A little known fact about Erasure is that they generally compose their songs on acoustic guitar and piano. You'd never know that from their albums which are as synthesized as synth-pop can get, but in the 90s, they started playing up this more unlikely side of their work in some promotional live performances - and there were hints that, at some point, they might head in a more earthy direction on record as well. The first sound we hear on their 2000 studio album Loveboat is the brisk strumming of an acoustic guitar - though, seconds later, the joke is on us when the strumming is interrupted by some electronic clucking.
Loveboat marked a transition point for the duo. In the U.S. (if not internationally), their records throughout the 90s were met with waning interest, and Loveboat failed to even find a U.S. distributor until three years after its initial release. Moreover, the synth/studio wiz Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell seemed to be in something of a creative funk. It would be 5 years before they released another studio album of original songs; but in the meantime, they regrouped for a covers album (2003's Other People's Songs), a few negligible solo ventures, and the quick series of acoustic recording sessions that resulted in the just-released Union Street.
And what a terrific surprise Union Street is! Acoustic albums are often immediately dismissable as quick-n'-dirty product recorded by established artists who find themselves in the midst of both artistic and commercial crisis (read: bands like Erasure, circa 2004). Covers albums too. The fact that Erasure did one of each would appear to the casual observer as indisputable evidence of the duo's irrelevance. Indeed, Other People's Songs was a detestable record - marked by embarrassing attempts to make songs by the likes of Peter Gabriel into chirpy old-school Erasure ditties. Union Street applies a similar principle in reverse - taking old (and newer) Erasure songs and making them into lush acoustic pop. And the results, far from quick-n'-dirty, are at worst, merely lovely, but just as often breathtaking.
Witness the a capella choral drama of the sweetly consoling "Rock Me Gently"; the breezy pedal steel guitars and the brisk, understated pulse that drives the airy, liberated new version of "Home" bringing out the sense of celebration inherent in that songs lyric's - I ain't never going home, cuz I'm having a good time - long buried in the cold, even melancholy production of the original. At times, it feels as if we're hearing these songs for the first time. But not just the songs: it often feels like we're actually hearing the breadth and depth of Andy Bell's voice for the first time as well. Bell's confessed a love of late 60s folk-pop singer-songwriters, and while his sometimes garish vocals are no match for the sensitivity of an Art Garfunkel, his performances here mark some of his prettiest, most nuanced singing - ever.
The song selection also helps. Andy and Vince, along with producer Steve Walsh (not that Steve Walsh, Kansas fans), have deliberately avoided redoing Erasure's best known songs, opting for a democratic representation of their back catalog. Each of their albums (with the unpredictable - though, not really, given the vision of the record - exceptions of their classics Wonderland and The Innocents) are represented by a song or two a-piece, and only a couple songs (both from their maligned self-titled 1995 album which featured atypically long and winding Pink Floyd-inspired arrangements) were released as singles in their previous lives. The relative newness of songs like Union Street's lead single "Boy" (which, reportedly, amidst the Brokeback Mountain craze, was promoted to country stations in the U.S.) generally frees these newer versions from comparisons the originals.
Still, even if we are to compare these songs to their originals, for the most part, the new versions equal, and sometimes surpass the old ones in depth of production and sheer beauty. The version of "Stay With Me" included here is, without question, the definitive version of the song; where it seemed stale and rote upon its initial release then years ago, it verily soars here, pleading and gorgeous. It's all enough to make me wonder why they haven't played around with this approach on record sooner, and also hope that this isn't the last time they do.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Union Street" by Erasure
Mute / Sanctuary Records
Released 4/18/06
Produced by Steve Walsh and Vince Clarke
43 min.
SONGS: Boy - Piano Song - Stay With Me - Spiralling - Home - Tenderest Moments - Alien - Blues Away - How Many Times? - Love Affair - Rock Me Gently
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