Writing an album from the same source material as your last one isn’t usually a surefire recipe for stoking expectations, but Erasure are not a normal band.
Like the rest of us, Erasure found themselves with a bit more time on their hands in 2020. While manipulating tracks from their recent studio album, The Neon, Vince Clarke discovered a hidden sonic landscape within the record.
These stems were fleshed out by Andy Bell and long-term collaborator Gareth Jones. On paper, it appears to be a highly risky strategy to push this any further, especially seeing as they’ve already released a remix album of these tunes, but coming up with a brand new album of completely different sounding 10 new songs is another testament to just how good they are. Clarke has carved out a career from sprinkling fairy dust on Yazoo and Depeche Mode songs. Yet again, he strikes gold.
Day-Glo (Based on a True Story) contains all the familiar motifs of one of the finest electronic pop bands of the last 40 years. While this isn’t a collection of catchy pop bangers, it’s unmistakably Erasure, exploring themes of love, understanding and positivity in a more introspective and mediative way.
Initially, Day-Glo (Based on a True Story) sounds like a stripped-back exercise in minimal electronica rather than pop, but repeated listens reveal rich layers of sound brought to new life by one of the most singular forces in pop.
