Put The Needle On The Record - Week #30

Put The Needle On The Record Week #30 Erasure - The Innocents

For this weeks feature we go back to April 1988 and the Erasure album "The Innocents".

This album was the 3rd album released by Erasure and the follow-up to their big breakthrough album "The Circus", I saw the band live at the Manchester Apollo when they toured to promote this album, it is a fantastic album, probably one of my favourite Erasure albums, the duo were on fine form, as it includes some of their finest songs they have written, "Ship Of Fools", "A Little Respect" and "Chains Of Love", the first 2 regulars throughout the years in their concerts, their are other gems to be heared on this album too, such as, "Heart Of Stone" and "Phantom Bride", both could have been singles, I also like the track "Yahoo!", cheesy but infectious.

The album became their first to top the album charts and the album enjoyed success in America, due to heavy exposure on MTV, it made the billboard top 50. It was produced by Stephen Hague, who of course, produced "Please" by Pet Shop Boys and some tracks on their album "Actually". A brilliant producer back then.

Three singles were released off the album, they were of course "Ship Of Fools" (Which reached number 6 in the UK Singles chart), "Chains Of Love" (which reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart) and "A Little Respect" (which reached number 4 in the UK Single Chart and also reached number 14 in the American Billboard Top 100).

The album also reached number 1 in the UK Album Chart and was their first album to top the charts.

Track Listing

A Little Respect
Ship Of Fools
Phantom Bride
Chains Of Love
Hallowed Ground
Sixty-Five Thousand
Heart Of Stone
Yahoo!
Imagination
Witch In The Ditch
Weight Of The World
*When I Needed You (Melancholic Mix)
*River Deep Mountain High (Private Dance Mix)

*CD Bonus Tracks

So if you have the album in your collection and have n't played it in a while, dig it out and give it a spin!