Erasure Album: “Nightbird”

I have loved Erasure since the 80's and they have always been my favorite group. I adored their 80's pop songs in my 20's, then in my 30's I adored their slower more soulful albums: Chorus, I Say I Say I Say and Erasure. Now I am turning 40 and just got Nightbird last week and I love it too. It took a week to grow on me. My first impression was it was too upbeat and full of too many love songs, but after listening to it for a full week, I really love this album! My favorite songs are song #3 and #5.

There is something inspiring about Erasure's music. I am not religious, and do not know if they are, but their songs touch my soul like no other songs can. Erasure's music is healing, loving, relaxing and moving. This album is very upbeat and will have you dancing. Still it is also deeply moving and touching.

Buy Nightbird, Erasure fans will not be dissapointed.

If Erasure's last album, "Other Peoples Songs" left you wanting something original from Erasure then this album is for you. Although this album sounds similar to the "Chorus" album from years ago, there is enough newness to this cd that will prevent you from saying, "I've heard all this before." Also note that the remixes for the first single "breath" are really good, with the "LMC extended club mix" as my personal favorite. Although no new ground is broken on this cd release, Erasure is back to their true form with beautiful melodies and original heartfelt lyrics. Out of the eleven songs on this set, there are several standouts such as "sweet surrender" and "all this time still falling out of love." If you are an Erasure fan, buy this album now, it's the best they have done is about a decade!

As a heterosexual male, I have long been ridiculed by my friends for listening to Erasure. I have never really cared since Erasure produces a certain type of pop you don't hear anymore, especially stateside. Beautiful songs verging on the sublime when they are on their "A" game.

From my observations, there are two groups of Erasure fans. The first group is mostly attractive to them for their fun, catchy songs best epitomized with The Innocents and later revisited in Cowboy. The other group appreciates more their complex, ambient, more mature work seen in Chorus and Erasure.

It seems the first group sees Nightbird as the second coming of Christ. Back to their true form. As a member of the second group, I wish the album would have been more layered and ambient. I agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that after Erasure was not received well critically, they panicked and reverted to the old form of catchy pop hits a la Cowboy. Nightbird is a continuation of this trend.

Don't get me wrong. Nightbird is a great album. All the songs have great melodies, Andy's voice sounds terrific, and Breathe is probably their best single since the days of Chorus. But where are the great background vocals seen in songs like "I Love Saturday," "Star," and almost all of I SayX3 that are hallmark Erasure? Where are the clever intro and endings of songs best seen in "Brother and Sister," "Perfect Stranger," "Take me back," etc? Aside from Breathe, none of the songs on Nightbird enter or exit with any level uniqueness.

These might be minor points, but I miss those little things that made the 1991-95 period their best. As a whole, Nightbird is a breath of fresh air and partly puts to rest my fear that Erasure was through putting out quality work. It seems their Loveboat has turned back toward the right direction.

Okay, the first thing that I'll admit here is that I'm a relatively "young" Erasure fan - I'm 23, and this is only the third album I've bought by them, although I am familiar with many of their older, 80's hits from hearing them on the radio.

I first got into them when I was twelve, and I Say I Say I Say had just been released. I was just completely stunned by that album - loved it, lived it, listened to it every single day. Once Cowboy came out in 1997, I bought that next, and liked it, though at the time, I felt it was inferior to I Say. Either way, I was a teenage girl that thought Erasure were pretty awesome.

Then I sort of forgot about Erasure for a few years, as I entered my late teens and twenties, and only recently got back into them, wanting to listen to some upbeat tunes at work. I dug out my old CD's, completely rediscovered the old wonderful songs with my now-adult ears, and decided to check out Nightbird.

This album is not as upbeat as some of their previous ones, but I think that's why I like it so much. The songs are mellow and absolutely beautiful. Andy Bell's voice is otherworldly, and time hasn't weathered it very much at all in the last ten years (which is amazing to me.) I would have to agree with another reviewer who stated that Andy Bell is one of the best male vocalists around today (I'm paraphrasing, of course.) His voice is so clear, so smooth and elegantly nuanced that you cannot help but be transfixed by the songs on this album.

My particular favorite songs on Nightbird are "Here I Go Impossible Again," for the interesting song structure and the lyrics - while simple - convey emotions that I'm sure we've all felt towards a lover at some point in our lives.

The vocals during the very simple chorus of "Breathe" are nothing short of stunning, and the song itself is very pretty and relaxing. I'm probably sounding like a broken record by now with these descriptions, but I can't help it! There aren't many other words you can use to describe Erasure's music other than "beautiful," "stunning" and other such adjectives.

My other favorites on the album include the opening track "No Doubt" and "Because Our Love Is Real," for many of the same reasons I've listed above. Which isn't to say that the songs sound the same, but just that they're all equally pretty and uplifting in some way.

I'm afraid I've gotten a bit long-winded with this review, so I'll summarize now and then stop typing! In short, whether you've been an Erasure fan forever or if you're just a fan of pretty, soaring pop songs, this album is for you :)

80's synth rock has always been my absolute favorite genre of music, but I never really got into Erasure for some reason. In fact I was thrilled when Vince Clark left Depeche Mode and Martin Gore took over as solo songwriter. Depeche Mode could never had produced such dark and moody music had Clark stayed with them. However, for some reason I stumbled onto Erasure's new album, Nightbird, and gave it a listen. The first song I listened to was Here I Go Impossible Again, which instantly caught my attention with its sweet retro sounds and melodies. So I decided to buy the album. I was extremely surprised at how excellent the rest of the music is, it was truly a great and unexpected surprise! Every song on here is good, especially Breathe, I Bet You're Mad at Me, I Broke It All In Two and Let's Take One More Rocket To The Moon. Although I am not familiar with all of Erasure's older material, this has a melancholy feel about it, unlike most of the other Erasure I haver heard. It's slower and more mature sounding, but not depressing at all. I have only owned this album a few days, but I can't stop listening to it, and I know it will become one of my favorites. Even if you're not a huge fan of Erasure's older songs, give this album a try, it's excellent!