album // Wonderland
Vince Clarke and Andy Bell's debut
album as Erasure yielded no hit singles at all at the time,
something which was of bitter disappointment for both - Vince's
success post-Yazoo was patchy, while Andy figured the duo
wouldn't last beyond an album, expecting Vince to move onto another
project. They toured Wonderland to death, often playing to
next to no people, but built a solid foundation of fans, many of
whom have stuck with them to the present day. Andy says that it
wasn't until the tour that the pair really cemented their friendship,
finally allowing Andy to drop his feeling of just being the singer
in Vince's latest outfit.
Despite its lack of commercial success, Wonderland
is a polished, bright pop album drawing on Vince's expertise with
synthesizers and keyboards, and Andy Bell's distinctive vocal style,
moulded perfectly together by stalwart producer Mark 'Flood'
Ellis. Vince had written a number of songs for his new project
himself - 'Who Needs Love Like That', 'Push Me, Shove Me' and 'My
Heart, So Blue' - but was advised by Mute Records owner and
friend Daniel Miller to collaborate with Bell on writing
duties. Thus began a songwriting partnership which produced some
of electropop's most memorable and original songs. At this early
stage, Andy, by his own admission, was trying to emulate Alison
'Alf' Moyet's vocal with Yazoo, although personally
I've never agreed with that - to me his vocal is totally unique.
Wonderland's sleeve evokes its title - toys,
childhood memories, things that as a child capture and maintain
your attention and imagination. The inside sleeve sees Andy and
Vince raptly reading books in an attic or playroom, all spiky hair,
faded jeans and eighties style.
The album starts with the first single, the distinctive
'Who Needs Love Like That', which is followed by 'Reunion', the
first Clarke/Bell song to appear on the album. It's an euphoric,
lovely little pop song with some nicely reverb-ed melodies and a
strong rhythm, filled with wide-eyed optimism and the freshness
of a new relationship. This is followed by 'Cry So Easy', the only
solo Andy Bell composition in Erasure's history. 'Cry So Easy' is,
in stark contrast to 'Reunion's upbeat stance, a saddening song
- 'Baby cry so easy / Expect me to believe in the love you're
looking for / Say you'd never leave me / But babe I can't believe
in the love you're looking for'. Andy turns in the perfect torch-song
vocal, the bruised lover not wanting to make the same mistakes all
over again; some deft lower harmonies and Vince's descending synth
melodies give the track the emotional sincerity it deserves.
'Push Me, Shove Me' is not credited as such, but
the version here is an edited version of the Joseph Watts'
remix available on the limited edition 12" of 'Who Needs Love
Like That', rather than the original 7" B-side version. The
edit ends abruptly, heading straight into 'Heavenly Action's drum
intro. 'Say What', with shouted vocals from the Stomp Crew,
was something of a live Erasure favourite from their early days,
a soulful electro track replete with synth horns and a prowling
bassline. The theme is bitterness and heartbreak - 'Threw me,
tried to woo me, tore my head apart' runs one of the lines -
through grim resolve. Think of a guy's version of 'I Will Survive'
and you'd be reasonably close, and Andy milks that camp melodrama
with earnestness.
Beginning with what sounds like an organ from Clarke,
'Love Is A Loser' develops into a gleefully effervescent pop tracks
and features a vocal from Andy that harks back to the effeminate
seventies style affected on his solitary Dinger single. It's also
perhaps one of Erasure's most 'throwaway' tracks, despite a title
that would suggest more heartbreak. Instead it embraces the thrill
of being in love, and was a welcome surprise inclusion on the duo's
1992 Phantasmagorical Entertainment tour. 'Senseless', with
what could be Andy's most Sommerville-esque vocal, is a sleak and
sparse track with a deep bassline, ringing, mysterious melody and
carefully-embedded bongo percussion. 'My Heart, So Blue' is a melancholy
thing of beauty, finding Clarke laying down a minimal, emotional,
orchestrally-influenced backing track while Andy sings choir harmonies
beneath his own heartfelt vocal. It's a depressing listen, as most
of Clarke's post-Yazoo, pre-Erasure material tended to be. But it's
also graceful and tender. The album version of the enduring favourite
'Oh L'Amour' has always been for me superior over the clunky single
version which always felt slightly 'unpolished' compared to this
digitally-gleamed mix - the bass is deeper, less 'in your face',
and all the melodies blend together more seamlessly.
Closing track 'Pistol', with its chorus of 'Blue
boy go get your gun / Hands together we can have some fun' and
saxophone hooks reminds me of Wham! and I'll readily admit that
it's not my favourite Erasure track. But it's just a bit of camp
white soul, and doesn't aim at anything higher.
The CD features three extended mixes of 'Say What',
'March On Down The Line' and 'Senseless'. These I'm sure were all
added to the CD release, which came a good few months after the
LP and cassette. I'm sure that the 'Senseless' and 'Say What' mixes
were originally featured on two 'Sometimes' 12"s from 1986,
while the 'March On Down The Line' remix came from the 'Oh L'Amour'
12".
Wonderland is a criminally-overlooked debut,
in my opinion. To me it feels like a stunning piece of electropop
originality, quite distinct from releases at the time. Around this
time,'keyboard bands' were trying to make their tracks sound 'organic'
- just listen to the orchestral stabs and string chords of other
synthpop at the time, and this sounds 'pure' and unique. It set
the blueprint for Erasure's original formula, and I think it's great.
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