Erasure: Abba-esque

Posted by Luminator (A) on June 20, 2015 at 12:16:35

Over on Rocky Road, I have covered a few albums, which happened to hail from 1992. Several of you have written to me, telling me to stick with that time period, rather than skipping around.

So let me take time out from my reviews of after-market fuses and the Simaudio Neo 260D, and pull out more material from 1992.

In that summer of '92, the U.S. media pulled the plug on popular music, and kept hammering us over the head with grunge. While many people did not have anything against grunge, they were miffed that grunge came at the expense of other musical genres. Thus, there was a thirst for anything but grunge.

Without any discernible promotion, British synthpop duo Erasure came out with a 4-song EP, Abba-esque. As you may have surmised, it consisted of ABBA covers: "Lay All Your Love On Me," "S.O.S.," "Take A Chance On Me," and "Voulez Vous." There was nothing on the cover, save the ABBA logo.

I do not know about other markets, but here in the Bay Area, ABBA had been dead for over a decade. So, who could have predicted that Abba-esque would be the flashpoint in an explosive ABBA revival? By the end of '92, PolyGram's ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits, partially driven by the CD being available at Costco, was a runaway best-seller. All that, in the face of the grunge onslaught.

As for Erasure, they themselves, in time for the holidays, came out with a greatest hits album of their own, Pop! The First 20 Hits.

To this day, ABBA remain as popular as ever. And to think, it all got started 23 years ago, when Erasure somewhat low-key and anonymously released Abba-esque.

In an episode of Psych, main character Shawn does ask another person, which version of "Take A Chance On Me" is better, ABBA's or Erasure's. What is your answer?

The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster

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Topic - Erasure: Abba-esque - Luminator 12:16:35 06/20/15 (1)

Would it be wrong to say they both suck? - jimbill 17:25:32 06/20/15 (0)

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