Sunday, June 5, 2016

Albums of 1986....Part 6



Wonderland by Erasure

Recorded in late 1985, this debut album was released over the summer of 1986. Vince Clarke and Andy Bell had formed the band after Vince left Depeche Mode and Yazoo (both hugely successful) and this should have been an easy win for Vince.....but that's not quite how it happened. The album barely charted in either the US or the UK. All 3 singles; Who Needs Love Like That, Heavenly Action and Oh L'amour also never charted.....until the band re-released them for their greatest hits package. The critics panned the album citing the poor sales and saying that Andy Bell was a "poor Alison Moyet (singer of Yaz) imitator". In the intervening years this album has been re-examined (by some of the same critics) as a classic example of mid-80's synth-pop, even going so far as to include it on lists of influential albums of this style.

 My favorite song was an album track. There is no promotional video for this song....but luckily there is a live performance of this song, most likely within a few weeks of the album release, that sounds so close to the album version. So I present it here for your enjoyment...





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