Erasure, "Nightbird"

Erasure - Nightbird

Erasure's CD, Nightbird is a sublime mix of slow, tender love songs and bouncy electronic pop that'll make you want to jump up and dance around the living room!

Nightbird is Erasure's best work in years. Andy Bell's vocalization is impressively nuanced and conveys the fragility of a hummingbird, while Vince Clarke's talent as a melody writer is as strong as ever. Nightbird is layered with sadness and loss, but the overriding feeling is one of triumph and a reaffirming turn toward beauty.

The first three tracks on Nightbird are good, but the core of the album begins with the fourth track, "Breathe". The chorus of this mid-tempo ballad ("Breathe, and I breathe") is simple, poetic, and powerfully symbolic. "Breathe" is like a comforting nightlight that shows others how to survive a breakup.

"I'll Be There" delivers fast-paced dance electronica, while "Because Our Love is Real" demonstrates Erasure's knack for serving up emotional vulnerability on a plate: "You wrap me up in love a color so sublime / Goes to where I hurt the most and takes it all away / You really know me more than I even know myself". The lyrics of "Don't Say You Love Me" work against expectations, warning a partner against uttering words that will forever alter the relationship.

"All This Time Still Falling Out of Love" is undoubtedly the climax of the album, and will please Erasure fans with its strong synthesizer hooks and pulsating drum machine. Somehow it's histrionic without being ridiculously so. "God help me but forgive my true intention / It hurts me but I've nowhere left to run" is the epitome of Erasure: heightened drama, pain and desperation, a sense of sin and a grasp at redemption, all wrapped up in a catchy synth-driven melody. I ate it up with a spoon.

Erasure formed in 1985 and have flourished in a difficult and fickle industry. Nightbird proves they're still a force to be reckoned with. Like a landscape description in a Gothic novel, Nightbird will lift your spirits to majestic peaks and safely usher you back down into the valley again.

Erasure have a website that includes an RSS feed of the band news.

Mute Records

Rating: 4½ (out of a possible 5)

Highlights: "Breathe", "I'll Be There", "Because Our Love Is Real", "All This Time Still Falling Out of Love", "I Broke It All In Two"

Similar to: Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys

First published on Suite 101