I’ve been a bit of a closet Erasure fan for some years, I say closet not out of embarassment, more so out of my on off love of their journey.
All the way back in the 80’s Erasure scaled the heights of pop stardom with an impressive chart run lasting well into the 90’s. The millenium years saw the duo fade out of sight yet they keep churning out the albums year after year.
Slowly I felt their sound wandering away from the analogue roots that made then so big in their hayday. Some of these albums were quite good, others not so. Late August 2020 sees their latest offering in the form of Neon.
From the off I feel Erasure have gone back to basics and made an album emersed within their synth pop roots. It feels so much like vintage Erasure I can almost smell the early 90’s. This is really good and totally unexpected from my expectations.
As always Vince Clark is clever with the programming and Andy Bell sounds as fresh as his earliest recordings. I understand why, in previous releases, they have ventured into new terretoris. You’ve got to move on and develop new ideas but their best stuff was always the true synth pop era. The Neon is a real throwback the days of Chorus and the like.
Die hard fans will always support Erasure and I hope their new offering attracts a new audience who missed out on those early years.
Canned Static 