Erasure

[stuartdg]

Sometimes unfairly compared to the Pet Shop Boys,Erasure will have been on the go for 25 years next year and as a result theres a new remix album out plus a Deluxe Edition of Pop 40 Hits-including live performances and a dvd entitled "at the BBC"

Anyone else a fan of the greatest pop duo of all time?

[Wayne]

Bloody Hell, Erasure!




There's a name i hoped i'd never hear again.

[Si Hunt]

They were great in their day, but a prime example of a group that suddenly, and without warning, just totally lost the ability to have hits and write good tunes (see also "The Beautiful South"). They haven't been able to come up with another classic since the First 20 hits album.

That said, I love "Sometimes", "A Little Respect", "Always", "Ship of Fools" and "Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me"

Si.

[cullsoft]

They were great in their day, but a prime example of a group that suddenly, and without warning, just totally lost the ability to have hits and write good tunes (see also "The Beautiful South"). They haven't been able to come up with another classic since the First 20 hits album.

I almost agree - whilst I'd agree that that was their peak period for singles, their following two albums I Say I Say I Say and Erasure are my favourite albums by them and where I'd say they started going downhill overall - the vast majority of their tunes were misses rather than hits for me.

I think part of the problem is that, despite Vince Clarke's synthesiser wizardry, their sound and style is just too... 80's/90's in the way that no-one's interested in any more, and juggling between maintaining their original sound and style and trying to make something fresh and contemporary is something that just hasn't worked very well at best. I enjoyed their album Light At The End Of The World from 2007, but it didn't feel nearly as good as the stuff from their first decade (which, despite how little I'm bothered about their new stuff, I still love them to bits for ).

I'll admit I'm curious about this 25th anniversary DVD - sounds like it may have some clips and cuttings from their early days (here's hoping they have some of their old Radio 1 and TOTP recordings).

[Si Hunt]

I believe the DVD we have, the one with the swan on, has TOTP performances on it. It's true the sound has dated but there's a living, breathing example of a group who still sound like they did in the eighties but who are still successful and coming up with good new tunes - namely the Pet Shop Boys.

Si.

[stuartdg]

The dvd has got appearances from TOTP,Later With Jools Holland and Going Live! to name but a few of the top of my head

[Simon R]

My brother likes Erasure but was not impressed with the bare buttocks and campery of their live act when I got him a concert video.