3. Erasure - The Violet Flame
The best descriptor I can use for this album is rejuvenated. There’s a spirit and vitality that’s been missing on Erasure’s last few albums. To be fair, every Erasure album brings a few highlights. They’re too good a band to release a totally lackluster album. The ratio of hits-to-misses, though, hasn’t always been consistent. This is a STRONG album from start to finish. It sounds modern while being unmistakably Erasure. In a year where so manyartists have been trying to recreate an 80s sound, it’s nice to see that Erasure isn’t reaching quite that far back. There are reminders of Chorus, I say I say I say, and Cowboy, but it never seems like they’re just repeating themselves.
Much of the success of this album rests on Andy Bell’s vocals. He’s always been capable of belting one out with the best of them, but there’s a restrained quality to his singing that highlights the vulnerability inherent in many of the lyrics. By toning down some of the dramatics (e.g. modulating himself instead of going for the big note), the songs take on added weight. They seem so much more personal, as if he’s singing directly to you instead of playing to the crowd.
The other half of the equation is the production constructed by Vince Clark and Richard X. The songs are both straightforward and highly layered. There aren’t any odd tempos or difficult rhythms, but there’s a textural quality to the music as different elements come to the fore and recede into the background. Each song seems to build in sonic complexity. A song that starts with a simple beat and a few synth melodies can end with a wild mélange of sounds stacked upon one another. This is an album that demands to be listened to on a quality system rather than crummy earbuds or laptop speakers. There are so many nuances that add depth to the music, and being able to hear them is critical to a full appreciation of this album.
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