Moody and a Bit Dark, but Thoroughly Enjoyable.
For all its disco glitter, "Chorus," the fifth studio album from Erasure, is a pretty moody affair. A few of the songs deal with relationships that are on the verge of falling apart at the seams: there's the stinging bite of "Love to Hate You," the bitter lyrics of a man betrayed in "Perfect Stranger," and the "you-broke-my-heart" ditty "Waiting for the Day." Musically, it's a bit different from what we've heard before. Producer Martyn Phillips (Jesus Jones) gives the disc an even more electronic feel, with its abundance of synth touches and sonic bleeps. The result is a synth pop album with as much bite as anything by the duo's rock peers. Erasure is one of my favorite groups, and "Chrous" is a fine disc that won't disappoint.
A gorgeous landscape of electronic bliss would be a fitting description of Chorus. To me, the fusion of bleeps and bells, snappy bass lines, heartfelt melodies and colorful lyrics make this one of Erasure's best offerings. It has an awesome vibe to it; there are danceable songs as well as a couple slower ones, but it flows together joyously... It may take more than one listen to feel the depth, because it did for me. One thing is for certain, three of my favorite songs of all time are on this one: "Breath of Life"/"Perfect Stranger"/"Home". All the tracks have a unique style though and I also really liked "Joan"/"Waiting for the Day"/"Love to Hate You"/"Turns the Love to Anger"/"Siren Song".
This comes highly recommended in the Erasure collection. If you thought previous CD's were a little lite, this one is more focused. I also think it was the first one where cymbals were used extensively.
Also check out Agnes Poetry and Iris if you dig Erasure's kind of sound. You won't be disappointed!
JUBILATION
Chorus~ Erasure is on par with their first album. Yet it gets a prententious and come on none of these guys can really be taken that seriously after all. It is not like Noble comitee will call any day.
I think I have been a bit too harsh on "Chorus" so I decided to give the cd another spin. After all I am big Erasure fan. I have been listening to "The Very Best of Erasure" a lot lately and the songs from "Chorus" has grown on me over the past couple of weeks, namely the title track and "Breath of Life". Production-wise, the album isn't very good. This is album needs a remastering job ala The Cocteau Twins. The sound is very outdated. The overall mood of the cd is more subdued than say "The Innocents". What "Behaviour" is to the Pet Shop Boys is "Chorus" is to Erasure. The overall mood is darker, moodier, and the beats are more restrained. Although I prefer "The Innocents" or latter works like "Erasure" and "Cowboy", "Chorus" is not as bad as I once thought. It is just not nearly as good as "Erasure", "Cowboy", and even "Loveboat".
Chorus
Chorus
I have every Erasure song ever released commercially, and this is, in my opinion, their best album. Other albums may have stronger singles-it is hard to beat the one-two punch of Drama and Blue Savannah, or Chains of Love and A Little Respect, but this was the first Erasure CD that didn't feel like a collection of singles and b-sides. There are no real weak spots here as on previous efforts. There were four singles taken from this album, and if one didn't know what they were, I think one would be hard pressed to identify them. "Waiting for the Day" is the best Erasure single that never was, and "Turns the Love to Anger" and "Perfect Stranger" are fantastic synthpop songs. It is true, perhaps, that this album may seem darker than others, but the production is gorgeous, the songs are brilliant, Andy Bell's voice has never sounded so rich, and Vince Clark's aural landscape is breathtaking. One of my all-time favorite records.
