Erasure FAQ:

Andy Bell’s life story

Andy’s website now has a little autobiography on it. It’s a fun read if you want to find out a bit more about where Andy came from. Good info too — I finally learned the name of his partner in Dinger, his pre-Erasure band (it’s Pierre). You can also find out about what music he was into before Erasure — Yazoo and Alison Moyet, for example. Maybe he had an inkling of what was to come: “One day when we were listening to Alf (Alison’s first album), my flat-mate Andy said next year this is going to be you. He was always a bit psychic.”

Australian “Nightbird” bonus

The Australian release of Nightbird has a wee bonus: a great big image file of the album cover. Put the CD is your computer and open up the CD folder; the file is called nightbird.jpg. It would make nice wallpaper for your computer screen.

That picture file is the only thing you’ll see when you put the CD in your computer. The CD has some annoying copy protection to stop you copying the music onto your computer. It only takes about 30 seconds and a Post-it note to defeat the protection and copy the files, but it’s still a pain. Even so, it’s definitely worth the bother to put this excellent album onto your computer or music player.

Andy Bell’s List of Music You Should Hear

Andy Bell has posted a List of Music You Should Hear on Amazon.com. It’s fun to read his comments on the artists he likes. Great to see Kate Bush in his list too!

Nightbird: too many words?

The latest album Nightbird is great. A nice, rich sound, lovely production, and many strong songs. But the thing that really struck me is how wordy the song titles are. “Let’s Take One More Rocket to the Moon”, while quite a poetic phrase, doesn’t really hit you in a pop-song kinda way. And “I Bet You’re Mad at Me” just sounds silly, though maybe I just don’t much like the song. Anyway, I was sure Erasure had previously been synonymous with punchy songs with snappy titles, and the new album was a departure.

Of course I realise that it’s possible to over-analyse these things. So that’s exactly what I did.

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