The year, 1985. Vince Clarke had left Depeche Mode and disbanded Yaz and was ready for something new. Andy Bell was an openly gay singer, an anomaly at the time, who was closer aesthetically to Alison Moyet than David Gahan.
Together, Clarke’s electronic wizardry and Bell’s flamboyantly pyrotechnic vocals became Erasure, a British synth-pop group that ruled over the U.K. charts and grew into a cult phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic. With hits such as “Chains of Love,” “Always” and “Ship of Fools,” Erasure, which will play a sold-out Boulder Theater on Tuesday, was a dance-floor favorite, a band with intense melodies and sweeping electronic balladry that never, ever shied away from cloying professions of love, adoration and dedication.
And then the duo made an acoustic record?
More than two decades after Clarke and Bell formed the band, they released this year’s “Union Street,” a CD of Erasure album tracks and B-sides using acoustic guitars, string sections, dobros and solemn backing vocals. At first it sounds intriguing. But then you hear the record and realize it sounds like something else, and that word is not intriguing.
It is reasonable to be suspicious of this curious venture, given that the duo has released live records, all-covers albums and remix CDs in its recent history. It can be a sign of desperation for a band to release any of the above projects, but to do them all within a 5-year span – and top it all off with an ill-conceived acoustic recording of B-sides – is a true sign of a band in a creative ditch.
Or is it?
Last we really heard from Erasure, 1995’s “Nightbird,” the band was returning to form, doing what it does best with syrupy pop songs that you couldn’t help but sing along to as you moved across the dance floor.
Songs such as “Here I Go Impossible Again” and “Breathe” were not only homages to Erasure’s early work. They were also holler-backs to Clarke’s work on the seminal Depeche Mode record “Speak & Spell,” which he co-wrote before leaving the band, and Yaz’s entire catalog, especially 1983’s brawny “You and Me Both,” which featured the influential “Nobody’s Diary.”
“Nightbird” reminded people why they loved Erasure, because the band had lost direction while toying with a few satellite subgenres. So why would it need to rely on so many stopgap devices, including the latest acoustic effort?
It’s easy to criticize the acoustic “Union Street.” Some arrangements, including the simple “Boy” and “Blues Away,” are quite pretty. But it’s a novelty act. Erasure is not an acoustic band, regardless of this album and coinciding tour. (Tuesday’s show in Boulder will be played acoustic.) Most of the record has Clarke overcompensating, overwriting and in over his head.
He’s a master behind the boards, tweaking knobs and finding the right synthesizer sounds and effects to complement Bell’s tenor. But Clarke was obviously (and uncomfortably) out of his element with songs such as “Love Affair,” where the strings fall over each other in their own aimless ambition.
And that’s part of the problem with this concept record, and possibly the tour, too. It’s a stretch, and it doesn’t work. It should have been one of those light-bulb ideas, a hypothetical what-if, that was dismissed after a few try-out rehearsals when it became obvious that it simply didn’t work. Instead, this is how we’ll remember Erasure as they enter their third decade of music-making.
Hardcore fans will no doubt find inspiration in the music. But even then, the song selection here is a pallid sampling of the band’s immense catalog – a surprise, given that song selection seems to be one of the band’s strong suits. The early greatest-hits compendium “Pop! The First 20 Hits” remains one of the most satisfying best-ofs, and when they made “Abba-esque,” all four Abba covers were ideal for Erasure’s artificial aesthetics.
The band’s backstory is the real-life counterpart to the drama that is inherent in the music and lyrics. Clarke and Bell have played to packed stadiums and also suffered tough blows, including Bell’s discovery he was HIV-positive in 1998 and the singer’s difficult hip-replacement surgery five years later. While Clarke and Bell are no spring chickens, they’ve shown they still have it in them. And given their gimmicky last decade, you have to wonder what comes next. A bouncy Petra Hayden- or Bjork-styled a cappella pop record? An all-Bee Gees covers LP? A collaboration with Ace of Base?
Whatever they do, you have to hope they honor the legacy they’ve spent 20 years constructing. Because while Erasure is mostly pillowy pop fluff, there’s some emotional substance in there – even if it’s in the real-world memories for which the band’s music acted as a soundtrack.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
Erasure
SYNTH-POP | Boulder Theater, 8 p.m. Tuesday | SOLD OUT | Late releases: box office or bouldertheater.com
