Erasure-The Innocents

The Innocents is pretty close to the top as far as my favorite Erasure albums go. I first found out about this one because of my friend Richard. There was usually a significant overlap in the albums that my friends and I owned. Each of us had our own copy of Violator, Very, and Pop! but for some reason Richard was the only one among us who owned The Innocents. That made it somewhat of a novelty and a coveted possession.

The music itself is generally fantastic. This is where the only Erasure song that non-Erasure fans know comes from ("A Little Respect." If you asked most people, that would be the only Erasure song they know. Its Pet Shop Boys counterpart is "West End Girls"). The Innocents is a very good album. Most of the songs are highly enjoyable, but there are a couple missteps. First there's Sixty-Five Thousand, a pointless and baffling adaptation of Pennsylvania 6-5000. It is the very epitome of album filler. The other misstep is the cover of River Deep, Moutain High which is equally baffling and pointless. The funny thing is that without these tracks, the album would still have 11 songs which is one more than standard album length.

Even though the two aforementioned fillers were not left on the cutting room floor, there are plenty of hidden gems on The Innocents. Songs like "Phantom Bride" and "Witch in the Ditch" are as good as anything on any other Erasure album. "Yahoo!" seems a little silly at first, but it's a personal guilty pleasure. "When I Needed You" should be the last song on the album, and if it were it would close things out perfectly. It's a gorgeous and heartfelt number.