(GayWebSource.com – Gay News & Press Network) – Posted by Jake Simpson – TheGayUK.com
How do you mark 29, yes 29, years in the music industry? By chucking out one of the very best albums of 2014 that’s how.

By George McPhail | 27th September 2014

After last year’s mildly diverting jaunt into the Christmas album market with Snow Globe, Erasure

have returned with a pop vengeance! The whole album is Co-Produced by Richard X and the end

result is a thoroughly sleek and modern pop album, but still retaining and sometimes re-surfacing all the elements that made the duo such a pop force to be reckoned with in the 80s, 90s and early 00s.

Album opener “Dead of Night” kicks the whole thing off with some pulsing 80s inspired synth beats

and the D..D..D..D of Night refrain will be nagging in your brain long after you finish listening to the

album. Current single “Elevation” is a bona-fide modern pop banger, a trance inspired little pop

affair with a hands aloft chorus that would put some of the current dance tracks in the charts to

shame.

Next up is “Reason” a piano-led up-tempo affair and one of the strongest songs on the album, it’s

just insanely catchy and if it doesn’t get you bopping along well then you might actually be dead.

“Promises” is up next and is another solid dance-pop anthem, then time for a bit of a slow down

with the melancholy sound of “Be The One” and it really does sound like the bigger more modern

brother of their classic ballad “Am I Right”.

Next up “Sacred” and is my personal favourite of the whole album, I love it when Erasure just let

loose and go for it, and this is that song, a massive slice of electro-pop with big chunky 90s style

trance synths, a piano breakdown and a chorus to die for.

“Under The Wave” is where things start to get a bit more interesting from here out, it’s a mid-tempo

little number taking just a little note from the current trend of deep house but sprucing it up

with those Richard X and Vince Clarke tricks. “Smoke & Mirrors” is next and this has quite a dark

3am and underground vibe about it, those sexy opening “josh wink style” synths remain for the rest

of the song, giving the whole thing a rather edgy side to it and Andy Bell sounds magnificent on it, as he does all the way through the album.

The 2nd last song is “Paradise” coming back for one last dance tune, and it’s a big one at that,

again following in the “3am” sound of the previous track, it’s filled with sexy acid house style synths

and some familiar Erasure electronic sounds, a perfect blending of old meets new. Last up is “I

Stayed A Little Late Tonight” a moody and atmospheric piece of mid-tempo electronica, it’s the

perfect way to end the album.

If you haven’t listened to an Erasure album for a while, then I thoroughly recommend you give this a go, with a little help from Richard X not only have they delivered their strongest record in more

than a decade, it is also one of the best albums of the year. 5/5.

The Violet Flame is out to buy now from Amazon or iTunes

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