Erasure - B-Sides 1985-2012 [4xCD]

[dannii]

this needs to happen at some point, that's my Erasure dream release
would be great to release it before the next studio album
and most of these songs are hard to get, this way they would be on iTunes

[York Minster]

Erasure have too many low quality b sides.

An exception is "Love Me All Night Long". Nicely produced, it could have easily been a single (and I think it was in contention).
I also enjoy the Robert Miles paino-techno of First Contact, and In The Name of The Heart fit nicely with the excellent remixes of In My Arms

[Syncratic]

The CD 4 is quite bad. You can see the slip in quality over the years. As with their A-sides they are inconsistent.

[Patrick Bateman]

Mr. Gribber and his amazing cat?

[Undertaker]

wtf? Is this actually it? Or is this just the karaoke version? Sounds like one of those meditation cds.

[dannii]

i'm aware that half of it is an ''excuse for a track'' and filler but i'd really like them to release it
so that it's out there, commercially available, on iTunes and all, not lost on some long forgotten singles across hundred formats which is confusing

first half of their career is saved on EBX1-4 but even that's out of print now
so either re-release EBX1-4 and release the rest, physical and digital download,
or simply do this like Alternative and Format

[Eldritch]

wtf? Is this actually it? Or is this just the karaoke version? Sounds like one of those meditation cds.

Gosh, I just fell in love with Erasure all over again!

[Frequency]

They've written a handful of superb b-sides. The second disc is a testament to how prolific and inspired Vince was during the Chorus era; Waiting For Sex, Over The Rainbow and Let It Flow are some of the best songs they've ever done. The rest is mostly forgettable (apart from those wonderful Crackers International songs), and that fourth disc is turgid and uninspired, to put it mildly. They had their moments, but Erasure never delivered amazing b-sides on the same level or, perhaps more importantly, the same consistency as other bands famed for their bonus material output.



Should have been on Chorus.

[Patrick Bateman]

That sounds like Stop!

One could argue that what ultimately distinguished PSB from Erasure in the 80s/early 90s was the relative quality of their b-sides. Whilst PSB used them to disclose their secret heart (Paninaro, It must be obvious, Your funny uncle); contemplate the historical (In the night, Don Juan); reference the prevailing dance genre (The sound of the atom splitting, Music for boys, Euroboy); or just discard some of their greatest songs (Do I have to?, Shameless), Erasure just did more of the same. Of course there's nothing wrong with that but if anything made me obsessed with PSB at the time it was the songs on Alternative.

[Frequency]

That's the main problem I had with Oasis b-sides. At the time everyone used to make such a fuss over their b-sides, and good as though some of them were, my bone of contention was that it was more of the same. I always preferred it when bands used the b-side as a platform to write songs that just wouldn't exist outside of this strange vacuum that collected an artist's strangest and oddest moments. I don't think there's anything that understands this aspect better than Pet Shop Boys.

[Danger]

I like Erasure but if PSB have release lots of bsides better than album tracks, generally Erasure didn't. 4 discs of bsides cna be ripped in 1 disc of high quality bsides. Maybe V&A know this 'cos they've never really thought to release a bside collection.Anyway between 1990 and 1995 they released their best bsides, then and before only some.