Erasure Album: “Other People's Songs”

Erasure is back. The UK synth-pop duo has kicked-off 2003 with yet another great album. Quite descriptively titled, "Other People's Songs" is a 12 track interpretive of some of rock and pop's best songs from the last 50-plus years. I have heard about half of these songs by their original artists, and the rest are new to me. Either way, after listening to this album, they are all sounding most definitely like Erasure tunes. Where most covers album fail miserably, this one has succeeded quite admirably.

"Other People's Songs" gets started with a Peter Gabriel cover, "Solsbury Hill". It is the lead single for the release, and has been revamped in typical Vince Clarke & Andy Bell fashion. There are the trademark bleeps, synth-pop beats, and Bell's warbly voice. "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" is slow, melodic, and soothingly beautiful. "Everyday" is a short, fun little ditty. Even though it is a famous old pop song, Erasure have made it their own here. "True Love Ways" is interesting: a Buddy Holly remake that, on one hand, sounds almost like it belongs in the time period from which it originated, but on the other hand it truly displays Andy Bell's own personal vocal abilities, and the 'Erasure sound' is in full embodiment here. Truly a great cover. My favorite song on the album is "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Strong, heartfelt, wonderful. Quite a powerful rendition. "Goodnight" is a quiet, loving little number. My only quibble is with "Video Killed the Radio Star", the album-ending track. It is very reminiscent of the original version, and I was never a fan of that song. I would have much preferred the inclusion of Erasure's rendition of "Ave Maria", which is on their single for "Solsbury Hill".

All in all, "Other People's Songs" is a success. Doing a covers album is risky. Erasure has managed to pull it off quite well. It isn't a terribly long album but it is high on quality, and isn't that the most important factor? With three years since their last release, it looks like Erasure wanted to take their time to get it right. Just look at the results, and you'll see that it was worth it.

This will not become your favorite Erasure album, unless it's the only one you own. However, there are some great songs on here, especially their versions of "Solsbury Hill," "Make Me Smile," and "Goodnight." The other stuff may be less enjoyable but it's still fun to sing along to in the car, especially if you know the original versions; however, I can see younger fans not liking a lot of the tunes here. So put the best songs in your iPod and you're all set.

Let me start off by saying I'm a huge Erasure fan. I have all their CD's and even the boxed singles sets. I have yet to come accross an Erasure CD I didn't like...Until now. I can't make it past the first song (Solsbury hill). Vince sounds like He's playing on a cheap Casio key board and Andy just sounds tired. I don't feel like they added anything or brought anything unique to the covers. Could have been so good and it's just not.

The "Solsbury Hill" song, the first track on this CD, is absolutely mind-blowing. It has a power and punch that even surpasses the original song. Get it!

However, can't say the rest about the other songs on this CD. Many of them are just blah. They feel generic and uninspired, with random synthesizer beeps and boops that seem to be prevalent in Erasure's later sound. Is it music or an old video game? Who knows. By contrast, the first song, "Solsbury Hill", instead captures the great high-energy sound of Erasure's early hits.

I bought this CD merely for completeness, but if I had it to do over again, I'd just buy "Solsbury Hill" individually online and skip the others.

I was intitally disapointed with this album, but I've now listened to it many times and find that I truly enjoy about two-thirds of this CD.

Easily the best tracks for me are tracks 1(Solsbury Hill),

3(Make Me Smile), 9(Can't Help Falling in Love) and 11 (Goodnight).

I've always like Elvis' CHFIL but this version just is soo lovely and I love the harmonys and techno music mix to it. Solsbury Hill is also lovely sounding without it sound like the original and fresh enough to enjoy listening to both versions. I had never heard track 11's original version, still haven't, but if it is even half as good as the remix it is a very good song. If it isn't then Erasure has really done an amazing job on this piece, very poignant and soft.

All the other songs are of varying degrees of delight and disinterest my least favorite being tracks 2 and 12. I think the rehash of the Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star is extremely dull and uninteresting with a silly cheap sounding synth voiceover and dull music. It doesn't have half of the life of the original and I was very disapointed since it was something I thought Erasure would do a fabulous remix of. But then I wasn't expecting to enjoy the Elvis remix it is by far my favorite. And track 2 just does nothing for me, not horrible but not interesting either.