Erasure

"The Violet Flames" (Album, 2014)

Wednesday the 30th July 2014 – finds me sitting inside the Mute Studios in west London, to hear a preview of the new Erasure album The Violet Flames. I am joined by three other’s who have “pledged money” to have this opportunity as well as three Mute staff, who were very helpful and informative. So I sit down to listen to the new album, and I am very impressed by the first listen through, as the music is Erasure at their best. The full track listing is as follows:- Dark of Night, Elevation, Reason, Promises, Be The One, Sacred, Under The Wave, Smoke and Mirrors, Paradise and Stayed A Little Late Tonight. For me the highlights of the album are Elevation – which is the first single, other highlights are Be The One and Sacred. There was much debate amongst the listeners, as to if either of these two tracks could be the next single – my money is on Sacred; we will have to wait and see.

The final track, Stayed A Little Late Tonight is another cracking song and has a line in it about being OCD and at which point I had to laugh, as I had noted during our preview that the right hand volume level was slightly lower than the left (both audibly and on the meter), so I mentioned this before the second play through of the album. This slight adjustment made a significant improvement to the depth of the sound and made what was already a very good album, technically excellent. The album has a large number of old analogue synth sounds that reminded me of early Depeche Mode. The album was produced by Richard X and he has done an excellent job of it. I am looking forward to receiving my physical copy. I also enjoyed looking at the equipment in the Mute studios that included the Pro One that belonged to Fad Gadget and an old MiniMoog that once belonged to Gary Numan. All round a fun evening and impressive album. 7/10

Flickr photo album of the preview HERE.

Mark Smith (August 2014)