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From the first electronic notes of “Sunday Girl,” the first song on Erasure’s new album, Light at the End of the World, it’s undeniable that this is Erasure. For some artists, that might be a bad thing. It might mean that they’re in a musical rut—that every song on every album just sounds the same as the last (take, for instance, Nickelback). For Erasure, however, that’s not the case.
Though Vince and Andy have been recording pretty much the same sound for more than 20 years, somehow, it just doesn’t seem to get old. Perhaps that’s because it’s all in good fun. Its happy-poppy beats just have an amazing ability to put you in a good mood on a bad day. For the most part, Erasure’s music is feel-good dance music. Even when the lyrics aren’t entirely upbeat, you can’t keep still when you’re listening to it. In fact, just about every memory I have of Erasure involves dancing: dancing with my brother in the basement, dancing with friends in my dorm room while getting ready to go out, and even dancing around a coworker’s cubicle while trying to brainstorm an ad campaign (when you’re in advertising, you can do stuff like that—people just shrug it off and call you “crazy creatives”).
So, in that way, Light at the End of the World is more of the same—in a good way. The songs on the latest album have the same synthesized sound and techno dance beats that Erasure’s songs have always had—but, for some reason, much of the album still feels fresh and not outdated. For instance, I couldn’t help but notice that that “Sucker for Love,” with its frantic, driving dance beat, has a touch of Gnarls Barkley influence. At the same time, though, “Fly Away” sounds like it could have appeared on any Erasure album over the last 20 years. And it all still fits together.
The album begins with its strongest tracks. Along with “Sunday Girl” and “Sucker for Love,” there’s also “I Could Fall in Love with You,” the catchy dance track that’s also the album’s first single. As the album continues, though, the tracks aren’t quite as strong, sometimes suffering from sketchy lyrics, questionable rhymes, and awkward melodies—as on “How My Eyes Adored You,” an all-over-the-place track that never really comes together.
As a whole, though, Life at the End of the World is a fun album—even at its low points. It’s sure to find its way into my CD player time and time again throughout the summer. Because while there’s something pleasantly ‘80s about Erasure’s music, at the same time, there’s also something pleasantly timeless—and just plain infectious—about it.
