the innocents

Erasure innocently broke the chains of love and gained a little respect with this international smash hit.  Synthesist Vince Clark had left Depeche Mode and founded Yaz before putting out an advertisement for a vocalist for a new group he was forming.  After receiving over forty demo tapes, he selected Andy Bell and they became Erasure.  Clarke says:  "When people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wanted to be a folk singer, and when I started writing songs, they were all about romance –  it was just natural for me to write them that way.  Then I tried to sing, and I sounded like a robot – my voice is crap.  I can’t sing at all, so it was natural for me to gravitate towards singers like Alison [Moyet from Yaz] and Andy."

Bell recalls:   "Vince was my hero in the first place. When I was a teenager, Yazoo was one of the coolest bands on the planet, really. It was great to see them play live last year. And then he had the Assembly project that was great. Before I even met him, I’d thought of all the people doing pop music, he’d be the coolest one to work with. He was the coolest one I could think of. And then when I answered this audition, it happened to be for him, so I just thought, well, I’m going to just knuckle down and get to know the guy...I think maybe he was just waiting for the right person to come along. We have complete, mutal respect for each other. I just think his work is so unique, his synthesizers, his electronic work — nobody’s come close to what he does, I don’t think, maybe aside from Kraftwerk. I think it’s a great combination."

The duo saw moderate success in the UK and on the US dance charts with their debut 'Wonderland' and the follow-up 'The Circus'; but it wasn't until their third album 'The Innocents' that they finally broke through into the mainstream.   It went to fifty-four in Canada, fifty in New Zealand, forty-nine in the US, eighteen in Norway, fifteen in Switzerland, thirteen in Sweden, eight in Germany, and became their first of four consecutive number one albums in the UK.  'The Innocents' has sold over five million copies worldwide.  Erasure produced the album with Stephen Hague and Dave Jacob.  Bell considers:    "I think it was kind of a special one...I don’t think it’s something you can necessarily do with every single record because otherwise you lose the magic of that one album. But I think it worked really well for us on 'The Innocents' record."







http://www.erasureinfo.com/







interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6_Apmy4dDA





"A Little Respect"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiKVjS3gR88



I try to discover
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you're making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
And if I should falter
Would you open your arms out to me
We can make love not war
And live at peace in our hearts
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
What religion or reason
Could drive a man to forsake his lover
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
You know you're making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me




"Chains of Love"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttV1VZUgQQ






'The Innocents'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glsMO1kMNy8


"A Little Respect" - 3:32
"Ship of Fools" - 4:01
"Phantom Bride" - 3:32
"Chains of Love" - 3:45
"Hallowed Ground" - 4:05
"Sixty-Five Thousand" - 3:23
"Heart of Stone" - 3:20
"Yahoo!" - 3:48
"Imagination" - 3:28
"Witch in the Ditch" - 3:45
"Weight of the World" - 3:40
"When I Needed You" (Melancholic Mix) - 4:22
"River Deep, Mountain High" (Private Dance Mix) (Barry, Greenwich, Spector) - 7:00