Take me back where I hear waterfalls flowing

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts.

05/06/94 : I Say I Say I Say - Erasure


We met this lot twice when we did '88 last time out - I wasn't expecting them to still be hanging around six years later, but here we are!

Hmmm - Andy Bell has a nice voice on this and Vince Clarke is proper giving it some on the old synths and they make some decent sounds when you put them together. But, it's, for Erasure, surprisingly de-camped and de-funned - it just all seems very serious. So whilst there was nothing wrong with it, I didn't feel there was anything to draw me back to it - I've also got absolutely no idea who thought a 149 minute extended edition was what the world was crying out for (I didn't make it anywhere near the end of the random additional tracks).

We're at #5 in the chart this week on their third week of a fifteen week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its debut week, which definitely surprised me. The rest of the top five were Seal, The Cranberries, Deacon Blue and Eternal with the highest new entry being Galliano (#8) - I bought this album but don't think I ever listened to it.

Wikipedia tells us this is their sixth album (their fifth and final #1) and it was produced by Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 and Human League fame. And that's pretty much your lot, with even their entry not providing anything more of interest - they're not exactly the most fascinating duo out there. Critically, the views were very mixed with it either being viewed as a step back from or a fine continuation of that thing they do, with NME describing it as "bink-bash-bleep-bonk-diddley-bop dancepop" (which I'd struggle to argue with). Commercially, it did surprisingly well, particularly in the US where the rise of grunge meant their media exposure was almost non-existent at this time - yet somehow "Always" made it to the top 20 and the album got to #18, which is their best ever over there.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent CD version for a couple of quid with the album costing a bit more, but not generally as much as the £50 someone is asking for no obvious reason. I can see if you liked Erasure but generally found them a bit frivolous then this might be right up your street, but I suspect for most people the frivolity was part of the charm - however, this still did a lot better than I imagined it would.

29/05/94 - Classic ambience
12/06/94 - A well put together album

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