Many Erasure fans consider The Innocents <\/i>to be the British duo\u2019s very best, but I tend to disagree. However, with its overflow of 13 songs, it is substantial enough to be deemed a classic. My only wish was that the second half could have been as impressive as the first half, and that the slow songs could have been as strong as the more upbeat material. <\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cbonus tracks\u201d are the real revelations to be found on this album. With its fantasy imagery and heartbreaking tone, \u201cWhen I Needed You\u201d is one of those rare Erasure ballads that works. Essentially, it is a dreamlike narrative that delves into Andy Bell\u2019s lonely childhood, where all he had was his imagination to sustain him.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Now, as for the techno remake of Ike & Tina Turner\u2019s \u201cRiver Deep, Mountain High,\u201d let\u2019s just say this provided the single most shocking moment on the entire record. It really comes as a pleasant surprise and was the first indication that Erasure had the ability to turn familiar pop songs on their ear and turn them into something fresh, new and exciting.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
ABBA-esque, <\/i>anyone? <\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019d like to also mention the stained glass imagery on the album cover. It is represented and explained (somewhat) by \u201cYahoo,\u201d which is Erasure\u2019s half-baked attempt at crafting a gospel song. The ridiculous lyrics are a complete misfire:\u00a0 \u201cYahoo, higher-higher-higher\u2026find your way up to the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 This is where Vince Clarke and Andy Bell sound as though they are trying to stretch beyond their own limitations.\u00a0 In doing so, they unfortunately miss their mark.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The same holds true for the album\u2019s worst track, \u201cWitch In The Ditch,\u201d where Andy\u2019s penchant for fairy tales and the enchanted forest runs completely amok.\u00a0 You can almost hear Joan Rivers bellowing in the background, \u201cOh, Andy, grow up!\u201d <\/p>\n Despite these aberrations and a few redundant filler tracks, The Innocents <\/i>still manages to hold together fairly well. Erasure\u2019s biggest hits are all here, each one equally deserving:\u00a0 \u201cA Little Respect,\u201d \u201cShip Of Fools\u201d and their American breakthrough single, \u201cChains Of Love.\u201d\u00a0 My only complaint about \u201cShip Of Fools\u201d is that Andy chooses to sing in a lower register.\u00a0 Whenever he does this, it makes the song sound like a warped record; his voice was always as its best in the more comfortable range of falsetto.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Two other highlights are \u201cPhantom Bride\u201d and \u201cHallowed Ground.\u201d A solid backbeat propels \u201cPhantom Bride,\u201d so its no wonder so many people wish it had been a single.\u00a0 And \u201cHallowed Ground\u201d is one of my favorite slow songs by Erasure because it is the perfect marriage between music and lyrics. It is also a great showcase for Andy Bell\u2019s range as a professional vocalist.\u00a0 <\/p>\n As the producer for The Innocents<\/i>, Stephen Hague obviously knew just how to give Erasure fans the most bang for their buck, and the guys delivered here in a big way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7875],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40320","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-erasure","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40320"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40320"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}