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It’s another step back in time this week, as I turn my attention to an album that is a youthful 21 years of age - Savage by the Eurythmics.

I have to say, I never really understood this album, but I’ve always loved it. Stand out tracks for me personally are “I’ve Got a Lover (Back in Japan)” which has a beautiful contrast between the firmness of Annie’s instructions on the chorus to “Break, break, break away those ties” and the smooth styles of “When the whole world descends on me I’ll be waiting for you” which has a dreamlike essence, and “Shame” which is one of those songs that you are driven to sing along to - full-on driving wailings in a pittiful effort to match Annie’s range and always failing, but the words - oh such beautiful lyrics - and the absolute necessity to spit “You with yer brand new shoes and yer greasy hair and you with your mother’s pride and poetry”…

The most commercially succesful track of the album though (there were four singles in all, with this one peaking at Number Sixteen in the UK charts) is the very gentle synth pop track “You Have Placed a Chill In My Heart”. If ever there was a song that encapsulated the agonies of mustering the strength to walk away from a destructive relationship, then this is it. But oh so beautifully done.

For me personally, the cream of the crop is “Shame”. Beautifully smooth, totally engaging lyrics blend with the music to capture the essence of a time… that might never have actually existed beyond the mind of a poet. Certainly, this isn’t a life that I ever knew, but oh can’t you feel the shame…

It may be 21 this year, but “Savage”, despite, or perhaps because of, it’s synths and drum machines, hasn’t aged at all.

Don’t you want to feel the shame?

Eurythmics - Savage (p) and (c) 1987 RCA (UK) Limited. All titles composed by Eurythmics, Annie Lennox & David A. Stewart

Twenty years have passed since The Innocents was released by Erasure, and this seems like a fitting time to dust off my copy and give it a fresh listen.

Comprising some thirteen tracks (the vinyl album only had eleven, with “When I needed you” and “River Deep, Mountain High” being ommitted from that format), this was pop duo Erasure’s third album and it topped the charts in the UK. Erasure really were riding high, building on the success of 1987’s “The Circus” and “The Innocents” almost provided us with three top ten hits - “Chains of Love” peaking at Number 11 in the singles chart, while “Ship of Fools” fared better, reaching Number 6 with the best-selling track off the album being “A Little Respect” which made it to Number 4.

While album and singles really tapped into the popular market at the time, how does this work sound now, twenty years later and in a different century? The simple answer is - very, very well. Vince Clarke and Andy Bell worked their magic with this album and it really encapsulates “classic” Erasure. The sound is clean and pure, as are the vocals, if not the lyrics, which present a collection of tales of the progression of life, from the lost innocence of a “Phantom Bride” through to the yearning for the “Chains of Love” to be broken, reaching the desperation and frustrations of the little wise man who carries the “Weight of the World” on his shoulders:

You keep it wrapped up inside
It’s like a leathal potion
Gonna find it soul destroying

This album is anything but soul destroying - it’s tone and content are uplifting. While the subjects of the songs have to manage and cope with a range of challenges, ultimately the message is that risking the pain (or chains) of love is indeed worth it, and even in your darkest hour there will be someone there, to pour your heart out to.

First class. Enjoy it now.

Erasure - The Innocents (p) and (c) 1988 Mute Records Limited. All titles by Clarke/Bell. Published by Sonet-Musical Moments/Sonet.