Editor Katie Watkins - 29/8/20Electronic Music’s duo Erasure are back with stunning new album NEON, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke embark on their 18th Studio album release this week. The Neon descends upon us at a time where the mood is upbeat for Erasure in a week where synth pioneer Vince Clarke won the Special Recognition Award at this weeks Association of Independent Music online Awards and was duly presented with this by his partner in crime the flamboyant Andy Bell. The album was recorded in Brooklyn, New York, Atlanta Georgia and mixed in London, The Neon was as Bell states ‘about refreshing my love for music – hopefully, our love – of great pop’ If the lead single ‘Hey Now (Think I Got a Feeling)’ is anything to go by both Andy and Vince have taken the pop bull by the horns with its strong catchy bassline and instantly recognisable Vince Clarke riff and set the tone of this album in exciting fashion. By no means the strongest single they have ever released but the fundamentals are there, catchy, upbeat and soulful. The second single release ‘Nerves of Steel’ follows with a resounding analogue intro, an echoing syncopated backdrop enhanced with subtle keys twinkling in the background and its beautiful moody chorus displaying pure Erasure bliss. ‘Fallen Angel’ inspires with its haunting but yet aggressive electronic opening bars before taming into a disco thumper featuring a spacey sounding middle 8 and strong vocals. The cheerfully retro ‘No Point in Tripping’ nearly feels like it was part of the Upstairs at Eric’s sessions it’s that Yazoo tinged with its sparse synthetic sounds interlaced with a heavy bassline and wonderful Sci-Fi sounding middle 8 which is sublime. ‘Shot A Satellite’ was revealed on streaming platforms shortly after the lead single and gained a lot of favour with the Erasure faithful due to a traditional Erasure styling encompassing strong passionate vocals and quirky electronics. A shift in mood follows with ‘Tower of Love’, a brooding powerhouse with a muscular chorus, chilling synth pads and tones that evoke musings of a medieval film score. ‘Diamond Lies’ takes us back to the cheerful with its prominent analogues and ingeniously stuttering midsection and shows similarities to Bell’s 2010 Non-Stop album
The mood again slows with the piano-led track ‘New Horizons’ a love song sung beautifully over a minimal keyboard structure interlaced with subtle sparse electronic effects. ‘Careful What I Try To Do’ bounces back featuring a heavy bass intro that turns reminiscent to the Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind’s deep tones.
“You got fortitude and you find the means when you care about the important things” Bell emotionally projects over electronically entwined orchestration that makes for pure delight. The Neon closes with space-age filmic sounding keys layering through the moody ‘Kid You’re Not Alone’ and Andy Bell demonstrating that he’s never lost that upper-scale over the years and noticeably throughout this album.
The Neon is ‘Erasure’ personified, bright, colourful and electric – in fact, its that bright and electronic it should have an honorary place in Times Square or Shinjuku! The arrangements are sparse giving space for sounds to breath and don’t suffer from the need to clutter and for the majority, this offering is energetic, upbeat and full of life. It may seem more heavily 80’s influenced and contains some not unfamiliar Vince post-1989 sounds and some twee lyrics but the trademark hooks are still present and it’s unmistakably Erasure who are still on top of their game after 35 years.
Matt Goss Beautiful Unknown London Show Fails To Sell Out Editor Katie Watkin's 24/4/22 Matt Goss once again failed to generate any interest from fans for his one show London Palladium performance. Matt announced on social media, that he would be performing at the London Palladium on the 23rd of April. Ticket sales have been so low the singer had to reduce ticket prices in the attempt to fill the 2000 space capacity theater, with online giant Ticketmaster emailing fans and providing notifications about new seat allocation nearer to the stage. This practice is normally done when a venue struggles to sell tickets. With Matt so desperate to try and fill the Palladium, he begged fans to buy up to 6 tickets each and gift them to family members and strangers. His management team also took to social media begging fans to buy, with one fan Dee Murphy posting buy tickets it's less than a pedicure. Tickets last week continued to struggle with some fans once again purchasi...
Will Young speaks out about his brother's taking his own life for the first time. Editor Katie Watkin's 6/5/2022 Pop idol winner and singer Will Young has finally spoken out about his twin brother Rupert's suicide ahead of a new documentary to aired on channel 4. Rupert Young, was 41,when he tragically died after falling from Westminster Bridge in London on 2nd of August 2020. Ruperts death came a few days after paramedics saw him walking along the edge of the same bridge and he was admitted to hospital. Pop Idol star Young spoke at the inquest into Rupert's death, about he fought to have his brother section for his own safety. Will recently told BBC Breakfast about how his brother had made more than 20 suicide attempts over a number of years, but the family and never been able to get him sectioned and admitted that while he misses his brother, "I don't miss the alcoholic" Rupert lived with Will for nearly 4 years, with Will, becaom...
Fleetwood Mac: after its 926 weeks on the chart, who’s still buying Rumours? Editor Katie Watkins 10-2-2022 Fleetwood Mac released Rumours forty-five years ago this month, an album that combined some what gauzy soft pop, manicured folk and stormy rock with a soap-operatic level of intra-band strife. Rumours won album of the year at the U.S. Grammys, achieved 20 times platinum status in the US alone. What’s truly remarkable about this album is the album longevity , and how it continues to sell thousands of new physical copies each year, despite being available to stream. According to the UK’s Official Charts Company, Rumours sold over 34,593 vinyl copies in 2021, third only to new albums by Adele and Abba, and beating new release by such artist as Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey. Rumours also sold over 32,508 copies the previous year and is currently sitting at No 29 in its 926th week on the UK Official album chart, which is now up five pl...
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