One record at a time: 130. Erasure - World Beyond

OK, here is a confession: I have never listened to this record. In fact, I didn't really understand what it was until I read the promo sticker telling me it consists of 'classical' re-recordings of the songs from the "World Beyond" album. Why you would want to re-record mediocre songs with a Belgian string quartet I have no idea, but that's what they did. What is worse, I bought the thing.

The first track is my favourite from the original album "Oh What A World". The string arrangement is relatively sympathetic to the material even if it is a little uninspired. Thankfully Andy's vocal carries the melody and allows some of the quality of the original song to shine through. 

The maudlin "Be Careful What You Wish For" is only three and a half minutes long but it feels like it goes on forever. The sparse arrangement of "World Be Gone" gives the tune a new lease of life and is almost quite good. "A Bitter Parting" injects a little bit of rhythm, but the violin that mirrors Andy's vocal in the verses makes it sound like a sea shanty. The first hint of vocal fragility comes with "Still It's Not Over" where Andy struggles to overcome the building cacophony behind him. 

Weaker songs such as "Sweet Summer Loving" and "Tale Me Out of Myself" don't emerge well from the 'classical' arrangement but the single "Love You to the Sky" is a little better. As with most of the recordings here the remaining two tracks are just too long as the arrangement doesn't do enough to maintain my interest. Lets face it, even the most ardent Erasure fan won't be spinning this very often. 1/5