aprii 4,2003 * J u t M t | 3g
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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? It doesn’t really matter; remember
n
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