I would like to write a bit about music today. I have recently been listening a lot to my old favourites Jean Michel Jarre and Erasure. Looking back, I probably have to admit that even though I listen to all sorts of music, synthesizer music has always been closest to my heart and also remains there today. After all, among my top favourites you'll find the above-mentioned artists as well as Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and recent discovery Apoptygma Berzerk. You probably could not get more synthesised.

I remember discovering the Pet Shop Boys first, although I didn't realise it to begin with, but I have been a fan of theirs since Always on My Mind back in 1987. It's still the best version of the song; the Elvis version is rather dull. Then, in 1989, I discovered Jean Michel Jarre because someone I had a crush on liked him. I did not actually have a crush on him, but this was during the summer holiday and everyone on the course I was attending (in this country, actually) was in love with someone else on the course, and he was the only one left. How sad. Anyway, I bought a cassette of Jarre's music and haven't looked back since, to tell you the truth. At the moment, however, I am listening to some of his pre-Oxygéne stuff and it is about the same level as my own computerised music back in the nineties (i.e. mostly crap). Does that mean there's hope for me as well? Could it be that I will be able to make great music in the future? No?

Now, Erasure were lucky in that they had a couple of big hits during the summer of 1992, when I discovered music for real and actually started spending my own money on buying records. So I went to the shop to buy some singles for my brand new CD player and ABBA-esque happened to be top on my list. The next day I went back to buy some of their albums; luckily the previous year's Chorus was one of them, which reminded me that I had in fact liked them in 1991 as well, when their Love to Hate You came out. So that cemented my fandom and they are still my number one group. I'm one of those who buy every version of their singles (they tend to release three or more versions). Call me crazy.

I then listened through some of my old cassettes during the last part of 1992/beginning of 1993, and heard a song (these were all recorded from the radio) by Depeche Mode that I thought was brilliant. Knowing that they had a link to Erasure (Vince Clarke, basically), I thought I'd give them a go and bought four or six albums at once (I honestly don't remember any more, but I could probably check the covers as their price tags are still on there and I recognise my favourite record store's tags). I was hooked, of course.

Now, Depeche Mode is probably the group who have changed their style the most since they began, but the others have tried as well. Jarre's Metamorphoses from 2000 was his first all-vocal album in his more than thirty years of making music. It's average, I think. And Erasure, bless'em, have released an acoustic album recently. I shudder when I think about it and it may very well become the only album of theirs that I will buy only as a last resort. Pet Shop Boys seem to be stuck in their usual style, but it's always a hit and very poppy, so who cares?

Labels: erasure, music, personal