Erasure - The Innocents (1988)

"LOST SUMMER OF MARK" WEEK (AUGUST 14-20, 2022)

Vince Clarke songs are so dang easy to listen to. And easy to dance to. And easy to sing along with. And I may be trying to do all three while typing this post.

This album was my first exposure to Erasure and it certainly made me a casual fan, picking up albums here and there but by no means their complete discography. Still, it took me a while to pick up this CD - mine is not the 2009 limited edition two CD/DVD set - and when it's all said and done, I'm exhausted from dancing and wondering why I didn't buy this sooner (and why didn't I go to the trouble of finding the 2009 set??).

Reviews/ratings:

• Smash Hits (7 out of 10)
• Record Mirror (★★★★½): "the perfect balmy summer pop album"
• Billboard: "plagued by the sound-alike quality of material"
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music (1997): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #49
Peak on the Rolling Stone chart: #45

Tracks: The big hit singles were A Little Respect (#14 pop, #2 dance) and Chains Of Love (#12 pop, #4 dance), but Phantom Bride, Heart Of Stone, Yahoo!, and Weight Of The World are all just as good. Hallowed Ground sounds a bit like they just slowed down the backing track to A Little Respect, but I like it anyway. For me, the only missteps here are the novelty pseudo-jive shuffle Sixty-Five Thousand and the waltz track, Witch In The Ditch - they just doesn't work here amongst the dance tracks.

The CD and cassette version included two bonus tracks: When I Needed You (Melancholic Mix) and River Deep Mountain High (Private Dance Mix). While I prefer the latter, the former is a welcome mid-tempo number. The Ike and Tina Turner version of River Deep Mountain High is perfect as is, but the cover here flips the thing on its head and turns an all-out Phil Spector wall-of-sound rock song into an all-out Erasure high-energy dance track. That chorus is some fantastic songwriting.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I remember riding around in my girlfriend's sweet black convertible (I'm pretty sure it was customized 1987 Camero Z28, but don't quote me on that) with this tape playing loudly as we danced and sang our way down state highway 183. She mainly played side one of the cassette because she didn't care for the classic River Deep, Mountain High. Go figure.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Other People's Songs (2003)
Cowboy (1997)
Pop! The First 20 Hits (1992)
Abba-esque (1992)