home from work was "Sometimes". <3

There's a great William Orbit mix of You Surround Me

Absolutely fantastic, that. Pretty sure he was the one behind the remix of their cover of "Supernature" they did around that time, because that's equally stellar.

Their legacy, then, lies in having proved in popular music terms that gay people can be just as dull and Goldilocks-chosen as hets.

Umm. Clarke is heterosexual. He's married and has a child and everything. Where does that leave your theory?
it's also worth noting that two of the Yaz tracks referenced above (Goodbye Seventies, Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)) were in fact written by Alison Moyet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkfSc2wJbjc

there are days where Wild! is among my favorite albums tbh. DJP makin me sad on this thread

idk maybe im just a sap but Piano Song is one of the great sad songs of all time imo

We have had this Erasure conversation for over 22 years!

Waiting for Andy Bell

JJUSTEN: Well, shall we agree?
DJP: Yes, let's agree.

They do not agree.

<3 Drama.

Am hanging out with Mr. Perry this evening. I should incessantly sing/hum all these Erasure songs while around him y/y?

Y

Do you have a boombox y/n

Just ask him if his shame is neveruheruheruher....ENDIIIIIIIIIIIING!

I can't believe what is happening to me this thread.

Chorus is a classic song from their best album, although I think this is the best track they ever did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scVZuQfLoho

Their albums could be really patchy but Chorus, I Say I Say I Say, The Innocents and Night bird are all really great. Totally underrated band.