Other People's Songs

Humongously successful hit-makers throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s Erasure’s chart prowess was recalled recently when Wheatus covered one of their best known numbers ‘A Little Respect’. Their own exquisitely crafted originals apart, Erasure were no strangers to the lure of the well-chosen cover version – their Abba-esque EP topped the charts back in ‘92 and they once did a mean ‘River Deep Mountain High’. For their tenth studio album Vince Clarke and Andy Bell go the whole hog, pouring forth a dozen mainly well-known covers candidly entitled Other People’s Songs.

The first single and the album’s opening shot, a nifty reading of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ has already been widely aired and deservedly so. The remainder follow a similar pattern – the duo’s familiar electronic pop combined with Bell’s extrovert vocals (sounding even more like Clarke’s former Yazoo partner Alison Moyet these days). The selection of songs ranges from the blindingly obvious to the downright eclectic. Cockney Rebel’s ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)’ also set for a single release and The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ are tailor-made for this kind of treatment. But do we really need yet another version of the Righteous Brothers’ hoary old chestnut ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’ or Buddy Holly’s ‘Everyday’ for that matter? Their version of Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ seems an odd choice too, especially given its uncanny similarity to The Pet Shop Boys treatment of The King’s ‘Always On My Mind’.

On the plus side ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’ by the long-forgotten Korgis makes for a better choice as does The Three Degrees’ ‘When Will I See You Again’ which swings and swoons with trademark Erasure class.

All in all, a long overdue reminder of a perfect pop partnership – expect plenty of chart action to follow.