{"id":41391,"date":"2009-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/upstairs-at-erics\/"},"modified":"2009-03-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-08T00:00:00","slug":"upstairs-at-erics","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/upstairs-at-erics\/","title":{"rendered":"Upstairs At Eric’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

With her robust voice, Alison Moyet burst onto the pop scene in 1982 with the help of her newfound partner Vince Clarke, formerly of Depeche Mode. Known simply as Yaz (or Yazoo in their native Britain), this duo was intent on doing something totally unique — bringing the burgeoning new wave genre to the dance floor. Their debut Upstairs At Eric\u2019s <\/i>contains two singles that fulfill that promise spectacularly, \u201cDon\u2019t Go\u201d and \u201cSituation,\u201d both of which became instant #1 club hits.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The danceable material fits in alongside other obscure downbeat fare, like the eerie \u201cWinter Kills\u201d and the soulful \u201cMidnight.\u201d For his part, Vince Clarke also continues in the similar perky vein of Depeche\u2019s \u201cJust Can\u2019t Get Enough\u201d with \u201cBad Connection,\u201d which seems to point to what would eventually become another musical partnership with Andy Bell (for Erasure, four years later). Though Yaz itself would only last a mere two years, Upstairs At Eric\u2019s <\/i>finds Vince and Alison in top creative form. The big college hit ballad \u201cOnly You\u201d is yet another high point that glistens in its understated beauty. Two other tracks that seem to stand out from a dance floor perspective are the impossibly sleek ode to the disco era \u201cGoodbye Seventies\u201d and the killer closing cut \u201cDidn\u2019t I Bring Your Love Down.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, from its eleven now-classic songs to its deconstructed mannequin cover, this album has since earned legendary critical status. Only Dare <\/i>by the Human League rivals it as being one of the first albums of its kind to be commercially successful on both sides of the Atlantic. As a duo, Yaz were in a league of their own, even if it was for an all-too-brief shining moment.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Vince and Alison would part company over creative differences after their second album You And Me Both <\/i>was released, though the two of them couldn\u2019t have been more different from a purely visual standpoint – Alison was the big girl singer, while Vince was the skinny and retiring keyboardist hiding in the background. It\u2019s a shame that music this good couldn\u2019t be enough to keep these two distinct individuals together, but alas, it just wasn\u2019t meant to be.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Perhaps taking a tip from Prince, Yaz included much of The Lord\u2019s Prayer <\/i>in another one of my favorites \u201cIn My Room.\u201d Religious blasphemy was all the rage back in those rebellious punk years, owing a huge debt of gratitude to the Sex Pistols\u2019 same edgy, devil may care attitude. Such bold statements proved an act had the chops and the gumption to compete in an increasingly crowded industry, with the \u201cnext big thing\u201d coming out virtually every month. The early \u201880s was such an exciting, colorful and unpredictable time and Yaz helped to play a small, yet critical role in making it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8360],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41391","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-yaz","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41391","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=41391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41391"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41391"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}