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You have to admire Bell. The "little respect" he sang about in 1988 was always going to be a big ask from music critics who sneer at their simplicity (and ironically their sincerity) and a new army of pop fans who have been reared on a diet of quick fix Saturday night talent contest shows. Erasure are like your uncle's shed. You know it's there but it's not a cool place to take a date when McDonalds is up the road. But Bell dances on regardless. Debut album (and probably the first and last solo album he will ever do) is not a hugely rapid diversion from his erasure material. This is largely because Manhatten Clique have supplied the music and sound pretty faithful to Vince Clark's brand of dizzying pop beats. The album is a fun electronic pop blast throughout. Despite Bell's confession that he is HIV positive stunning the music world prior to last erasure album "Nightbird", he is too busy dancing to feel sombre for long. Sure, there are one or two reflective moments over the course of an album when Bell starts to open up his diary, but he's never going to make his solo party a reason to mope around. His zest for living and enjoyment comes over very strongly throughout and his enthusiasm for pop music is as strong now as it ever was. Opener "Caught In A Spin" is an infectious mid paced pop dance song with Bell sounding laid back and fresh with lines "You're such a sweet boy/My fascination/Lie in the shade and do it" and the spanish guitar helps create an organic touch (I know Spanish guitars in pop songs can sometimes kill them but here it works very well). Single "Crazy" ,which should have made a much bigger dent on the top 40 than it did follows and is one of the pop songs of the year without question. The sheer singalong anthemic chorus brings back memories of vintage erasure - as do the classic sounding beeps. This one sweats itself accross the "city street" , finds it way to the nearest dancefloor and boogies on down. The first duet on the album is "Love Oneself" with Claudia Brucken and is absolutely fantastic. Bell wastes no time at all in sharing his newly found zest for living with lines such as "blink and it's over..life is a riot..we only have one life..this is not a rehearsal." and when he sings "be a kid..what else is there to be?" I defy anyone not to feel a few shivers run down your spine. This is life affirming pop that isn't scared to live for the here and now. The pace doesn't let up on "I thought it was you" which is a duet with Jake Sheers of the Scissor Sisters. This is the spirit of seventies disco shining through your speakers here. Although the song is a bit repetitive, it is infectious enough to draw you in and get you dancing. Title track "Electric Blue" with its darker sci-fi feel and thumping beats conjures up images of goldfrapp more than Erasure with its mention of dominatrixes and rubber tubes. The chorus of "Got a pain in my heart..Got a pain in my soul..Gotta pain in my feet" may echo the gay scene experience of many. It is very infectious stuff. "Jealous" begins with an orchestral feel but soon explodes into an autobiographical pop song that almost certainly looks at his open relationship with long term partner Paul Hickey (Bell has permission to have other partners, Hickey stays faithful)..Bell is happy to give his permission for his lover to feel upset with the lines "It can't be easy to keep your sense of self-control/I know if you were the one sleeping around/I could not keep my feelings for myself/I'd be as jealous as hell". It's one of several songs on this album that delivers more thrills with each growing listen. Ricky Martins meets Motown meets the dancefloor on the storming "Shaking My Soul" where Bell has a ball helped along by a vibrant brass section. If this isn't released and doesn't appear in a local top 10 near you sometime soon then something is seriously wrong. it's all a little cheesy, a little over the top and quite quite fab in the way it will draw you in whether you like it or not. You'll be singing this in your head for months! A high pitched "Fall in love" choirboy sound fills the opening of "Runaway" and then once again, the dancefloor is targetted as the beats kick in. This is another grower that will wrap its way around you and get you singing and moving along. Likewise "Never Fall In Love Again" keeps those beats coming (this time in a fairly late 80's nod). Andy is at his best when he is being little boy lost in a heartless world and his voice sounds lovely here as he mourns the end of a relationship with cries of "They say still waters run deep/Now i'm clinging to the shore". The second duet with Brucken is on "Delcious" which opens with a dizzying ska-ish disco sound and finds Manhatten Clique in top form twiddling the knobs as Bell and Brucken bitch at each other "Sure got a wicked sense of humour/You stick the knife in/And twist it round". Finally the pace slows down on ballad "Fantasy" but it's a song that should have been left on the shelf. Erasure fans will recognise the melody is too similar to "Rock Me Gently" which is a far better song than this sickly sweet mid paced slice of white boy soul. It's horribly MOR. The beats are back for "See The Lights Go Out" and is a lyric heavy dancy pop song on the darker side as bell sings "Am I dead or alive?/I feel a sense of desperation/Gives me a fever I can't deny followed later by the climax line "Now i'm searching for the angels in the sky?". Is Andy contemplating his own death here? Closer "The Rest Of Our Lives" is the second ballad on the album and brings the album to close in tearjerking fashion. Helped along by a twinkling piano, Bell croons a beauty to Paul Hickey and this is the moment that the hankies must come out. Despite his selfishness over the years and the problems they have endured together, Bell grows up and offers his eternal affection and gratitude to his lover with lines such as "I'm not about to wish you free/'cos you're staying here beside me 'till the day that I die". Sentimental? Yes. Heart on sleeve? Yes. Moving and inspirational? Most definately. There's too few stars in the pop sky that shine quite like Bell. And "Electric Blue" does nothing to darken the clouds. The world may not need an Andy Bell album right now. But everything is just a little bit brighter now it is here. "Electric Blue" is miles better than it has any right to be and showcasts Andy as not just a plastic dummy for Vince Clarke's electronics. Surely "A Little Respect" is the least he deserves after all these years.
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books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. film  film archive The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008. |
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