 Erasure Mute's series of boxes compiling Erasure's singles continues with ebx4, containing the five Chorus-era singles in expanded versions that collect all the relevant mixes and b-sides that were scattered across domestic and import releases. This is a real service to Erasure fans, as collecting the band's tracks could be a very expensive and frustrating proposition. Although, in all honesty, virtually anyone who would want a comprehensive Erasure singles box undoubtedly had already collected the various singles and variations years back, so the "service" is really being done by the fans … that is, servicing the record company's dick with predictably submissive capitalist fellatio. That said, it sure is nice to have all this material in one place, and in a cool box, no less. This set includes discs for Chorus, Love to Hate You, Am I Right?, Breath of Life, and Abba-esque, finding Erasure on the cusp of true artistic greatness (with the subsequent two albums, I Say I Say I Say and Erasure) but bounded in the dance-pop stratsophear that, at that point, still accepted them. The band's earlier singles were great, yeah – but as with Madonna, the first few albums were pretty obvious fluff, and it wasn't until the late 80s that either would really hit their stride. Erasure started developing this weird, sci-fi dance-goth sound, but with incredibly catchy melodies and Andy Bell's increasingly confident and audacious voice. ebx4 charts the transition from the fluffy stuff to the meaty stuff … and there's a vegetarian joke in there, but I'm way too lazy to find it. The singles all flow well, programmed so that you don't have to listen to lots of consecutive mixes of the same song (with the exception of the Breath of Life disc, which has no other songs). The b-sides are by and large very good (especially "Snappy" off Chorus and "Waiting for Sex" off Am I Right?. Great mixes here include the transcendent Grid mix of "Am I Right?", Moby's "Vegan mix" of "Chorus" (which is somewhat hilarious in retrospect given the success of Play … when Andy says "Oh lawd," you can't help but think it's some kind of time-travelling self-parody), and, surprisingly, the Abba-esque remixes (originally released as a separate CD-single). I never bought that disc, 'cause I figured: Abba-esque remixes, you know? What could there be to them? But they're fucking awesome – aggressive, guitar-driven, pulsating, shifting, perfect mixes that are probably the best ever done for Erasure (Fortran 5 and Phil Kelsey do the honors). And I would be remiss without once again heralding the eternal acoustic version of "Perfect Stranger" (from Am I Right?) … a glorious unexplored Erasure-future that never materialized. Good, good, good. Hopefully we'll see an ebx5 and 6 that will cover Erasure's brilliant mid-90s … I've declared it my life's work to argue down the world on the point that Erasure actually got better, not worse.
Review by Mimi Halfway |