Pop - the First 20 Hits

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The Totally Awesome 80s Pop Music Trivia Book (Totally Awesome Eighties Trivia)

Pop - the First 20 Hits
A singles band if ever there was one, the hits on Pop make the duo of Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure sound like the Rogers & Hammerstein of synth-pop disco. With the exception of The Circus and The Innocents albums, most of Erasure’s full lengths house only a few brief moments of brilliance, the rest of the songs being limp and uninspired. But putting songs like “Blue Savannah” with its sweeping loveliness, the haunting “Ship of Fools”, and the campy, raucous “Love to Hate You” all on the same disc shows that when Erasure is on, they shine like a thousand-carat tiara. The energetic and electronic disco is front and centre here with “Oh L’Amour” and the audience participation number “Stop!”, but the beautifully crafted “Sometimes” shows the band’s true potential. The irrepressible melody line is punctuated by an acoustic riff and a melancholy trumpet solo that actually has to do its best to keep up with Bell’s warm lament. An indispensable collection. –Steve Gdula

Customer Review: Sounding better than ever…
I remember the complaints of my elders during the eighties as I sat glued to ‘Top Of The Pops’: all modern music sounds the same, it’s tinny and soulless, blah blah blah. Now it’s my turn to do the same whenever I listen to whatever guff has hit the top spot this summer. It’s amazing just how so much eighties synth-pop, written off as transient and lightweight in its own time, now sounds gorgeously substantial.

One of the first things that hits you is the quality of Andy Bell’s voice; soulful, yearning, almost operatic in its richness, it performs magnificent swoops and dives over the burbling, multi-tiered landscapes of Vince Clarke’s synth programming. It’s this and the soaring, solidly melodic quality to their songwriting that leaves them sounding better in retrospect than their great contemporaries, Pet Shop Boys, whose downbeat ruminations on love and loss formed the melancholy yin to Erasure’s optimistic, self-preserving yang. And to anyone who thought that the eighties brought an end to craftsmanship in pop, try getting sounds this sweet and resonant out of one of the many synths listed in the CDs inner. You’d have an easier time training to be a concert pianist. The analogue sounds that dominate Erasure’s work to this day have a character and presence that leaves today’s soundcard emissions sounding holographic and homogenous. Much like with the rave classics of the late eighties, a scourge of their time, the beats hit you with a relentless thump which is awesomely infectious.

Highlights for me include the rockish, acoustic-driven wail of ‘Sometimes’, the the bright and airy ray of hope that is ‘Blue Savannah’ and the fervent chime and chug of ‘Stop!’. But the real surprise is ‘Chorus’: it all but passed over my head upon its release in 1991 but it sounds plain incredible now. Taking a lead from the mellow, lush electronica of ambient house, a hypnotic tick-tock beat and a liquidic rush of synthesizer frame an unusually meditative, even bitter lyric that could be romantic or political in its theme. The ambiguity of the subject only adds to its power.

All in all, an amazing collection that affirms Erasure’s status as one of the major talents of the dayglo decade. Let the old gits prate on about their guitar bands, there’s real talent and musicianship to be found here. And some of the most brilliant and memorable singles ever released.

Customer Review: Unexpectedly Passionate, Romantic, and Bitter
I’m not often enthusiastic about club-dance-techno-pop bands, most of which seem determined to copy each other to the point of exhaustion. But I’ll make an exception for Erasure, which has a great deal more going for it than the vast majority of music you’re likely to hear the next time you hit the dance floor.

Chief among the band’s assets is vocalist Andy Bell, who has a remarkably rich and passionate voice–but Erasure does not rely on Bell pure and simple. It is the combination of Bell’s vocals, a bouncy beat, and the often unexpectedly thoughtful and frequently bitter lyrics that do the trick. The result is a consistent sound that crackles with a sensuous passion, and at its best creates one memorable cut after another.

POP! suffers from the usual failings of every compilation album, which is to say that it generally goes for the obvious choice even when a lesser-known selection is clearly superior. But even so, it offers a solid overview of Erasure, from the purely danceable to the disquietingly emotional playing against the dancefloor rhythm. “Ship of Fools,” “Chains of Love,” and “A Little Respect” are perhaps the side of Erasure that are most recognized–but when the selections turn to such intense and lyrically sharp selections as “Drama” and “Love to Hate You,” you know that you’ve stumbled into something special.

The compilation, in my opinion, saves the best for last, running a gamut from the intensely passionate and romantic “You Surround Me,” to the purely elegant “Blue Savannah,” to angry “Chorus,” to the moody and introspective “Am I Right”–the latter of which may well be single finest thing in this collection. As a garnish, the collection finishes up with a very enjoyable cover of Abba’s “Take A Chance.” But whichever you happen to prefer, it’s all good stuff. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer