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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2003)
aprii 4,2003 * J u t M t | 3g eatingout eatingout eatingout eatingout ' REVIEWS Where pop left off Queer Brit boys are back on two discs you should have O ther P eople ’ s S o ng s Erasure • Mute Records queer synth-pop duo composed of machine wizard Vince Clark and blue-eyed soul singer Andy Bell, Erasure released its debut album in 1986, the same year that other queer synth-pop duo, Pet Shop Boys, sprang theirs. But while the two groups may seem alike— they both spe cialize almost exclusively in faddish, here-today-gone- tomorrow electroheats and Style or sincerity? Erasure may have turned the tables on Other synthesizers— the Boys People’s Songs. reside on the deadpan side of the looking glass, employing their fetishiza- Oscar Wilde and marvel at the absolute, wholly tion of disposability as a sharp critique of pop stylized, perfect (in its way) insincerity of it all. life and media culture. — Christopher McQuain Erasure, on the other hand...w ell, as Oscar Wilde once said, “In all important matters, C ruelty W ith o ut B eauty style, not sincerity, is the essential.” And Soft Cell • Spin Art Erasure, despite its much-heralded (yet disappointingly by-the- hey’re back and with a vengeance. "We numbers) “campiness,” gotta keep dancing through the years, we has always suffered gotta keep smiling through our tears,” Marc from a surplus of the Almond crcxins on latter and a paucity of “Darker Times,” the the former. lead cut from Cruelty T h at may have Without Beauty, the changed with Other latest recording from the 18-year vacation People’s Songs. As the title suggests, it’s a collection of covers, hut ing Soft Cell. rather than hearkening hack to their ’92 EP And tears have of Abba covers, it recalls the version of Ike been shed for love and and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, M ountain war in the years in between. With so many hands High” they recorded for 1988’s otherwise like New Order, Culture Club and others doing shrug-worthy The Innocents. reunion tours, this one seemed a little more of an Yes, you read correctly: a song famous for oddity than most, hut Kith Almond and Dave Ball have actually been quite busy all those years. its vastly emotive, wall-of-sound production and hyperdramatic Turner vcxzals, remade as a Almond has consistently recorded at least a compressed thum p-and-blip-a-thon and vocal record every other year— with some minor ized with chipper, anonymous competence! U.S. hits— filled with pageantry and substance. He’s been mostly out of the pop spotlight, more It was an astounding act of chutzpah, like prone to he working in the experimental Sid Vicious singing "My Way" on The Great underground music scene and occasionally Rock V Roll Swindle. We wouldn’t have dueting with unlikely musicians from Siouxsie thought these guys had it in ’em, and now we Sioux to G ene Pitney. have an entire album’s worth of revered, Ball has acted as a mixer and producer and beloved pop music forced to fit the pop mold. collaKirated with Richard Norris (responsible Other People’s Music is disorienting, for reworking C her’s “Believe”) in the techno creepy stuff. Blondie may have been post- outfit T he Grid, which has created several modernizing Buddy Holly songs (as Erasure European dance floor favorites. does here) hack in 7 8 , hut this is som ething Now all grown up, they’ve sharpened their else. These versions are so straight, so note- tongues and retained their edge. The pompous for-note, w ith instrum entation so glaringly, hilariously wrong for the m aterial, it’s like “Le Grande Guignol” has Almond’s trademark cabaret with a weird, dishy hint of Liza. Muzak as perform ance art. “Monoculture,” the first single, is a tribute to Peter Gabriel’s “Solshury Hill,” the album’s the mediocrity of our bland culture: “Every first single, reaches the same pomposity-shattering thing’s the same, over and over again." heights of Pet Shop Boys’ cover of U2’s “Where This disc has Soft Cell’s trademark British the Streets Have No Name.” Memorable surges of pop feeling like the Ronettes’ “Walking in the nuance while it reuses and renews the best of Rain," the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve List That ’80s pop for a new generation. Blended with Livin’ Feelin’ ” and Holly’s "Everyday" are gently, satirical lyrics, dance heats and street smarts, indelibly eviscerated by Bell’s bright, peppy, one- Cruelty Without Beauty comes in a two-disc dimeasional voice, each emotion meticulously package with special mixes that you must get to reduced to a polished, impersonal mathematical watch the over-the-top “Monoculture” video in component. its deep ketchup reds and mustard yellows. This disc takes over where pop left off. Is that the point? Did Erasure mean for their covers album to he a horrifying orgy of conceptual A damn great record! — TJ Norris jn deconstruction? 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