ERASURE TOMORROW'S WORLD ALBUM MUTE, PLAYGROUND RELEASE: OCTOBER 3, 2011 REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Once upon a time there was a well-established fact that two of the main electronic pop bands balancing between sweet pop melodies and arty decadence determining the real standards of the genre were called Erasure and Pet Shop Boys. They hade both taken the Soft Cell heritage seriously (a singer plus a chap behind a keyboard stand) and actually managed to squeeze synthpop into mainstream broadcasts on a regular basis.

With this in the back of my mind it is with regret that I must force myself to even pay attention to more than one or two tracks on this new Erasure release. While melodies and especially vocal melodies have always been this band’s strength the songs on “Tomorrow’s World” are all pretty anonymous and with no real melodramatic effect underneath, like we’ve been used to.

The production is also way too squashed for the electropop listeners but still not club hip enough for the real house audiences. It is also a bit ironic that while “Nightbird” from 2005 was produced exclusively with software synthesizers it still had a far more organic and trademark Erasure feel to it than this new album that was produced with the good old equipment. On this, the third album after “Nightbird”, the sound gives me the impression they are trying a bit too hard to reinvent themselves in order to attract “modern” listeners. The band has taken another step closer to acts far more lightweight when they could and should be aiming higher. Much higher.

PETER MARCHIONE

Peter Marchione is ex editor-in-chief of Swedish music technology magazine Musikermagasinet (MM) and plays music in i.a. Light Parade and Helm. He was also a member of now disbanded Thermostatic.