Erasure Album: “Hits! The Very Best of Erasure [Bonus CD]”

Erasure first released a greatest hits 11 years ago in 1992 titles Pop 20 Hits. Come 2003, their record company releases their second compilation, but fans may be disappointed cos out of the 20 songs, 12 were available already on Pop 20.

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If you are contemplating a choice between Erasure's "Hits" album and the older "POP!" collection, I'd actually give the nod to "POP!" The new set adds more from the Abba EP and removes several of the songs from "Pop!." The dropped songs included some essential (in my opinion, at least) songs like "Drama" and "Who Needs Love Like That." You lose 8 songs from "POP!" here for 7 alternates plus one unnecessary remix of "Oh L'amour," and this collection has, simply put, a less concise menu of Erasure at their best.

Since Vince and Andy were better at the singles than at the albums anyway, the finest of their singles truly sparkle as gold from the eighties. Given that their later output was lackluster at best (save "Always"), this is a bland primer for a fun band. And Erasure is pretty much a fun sugar-candy duo. With two notable exceptions, the best songs were campy or beat heavy hook records. Only with the environmental lyrics of "Chorus" or the call to arms of "A Little Respect" did the duo ever push towards anything really weighty. Not that there is anything wrong with that, mindless fun is better than no fun at all. But it was the early part of their career where Vince was still innovatively exploring the compositional range of the synthesizer. Which meant that, when he was on, he was brilliant, and Andy almost always found the kind of vocal exuberance to overcome any deficiencies (think "Love To Hate You"). It's also that after the album "Chorus" Erasure began to bog down. So unless you feel that "Always" and a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Solisbury Hill" are worth having over the deletion of eight other, superior Erasure songs, I'd recommend "POP!" over "Hits."

I love Erasure, one of my favorite groups. But no 5 stars here because I could not believe some of the omissions on this album. Only one song from I Say I Say I Say, Cowboy, & Other People's Songs. Where is "Don't Say Your Love is Killing Me"?

I think they should have went all the way and truly included their "hits" on this album. I would have gladly paid the price to have all the songs. The DVD is excellent however....all the songs in video form, plus extras. I was hoping with this album that I would not have to carry around 10 erasure CD's in my car and it would all be on one. That is not the case though. They need to re-release "Hits" with a special 3 disc set (all the songs plus that remix) and let all of us fans have all the songs we truly love and adore by this great group!

where do i start? as an erasure fan from day one i have to say i am extremely dissapointed in this release. all i can say is if you cant do something right, dont do it at all. in the past ten years some of erasures albums have been weak and not as successful as their early albums, but to omit some of their best singles of the past decade is ridiculous.especially since most of us have "pop" the other hits album. I had to look at the list of songs three times to make sure i didnt miss something but to no avail...there is no "dont say your love is killing me", "am i right", "run to the sun", "fingers and thumbs", "knocking on your door"- and i definetly cant beleive that "who needs love like that" is not on here. their freakin debut single is not included on their best of.. go figure. so much could have been done with this compilation.A studio version of "gimme gimme gimme" would have been great.and the remix disc? please.. dont waste your money on this. either get the "pop" greatest hits or the dvd version of this best of.

I admit I am not a diehard fan of Erasure like some, but I have to admit they have churned out an impressive number of catchy songs in their 20+ year career.

This compilation features all the big hits like 'Oh L'Amour', 'Chains of Love', 'A Little Respect' and their popular ABBA covers. There are some recent songs like their cover of Peter Gabriel's 'Solsbury Hill'.

Even better is a cool megamix CD that is perfect for any party. I enjoyed the mixing, and it's not too overdone so you will still recognize your favorite Erasure songs although they are remixed.

Ignore all the negative reviews. No compilation is going to feature everything each fan wants. I think this is a generous and fun collection of some of pop's finest moments.