Another fine pop album (The Circus - Erasure)

Member Name: ajaybee

Product:	The Circus - Erasure
Date:	11/04/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great 80s pop songs

Disadvantages: 'Sexuality' - a hideous track!

Erasure's 1987 CIRCUS album is certainly short and sweet - it won't occupy much past 35 minutes of your time - but it's another fine early effort from one of Britain's most talented yet ignored (currently, anyway) pop acts.

CIRCUS, Erasure's second album, was the one which catapulted them into the big time, mainly through the huge hit 'Sometimes', the song which lifted them from chart obscurity (previous single 'Oh L'Amour' had reached #85!!!) into the big time in 1986.

Erasure proved this wasn't a one-off as follow hits 'It Doesn't Have To Be', 'The Circus' and 'Victim Of Love' were all top 15 hits. All are included here, and help to make up what is a consistently strong pop album. 'It Doesn't Have To Be' is indeed a fine track, the opening track and the album's strongest moment. The track gave Erasure a greater degree of depth than had been originally hinted at on early singles 'Who Needs Love Like That' and 'Heavenly Action' which were candyfloss pop. 'If I Could' and the haunting 'Leave Me To Bleed' are further evidence of the band's new-found maturity on this second album, and they sound all the better for it.

'Don't Dance' and 'Victim Of Love' are both great simple pop records, and have not dated to this day - they could sit alongside anything on 1997's COWBOY album or 2000's LOVEBOAT.

One gripe though: the track 'Sexuality'... what were they thinking? If they were trying to be camp here, it didn't pay off - it just sounds plain embarassing!!

Skip track 5 then, and you are left with 9 great songs that are perfectly representative of the late 1980's pop scene and remind us of how great Erasure were - and still are.

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