album // Loveboat
Loveboat is just too much - if each successive Erasure album is capable of causing my heart to melt in this way, then perhaps I will refrain from purchasing the next. This is yet another album crammed full to the brim with romantic songs dealing with the simple joys and woes of being in love. Returning to guitars for the first time since Wild!, Loveboat, like Cowboy, dives into the pop music river that Vince and Andy love to swim. Benefiting from the return of Flood (who has not worked with the band since The Circus) to the duo's shores, Loveboat is a well-produced album that gives each individual track a unique style, mixing the limitless hooks and melodies and rhythmic originality from Vince's massive studio reservoir, with Andy's shy yet powerful vocals. Like the pearl at the bottom of the ocean, Loveboat will be discovered by few, but for those who do stray across its smooth surfaces, it will be priceless.
Beginning with the upbeat pop of 'Freedom', the album mixes contemporary rhythms with a unique synthetic edge on tracks such as 'Crying In The Rain' and 'Catch 22'. Vince's exploration of soundtracks and ambient textures (see his Pretentious project with Martyn Ware [from 1999]) comes to the fore on tracks such as 'Alien' and 'Where In The World', while Andy - eschewing the camp side of his personality in favour of a more throughtful side - fills tracks such as 'Perchance To Dream' and 'Love Is The Rage' with an almost sublime yet subtle sensuality; 'Catch 22' rises to the same tentative confidence of 'Sometimes', whilst 'Moon And The Sky' threatens to implode with a frenzied rage and euphoria that you wouldn't expect from a duo with a collective age of 76. 'Mad As We Are' pitches Andy's voice in the vein of a mid-war torch singer, singing with passion through the radios of the wives of soldiers, waiting patiently at home for news of their loved ones. The closing track, 'Surreal', seems never-ending in its series of mini emotional climaxes and rising emotional spleandour, whilst 'Here In My Heart' threatens to topple over with its upbeat charm.
At times lyrically tender and scathing, Loveboat shows us all aspects of love - the joy, the pain, the loss and the confusion - combined with a musical invention that seems only to have got better with time. Despite a shrinking audience and little or no coverage from mainstream radio, Erasure have once again captured the true essence of what pop music should sound like. It is upon this essence that Andy and Vince's Loveboat sails, drifting casually with a mature confidence and a wry smile.
single // Freedom
I first heard this single - then Erasure's first in over three years - on the National Lottery Saturday show; it was my birthday - in fact my first birthday to be shared with my then fiancee - and my future wife had thrown me a mini-party (just the two of us and the cat), and somehow hearing this uplifting pop song on top of her displays of human kindness actually moved me to tears. It disappointed me bitterly when it only reached number 14 in the UK charts, because it's such a classic pop record by any standards, and still stands up as one of Vince and Andy's most outstanding tunes. It's also acoustic guitar-driven, which was a surprise at first since with Erasure tracks it's normally the synth that's most prevalent, and here that sound is played down, leaving a broadly acoustic pop gem with some serene ascending synth chords on the chorus, resplendent with a crisp beat. Andy provides a brashly confident and totally uplifting vocal performance, deploying some classic harmonies and even finds his 'Do I, do I, do I' Motown-esque line subjected to a quirky vocoder effect. The 'acoustic' version on CD1 opens up the track for closer examination, exposing hitherto subtle synth passages and some typically unusual Clarke elements, while ditching the beat completely. Quite how the term 'acoustic' became so broad I'll never know, but a truly acoustic version can be found on Loveboat's second single, 'Moon And The Sky Plus'.
CD1 also includes the B-side track 'Better', which sees further usages of vocoder effects on Andy's vocal (it makes it sound a little like 'Baby get your kit off'), and is a dreamy slice of classic Erasure synthpop, infused with a dancefloor-influenced beat and plenty of squelchy keyboard noises and percussion sounds. On the remix front, dispense with CD2's dire faster-paced Motiv8 single mix of 'Freedom' and Mark Picchiotti's Spanish guitar travesty in favour of Jason Creasey's sublime 'Freedom Of Flight' version. Creasey turns in what could well be the perfect Erasure remix, leaving the vocal intact and adding a intricate house beat and an arpeggiated, filtering 303-style fuzzy section. In his hands, with a new - highly catchy - melodic keyboard riff based on Vince's guitar section, Creasey's version outshines the other mixes with ease, recontextualising this powerful single for euphoric club dancefloors.
single // Moon And The Sky Plus
'Moon And Sky' stood as one of Loveboat's most uncharacteristic tracks. In its original form, the song was a thumping, dark electro hybrid totally out of keeping with the rest of the album. It was a brave step outside of the pop oeuvre for the duo, and it was surely the least likely second single from the LP. Ineligible for the UK chart, this CD release features 5 remixes of the track. With a steady 4/4 rhythm and a deep bassline, the track was already heading into euphoric house territory (albeit it heavy and moody), and lends itself perfectly to dance remixes.
Two remixes in particular are worth listening to - JC's Heaven Scent single remix (by Jason Creasey), and Randy Roger's Ramjet mix by Andy Bell and RJ. Andy recorded new lyrics for the single release, providing the song with a proper chorus. Creasey's mix is a superbly uplifting pop song that sounds only distantly connected to the original. Creasey had already remixed Loveboat's other single, 'Freedom', and worked alongside Vince in Family Fantastic. Bell's mix is also excellent, with totally different vocals, a house beat and simple bassline. As for the other mixes (from The Millionaires, Sleaze Sisters and BK), they're worth a listen, but nothing touches Jason's rework for its pop panache.
The CD also features acoustic versions of 'Alien', 'Freedom', 'Where In The World' and 'A Little Respect', with Vince and Nic Johnston on acoustic guitars, with long-term backing vocalists Valerie Chalmers and Emma Whittle. Erasure's songs have always been surprisingly well-suited to the acoustic setting, and the tracks from Loveboat lend themselves perfectly, given the guitar-drenched sound of the originals. Heard in this setting, the simple arrangements seem to draw out more of the emotional colour and depth - and the originals were pretty moving to start with.
Also featured is a cover of Diana Ross' 'Baby Love', recorded for an ITV Christmas special which was cut from the show but made it to the CD tie-in. I happen to think their heavily-strummed version is superior in many ways.