★★★★★
Albums such as Bad Religion's new Christmas Songs may prove fleetingly fun(ny), but to ensure that your festive LP transcends its way from quirky novelty record to bona fide Christmas classic, it helps if you BELIEVE. Because if you really feel it, the listener may too.
James Brown, for example, architect of the masterpiece that is Funky Christmas, was a dedicated Christian, an ordained minister even, as revealed in John Landis' cult documentary The Blues Brothers...
- thequietus.com
2013-12-07
★★★★★
"I don't believe in your religion, I only know what I can see," Andy Bell of Erasure sings on "Bells of Love (Isabelle's of Love)", the opening track of the British synthpop duo's holiday album, their first new material in two years. This serves as a kind of disclaimer to reassure the listener that this is a secular effort, despite the J-word popping up here and there on a few covers of old, Jesus-centric standards. New and old tunes occupy the same space here, begrudgingly so...
- consequenceofsound.net
2013-12-03
★★★★★
And why the Dickens not? Twenty-eight years in, Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, otherwise known as Erasure, decide it's time to throw their Santa hats into the ring and record a Christmas album. Alongside studied new versions of standards like the ever-haunting 'Bleak Midwinter' and 'Silent Night', the pair offers up some new tracks that rank among the best things they've delivered in the last decade...
- www.clashmusic.com
2013-11-30
★★★★★
Tweet Not Quite Winter Wonderland Erasure's Snow Globe is the latest in a long line of releases that stretches back to 1985 and includes a laundry list of UK top 40 hits. Singer Andy Bell and Depeche Mode founding member Vince Clarke have managed to keep their hit machine together longer than just about any of their contemporaries. So, for the band that's done everything and is coming up fast on its 30th year, it's only natural that they'd release... a Christmas album?...
- www.mxdwn.com
2013-11-19
★★★★★
It's hard to know how to approach Snow Globe, ostensibly the 15th studio album from synth-pop legends Erasure. Is it a record in its own right, or is it a nice little oddity that back in the '90s would probably have come in the post as a 'fan club only' release, lovingly wrapped up in sparkly paper and dusted with icing...
- www.musicomh.com
2013-11-09
★★★★★
The seeds of the future of both sides of Depeche Mode were mapped out clearly on their debut album, 32 years ago; while Martin Gore was to embrace the group's dark edge and made a fruitful, stadium-filling career out of it, original writer Vince Clarke took the froth of Just Can't Get Enough and devoted his life to making beautifully catchy songs laden with hooks and simplicity.
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-11-07
★★★★★
Considering Erasure had their commercial peak back when pop stars wrote actual Christmas songs and had actual hits with them, it's amazing it took them nearly 30 years to give it a go. In theory it's a festive match made in heaven: Andy Bell has an innate warmth to his vocals that's never left him, and because the duo still sound so very Erasureish there's an instant nostalgic appeal to all of their stuff...
- drownedinsound.com
2013-11-06
★★★★★
Oh Erasure, where did our love go? In this age of 80's remakes and 80's bands taking another stab at what put them on the map, Erasure's position is unique. Unlike Depeche Mode and other bands that moved through the 90's with a certain grace, Erasure hasn't been that visible in the US, aside from one of their hits on the radio now and again...
- www.plume-noire.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Just like the Pet Shop Boys, synth pop duo Erasure have stuck around a great deal longer than anybody ever expected, considering their heyday was about 20 years ago. Incredibly, Tomorrow's World is their 14th studio album and sees them moving back towards the snappy pop songs that made them almost permanent fixtures on the UK charts at one point...
- exclaim.ca
2011-12-01
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