TRACI LORDS - CONTROL

I remember this time in my life fondly...  1995 or so and the music I was passionate about then, I really invested a lot of time and energy in.  This is the first single from Lords' 1 and only album, "1,000 Fires".  I remember attending an album release party for her and getting my copy for free.  When I realized one of my all time favorite electronic writer/producers, Ben Watkins, had worked on this album, I was beside myself.  There were two singles from this album and I own both.

'Control' is a Ben Watkins composition and for the record, he is the musical genius behind Juno Reactor.  At that time, this song was a big deal for a couple of reasons...  First, it was a bit of a club hit and second, the Juno Reactor Instrumental version of the song appeared in the "Mortal Kombat" film as the fast paced background music in the battle between Lui Kang and Reptile.  The scene was sorta hooky but the music provided the adrenaline kick it needed to be exciting.  You can look it up on Youtube if you're interested in watching it.  The music is kinda butchered in the edit, but it's still quite powerful.

This maxi-single offers quite a lot.  In addition to the Juno Reactor instrumental, it features 3 mixes, an edit and the album version.  The mixes are actually fairly interesting and diverse.  They don't maintain the high energy of the track preferring instead to make the track more groovy, funky or whatever their specialty was depending on the artist mixing the track.

The highlight is still the Juno Reactor instrumental version.  You just can't go wrong with it.  To some degree, it's even better than the original album version.  The instrumental version would easily fit on any Juno Reactor album released around the time and was typical of Watkin's output.  For Juno Reactor fans, it's the purest track.  Still, the Lords vocal version is also great.  It's an excellent dance/club number and you won't go wrong checking it out.  My final words:  AN AMAZING ELECTRONIC SINGLE FOR A GREAT CLUB HIT!

TRACI LORDS - CONTROL
01. Control (Olympic 7" Edit)
02. Control (Original Mix)
03. Control (Overlords House Mix)
04. Control (San Frandisco Mix)
05. Control (DJ E FX San Frandisco Dub)
06. Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental)

ERASURE - THE CIRCUS

I'm really gonna catch it here from Erasure fans so I'm going to tred as lightly as possible when I say this...  First, let me be honest and say although I knew about Erasure and I listened to them on the radio, at school and with my friends, I never actually bought one of their albums until I was 20.  I knew who they were, I knew Vince Clarke was writing the music, but during my high school years, I was more into Martin L. Gore and Depeche Mode than Vince.  I had the Yaz albums, but I didn't latch onto Erasure.  And a large part of that was simply because they were hugely popular in my school.  To this day, I know straight classmates who will go to Erasure's outlandish concerts even though deep down, they're anti-gay just because Erasure was such a huge part of their teenage lives.

When I finally started getting into Vince as a song writer, I went back and picked up Erasure's back catalog, but for me, these earlier albums will always be remembered mostly by the singles I was hearing rather than the albums as a whole.  That's why, as I put this disc in to listen to it, I honestly lump it together with pretty much everything right up until "Chorus".

"The Circus" is responsible for some of Erasure's most popular and mainstream music.  It is a serious album.  I'm always amazed when I listen to these records how incredible all of this early Erasure material is.  Not only were they writing incredible pop music, they were also championing a cause and breaking the rules of established music companies.  Erasure might not have been "Out" but they weren't "In-the-closet" either.  In my mind, Erasure were a band that helped change the cultural opinion of a generation about gay and lesbians in society.  They're so much more than just a pop band.

Although not all of these songs were released as singles, I know each and every one of these songs as if they were.  They were played in assemblies, school dances, during lunch period...  pretty much any social event you can think of I was exposed to this music.  I even remember one of my art classes...  The teacher would let students play cassettes while we were working if she approved of the music and Erasure made the cut quite a few times.  I knew all of these songs by heart well before I purchased the CD.

In my opinion, the best tracks on this disc are 'It Doesn't Have To Be', 'Sexuality', 'Victim Of Love', 'Leave Me To Bleed' and 'Sometimes'.  But let's be honest, the rest of the material is just as strong and good.  

I'm not sure if this is limited to the US release, but my CD includes 3 bonus tracks.  Edvard Greig's 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King' from Henrik Ibsen's play, "Peer Gynt".  This unusual cover went a long way to prove Clarke's image as a true musical genius.  And also showed Erasure fans, the band wouldn't limit itself to bubble gum pop.  Instead, they would do whatever they deemed worthwhile musically.  This appreciation for non-popular music would show up many times again throughout their recording history.  The other two tracks are mixes of 'Sometimes' and 'It Doesn't Have To Be' respectively.

The album is produced by Flood who ended up being credited with taking Depeche Mode to rock and I believe was responsible for some amazing work with U2; which sorta surprises me.  As daring and progressive as the material is, it maintains the strong pop sound of the band's 80's material.  Flood is a producer I normally think of as pushing and challenging a band's sound.  Maybe this was at the start of his career and he was cutting his production teeth on records like this.

No matter how you choose to look at this record, it's a classic.  Either it's part of the 80's run of super hit records by Erasure the band, or it's a classic 80's record anyone interested in that musical period should listen to.  It certainly defined much of my youth.  No doubt there are reissues with more tracks and a better overall showcase of the band during this time, but my copy is simply this one.  And I think it's great!

My final words:  AN 80'S CLASSIC FROM ONE OF THE MOST PROGRESSIVE AND INFLUENTIAL 80'S BANDS!

ERASURE - THE CIRCUS
01. It Doesn't Have To Be
02. Hideaway
03. Don't Dance
04. If I Could
05. Sexuality
06. Victim Of Love
07. Leave Me To Bleed
08. Sometimes
09. The Circus
10. Spiralling
11. In The Hall Of The Mountain King
12. Sometimes (Extended Mix)
13. It Doesn't Have To Be (The Boop Dopa Doo Mix)