Erasure-Other People's Songs

Here's where I get a little hypocritical. When music critics pile on cover albums like The Band's Moondog Matinee and Bowie's Pin-Ups by saying that they represent an evolutionary step backward and aren't worth owning, I'm usually the guy who defends those albums. I love knowing the songs The Band wishes they would have written and the artists that influenced David Bowie. I think these albums are much better than critics would have me believe and that songs like "Share Your Love" and "Friday on My Mind" are too good to not be covered. Basically I make the point that if a band or artist wants to make a cover album, it's well within their right. As long as they bring a little something different to the songs they're covering, the result should be at least worth a listen or two.

Other People's Songs is Erasure's cover album, and I don't like it very much. Yes, they bring something different to every single one of the songs they cover. Yes, it's interesting to see the artists that influenced Erasure. It's just that this album isn't that good. The songs in their original forms are perfectly fine, so it's not that they picked duds. It's just that the songs they picked don't sound good when performed by Erasure. It's as simple as that.

The best song on the whole album is the first track, "Solsbury Hill." The thing about it is that I would much rather listen to the Peter Gabriel version and I usually like Erasure more than I like Peter Gabriel. There are even two Righteous Brothers covers on this album. If you want to know what a cover gone wrong sounds like, listen to Andy Bell singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." There's a better version of the song on Top Gun, and I cringe during that scene in Top Gun.

Much as I love to defend cover albums and much as I'd like to think that an Erasure cover album would be a good thing, it's not. If Erasure had put out an album covering Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Depeche Mode I think it would have been much more successful, but as is Other People's Music is a flop.