This is the best Erasure single/EP release in a long time. It has remixes of five songs from "Light at the End of the World," plus the fantastic track "Early Bird"--a duet with Cyndi Lauper. The remixes are uniformly excellent, my favorite being the extended mix of "Sucker for Love," which really unpacks a densely layered song to bring out all the separate components. "Storm in a Teacup" is one of the strongest tracks from the album, and gets some nice treatments here as well. You may want to consider the digital version, as it includes two bonus tracks.
I love Erasure, but threw this CD away because I hated it, it is their worst and I am a huge fan!
This a pretty solid EP and well worth the low price tag. Standouts are the Koishi & Hush Club Mix of Storm In A Teacup (track 5) followed by the DJ Manolo remix of Sucker For Love (track 6). Both tracks are perfect for peak hour at the clubs. Early Bird with Cyndi (track 4) is a great b-side and is much better than the live remix from the True Colors compelation. The Golden Heart and When A Lover Leaves You remixes are well done and it's tough to decide if they are better than the versions that appear on the album. The strings intro to When A Lover Leaves You is very cool. Only downside is the dub-like remix for Glass Angel. It's my least favorite on the album and on this EP too.
This EP is the third release from Erasure's Light at the End of the World era. This nine-track disc includes three mixes of "Storm in a Teacup," two mixes of "Sucker for Love," one mix of "Golden Heart," one mix of "When a Lover Leaves You," one mix of "Glass Angel," and "Early Bird" (a duet with Cyndi Lauper).
First, I have to question the wisdom of choosing to promote "Storm in a Teacup" as the single. Personally, it sounds more like an album track than it does a single. There's really no hook or anything catchy to help it stick in the listener's mind. Not to say that it's a bad song, but it just isn't a single. There is an extended mix of this song included on the single as well, which adds roughly an additional two minutes in length; however, the additional length does nothing to really improve the song. The "Koishii & Hush Club Mix" is the best mix of the three, and it's one I could easily hear in the dance clubs. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a radio edit of this mix be made and issued as the single version... the beat is just incredibly catchy!
When I heard the extended mix of "Sucker for Love," I thought that perhaps this song would have been better suited as the song being promoted as the single. This song has more of a "catchy" quality to it. However, I have to say that this mix is a little on the long side, and that the last minute or so is rather redundant. The "DJ Manolo Remix" is another mix on this disc that I could easily hear being played in the dance clubs. However, this mix is rather long (it's about nine-and-a-half minutes in length). It's not a bad mix, but the length is a bit of a turnoff for someone just casually listening to the EP at home. Perhaps this version of the mix could have been issued to the dance clubs, and an edit of it could have been made to include on this commercial CD pressing.
The remix of "Glass Angel" that was put on here to close the EP just wasn't very interesting. It was boring, and there was nothing in it to catch the listener's attention; it's easy for the listener to simply ignore that it's even playing. I ended up wondering why it was included on the disc, and I especially wondered why they made it the track to close the disc.
I was actually rather disappointed in "Early Bird." I didn't think Andy Bell's and Cyndi Lauper's voices really complemented each other. Also I thought the music track sounded rather awkward against their vocal delivery.
Overall, I have to say I was rather disappointed in this EP, especially after they released "Sunday Girl" (which I thought was a rather strong single). If you are an everything collector or a track collector of Erasure, I would recommend picking this up simply to help complete your collection. For a casual Erasure fan, however, I'm not entirely sure I could really recommend this EP to them.
