Erasure – World Be Gone

Erasure World Be Gone

Album facts

Release: May 19th, 2017
Label: Mute Records
Genre: ,
Discogs: Link

The tides leave traces

It's unbe­lieve­able that the awe­some pre­de­cessor album 'The Violet Flame' is almost 3 years ago. Time flies like a flight and leaves a mel­an­chol­ic trace. Although the cur­rent album 'World Be Gone' con­tains some very nice songs about love and hope, the basic mood is rather oppress­ive.

The album art­work prom­ises at least graph­ic­ally hope. The fig­ure­head in the shape of an angel looks con­fid­ently towards a glim­mer­ing light in the sky. Even if we are cur­rently sail­ing through the stormy ocean, it’s the hope that dies last. Perhaps it's only a cliché and cheesy sym­bol, but it makes my heart feel much warmer.

I love you to the sky, sky, sky …

The open­er and the first single "Love You To The Sky" almost screams to become a cheesy radio hit. A song full of romance that I would emo­tion­ally com­pare with the well-known hit 'The Power Of Love' by 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood'.

It's pure love, devo­tion and romance that you feel while listen­ing this song. And not only for the people who live in the pink world that can be seen when you're freshly in love. In any case, this is one of the most beau­ti­ful love songs I've heard in a long time.

But let me tell you that 'Love You To The Sky' is the most uplift­ing song on the whole album. It's catchy and gives the listen­er an easy access to the new album. For all oth­er tracks I def­in­itely needed a few more attempts, because they are more bleak and the pop factor is less.

When emotions collide

The mood changes quickly with the second num­ber 'Be Careful What You Wish For!'. I can imme­di­ately feel the mel­an­choly that begins to crawl my back upwards. But as ser­i­ous the song is and as bit­ter­sweet it feels, in the same way it's won­der­ful bril­liant. After an euphor­ic open­er fol­lowed by a such sad bal­lad, let your emo­tions feel phys­ic­ally the visu­al­ized storm on the artwork.

Erasure 2017 by doron gild
Erasure (2017 by Doron Gild)

More mel­an­choly drips out of a big jar, also in the album title giv­en track 'World Be Gone'. This is a low-tempo bal­lad about loss and nos­tal­gia. The slow deep beat­ing bass drum brings almost your own heart­beat out of the rhythm.

The num­ber 'The Bitter Parting' doesn't allow the mood bar to go up. Once again fol­lowed by a sen­ti­ment­al bal­lad, which is also import­ant for the album because the album concept is gen­er­ally very bleak.

The gay rights movement

‘Still It’s Not Over’ is a remind­er of their place in the gay rights move­ment. Even I'm not involved in the gay scene, this track has really touched my heart. It's also a bal­lad like the last three songs, but here the mood is quite dif­fer­ent. It's a really charm­ing song that feels uplift­ing and hopeful.

Memories cut like knives

Singing of a sep­ar­a­tion from a part­ner is already hard. But it's even harder when the life part­ner died, which has happened to Andy Bell per­son­ally. That and the find­ing of a new love is the story in 'Sweet Summer Loving'.

So much hon­esty and pro­found­ness I have nev­er heard in an 'Erasure' song before. Probably also the whole basic mood is respons­ible. Due to the quiet and min­im­al­ist­ic sound­scapes, you've to deal com­pulsor­ily with the ser­i­ous themes on 'World Be Gone'.

The voice of the voiceless

'Oh What A World' already starts with a rather men­acing and alarm­ing sound. But the cool indus­tri­al sound fits per­fectly with the dysto­pi­an theme. Even the beat and the melody drag­ging them­selves with dif­fi­culty for­ward. The anger of the cur­rent world situ­ation can be heard acoustically.

Related to the top­ic fol­lows the track 'Lousy Sum Of Nothing'. A true heart-break­ing song with anoth­er ser­i­ous sub­ject too. It's about the loss of feel­ing and empathy in the post-truth age we're liv­ing. The chor­us in this song is like a wake call about we all should think about. If a rather unpolit­ic­al band like 'Erasure' already has lines like: "The World has lost it's lov­ing", then there is some­thing ser­i­ously wrong.

Love is the answer

The album 'World Be Gone' ends like it starts. Here we've the second and last upbeat track on this album. Finally, 'Erasure' let us breathe again. The slo­gan is: "Never lose hope!". 'Just A Little Love' is a won­der­ful Synth Pop song that is abso­lutely radio-friendly. This song bursts the chains of the built-up mel­an­choly and dark­ness. It leaves the beau­ti­ful, warm feel­ing to do some­thing good. A bom­bast­ic and glor­i­ous con­clu­sion of 'World Be Gone'.

What's our conclusion?

Well, I guess 'World Be Gone' is the most ser­i­ous and darkest album that we've ever heard by Andy Bell and Vince Clark yet. The album expli­citly con­front the dark forces. In the res­ult, how­ever, it dis­solves into love and hope.

The album is under­stand­able and con­clus­ive. We live in gloomy times and the guys of 'Erasure' are now also at an age by reflect­ing the world more closely and revis­ing the past. Let's hope that the storm will soon settle and the waves will be smooth.

If you're are expect­ing a typ­ic­al easy listen­ing Synth Pop album, then you will be dis­s­a­poin­ted. If you don't close your eyes to real­ity, feel empathy for all poor souls and hope for a bet­ter world, then you will cer­tainly love 'World Be Gone'. We recom­mend this mar­vel­lous, but unusu­al 'Erasure' album.

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2017‘. Further you should check the pos­i­tion of this album in the art­icle 'What is the best Erasure album ever?'.

Track By Track Rating

Erasure - World Be Gone
Erasure – World Be Gone
Love You To The Sky
Be Careful What You Wish For!
World Be Gone
A Bitter Parting
Still It's Not Over
Take Me Out Of Myself
Sweet Summer Loving
Oh What A World
Lousy Sum Of Nothing
Just A Little Love
Recommend
Love You To The Sky
Be Careful What You Wish For!
Just A Little Love
Weak
(Nothing to report here)
4.1
Marvellous

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Love You To The Sky
Be Careful What You Wish For!
World Be Gone
A Bitter Parting
Still It's Not Over
Take Me Out Of Myself
Sweet Summer Loving
Oh What A World
Lousy Sum Of Nothing
Just A Little Love
Final Score