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 Finally! Erasure's Loveboat is being distributed in the United States. In
2000, Erasure released the best of their (now) five post-Pop! albums. That
album, Loveboat, was their only release not to be distributed in the U.S.
It has thus far only been available in the States through expensive import
editions.
Erasure's brand of camp gay pop has lost favor in the contemporary, sophisticated dandy-Warhol market favoring pseudo-punk, "alternative," techno, hip-hop, and remixes of TRL-faves. (Okay, I dig the Dandy Warhols just fine, but they're no Erasure.) None of the Erasure albums since the epochal Pop! collection in 1993 are as likely as Loveboat to regain the attention of old fans or to encourage new listeners to explore the singular catalogue of one of the great pop acts of all time. To reference the title of one of the Loveboat tracks: "Perchance to Dream. . ." Erasure has always devised delirious dreamscapes, not for escape but for revealing the desires that fuel their, as the song goes, "drive into the wall of sound." Their expressive, emotional use of unashamedly pop forms is made special by their special difference. As Andy Bell sings on "Perchance to Dream": gay desire turns "my world upside down." Erasure's camp turns pop upside down, distilling its emotional essence while expanding its romantic codes beyond the hetero norm. On "Alien", Erasure develops the perfect pop metaphor for the genesis of gay desire - "Love's young dream could be alien" - and the resultant effect on one's consciousness: the birth of an aesthetic. The song starts by describing the mode of all of Erasure's expressions (through, ironically, self-reflexive movie jargon): "Cuts to the quick / Pure emotion a trip." That explains Erasure's relentless ebullience (on Loveboat and on all of their albums). Out of Vince Clarke's consistent bass beat emanates a joyful electronic and (here) acoustic dance polyrhythm; plus "Loveboat" features a dirty sound, like static or beamed-in messages from the ether. As in the track "Alien": "Tuning love like a radio." Bell's "ardent and lithe" (pace "Alien" again) vocalizations take up the challenge: turning every emotion and thought into a flamboyant call.
In 1997, Billy Mackenzie, the only stalwart member of the Associates, killed himself. There was no greater artist in my lifetime. In the eclectic selection of songs on Loveboat, Erasure updates and honors Mackenzie's insight to encourage a new hope. Erasure recognizes romantic despair in the context of a world changed by AIDS. On the last track, "Surreal", Erasure warns: "Surreal / Precious time is slipping away / Revealed / Don't go wishing your life away." The "Surreal" revealed: the world moves to the beat of individual disappointments. So much so that the infidelity in "Where in the World" is devastating: "You leave me desolate in soul / Go and fight in someone else's war / And so you put us both to shame / Don't come near me / Won't you make it go away." Erasure's art helps ease the pain. On "Crying In the Rain," Bell bemoans the difficulty to express feelings, and to make connections: "Can you make it all right? / Can you make it okay? / When the talk don't come out right / You're moving further away." But then Erasure puts heartbreak into humbling perspective: "Now I feel no pain / I do my crying in the rain." Bell even finds torch-song hope for lonely souls in shared fantasy projection on "Mad As We Are": "Lines across / My silver screen / . . . / Speed of light / Hope flickering / Like moths / In the night." David Bowie was never so androgynously inventive as Bell and Clarke's guitar-strumming "Love Is the Rage". Check out the opening: "Woman / If I were a woman / I would be man enough / To keep you warm / And boy / If I were a man / I would be strong enough / To hold you tight." If love is the solution, then it also ain't easy. Here Erasure catalogues the cultural and personal obstacles to expressing love, but there's Love in this kind of imagination. There are multivalent, dance-to-your-own-beat signs of Love when that imagination manifests itself on the disco floor. Four tracks on Loveboat are boogie-down delicious: "Here In My Heart", "Catch 22", "Moon and the Sky", and the anthem-worthy opening track "Freedom". They provide new ways of seeing signs of Love. On "Here In My Heart", Bell sings: "I can see / In your eyes / My desire." This benevolent narcissism is psychologically rich, but it's also gives way to the philosophically profound. Bell is liberated from a "Catch 22": "We close our eyes / And chase away the sorry things / You make it easy for me / Life is but a dream." The world manifests itself from a shared desire, from connection and love. Finally able to express emotions, Erasure transforms the world into metaphor - reflection to connection - just as the dance beats create an existential space for listener transformation on "Moon and the Sky": "See how the moon / She cries / Cool how the tears / Fill up the sky as snow". This is spiritually expansive. Check out this vision of "Freedom": "Cherish the union / The light in a stranger's eyes / Your guardian angel / Who will make all the wrongs thing right." It necessarily expands the meaning of Mackenzie's metaphor. It's how you recognize those waiting for loveboat. But then what do you do? Erasure invites us all on their trip. Erasure finds faith - "Freedom" - through gaydar. |
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Scene from the Erasure video Make Me Smile