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09.10.11
Erasure Tomorrow’s World
AT SOME point in history, perhaps imperceptibly, Erasure turned from a glorious pop act into something resembling a kind of retro-futurism – a world that could have existed but never quite did.
The chart-troubling days of a string of number ones and eight nights at the Birmingham NEC or the demolished London Docklands Arena are long gone. The question is, like many bands of a certain vintage, is how do you stay relevant?
Tomorrow’s World goes no further in answering this. People and culture change over time: Erasure moved down one avenue. The world went down another. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but the Spinal Tap world of an ever more selective appeal is imminent. A glorious future behind them, Erasure are now a heritage act. How many times can you say the same thing?
Whole Lotta Love Run Riot, for example, placed at fifth – halfway in the album’s running order. This is the place in an album that’s traditionally the strongest non-single track: instead we get a somewhat cheesy, generic instrumental that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a early 90s rave disco, with a forgettable Andy Bell vocal over the top. Andy has one of the grandest voices in pop, but only when it’s used the right way, and in the past decade, Erasure seem to have lost the art of writing classic pop songs.
Source: Goole Today
