Erasure • Features • Private Ear

Due to be released in the UK in late March, Erasure's tenth album "Cowboy" is a return to the irresistible pop songs with which the band has become synonymous.

Rain
"I see myself in your reflection"

Andy: "When we were writing in Dublin, we were there for about two weeks and it was raining like nearly every day. That's why the opening track on the album's called RAIN... It was about two people going out in the soaking rain and [they're] on the way home, really looking forward to getting back and sitting by the fire and drying off."

Worlds On Fire
"Love sets your world on fire"

Reach Out
"You hide your fear in everlasting shame"

Vince: "The album was relatively easy to record because we had more songs than we needed this time round.

The song writing came relatively easily and I was working with a guy called Neil McLellan, who gave the album a certain direction which I think was lacking before, so it was a very pleasant experience. Also I got to cook a lot."

In My Arms
"Walls come tumbling down"

Andy: "In My Arms was one of the later songs that we wrote and it was quite a straightforward melody, but the chords underneath the melody made it sound as if the melody was changing all the time, when it really wasn't.

I think it's quite a passionate laid back song, for us. I didn't really know what the song was about at all. It's kind of [a] standing on the quayside kind of song and watching whatever's going on, but then I thought maybe it's to do with Vince & I just having to contend with the whole rigmarole of getting out and promoting and completing an album again, because we were sort of away from it for a while."

Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me
"But love's gonna take a man And you haven't got it in you"

Andy: "Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me had a working title, for ages, called "Whitney", because we thought it sounded like a Whitney Houston song. I just wanted it to be very gay and really hi-energy and to be sung from perspective of a diva, so I just kind of got all the diva cliches."

Precious
"On a bed of silver sand I'll take you lightly by the hand"

Treasure
"Like a ball and chain to the skull"

Vince: "I finished my bit in about June last year. It took altogether about six months to record and mix and about three months before that to write, although not three months like three months sitting down writing every day. I mean, we only spend an hour doing it or something... It's quick, for us. We spent a lot longer on the previous album. It could be done a lot quicker, it's just that we can't get our act together!"

Boy
"And the way you stir your coffee Like an angel in the morning"

Andy: "I think the song writing just gets better and better. The songs on the new album, I really love them. I think there's a real confidence in there and you can tell that we've been practicing our craft now for a long time. I think it's just come together really nicely."

How Can I Say
"The city lights are looking bright tonight"

Andy: 'I think the album doesn't differ really that much from the previous Erasure albums, not including the last one. I think it's more akin to the "Wonderland" album and "The Innocents" album, mainly because I think it's choc-a-bloc full of singles.'

Save Me Darling
"We took a shot at masquerade Came crashing down on love's parade"

Andy: "We were wracking our brains out what to call the album and Vince came up with the title "Cowboy". We were kind of getting a bit cynical about the music business and so we thought, well, there are plenty of cowboys in the music industry and sometimes I fancy myself as a bit of a romantic "Home On The Range" cowboy singer, you know, around the campfire... A total ambition of mine is to do an electro Country & Western album. It's already in my mind, calling it "Gingham", the album, and having it just me naked with just a pair of boots and a hat laying on a gingham tablecloth underneath an oak tree... doing all these classic Country & Western records."

Love Affair
"There'll be tears before your bedtime You mark my words"

Andy: "My favourite song is "Love Affair" and that was probably partly because it was recorded so quickly... the vocal was done in three days. It was recorded for the lead track of a sound track that Vince did, called "Good Vibrations" and we were helped very much with the lyrics on that one because we were given some letters by the ex-lover of the producer of the movie to inspire us for the lyrics."

Vince: "It was written initially for a film which we were involved in last year and it's like the song goes over the closing credits and it's just a romantic, slushy song."