Cranius wrote:My friend, his sister and boyfriend were all at an art event in a church round the corner from here about two years ago. They were sitting at the table when some guy walking past picked my friend's sister's gold sequined clutch purse off the table and made dash for the door. They all pursued the thief outside--he was hooded--and when they caught up with him he stopped in the road and turned round....it was Andy Bell from Erasure!

He handed the bag back over without argument.

How's that for Respect?

How on earth did this not make it into a Popbitch mailout?

Earwicker wrote:Just a few nights ago I had a dream where I was sat on my own in a pub. There were other people in the pub but I was on my tod.
In this dream I began to absent mindedly sing this Erasure song to myself. After a few moments a chap on a nearby table began joining in singing the song quietly then after a line or so others in the pub began joining in until, by the chorus, the entire pub was singing out the song.
Afterwards everyone just smiled at each other as if we all were sharing some nice secret.

I am not an Erasure fan and I was indifferent to this song but the dream gave me a strong feeling of happiness at the connection all these strangers had made by singing this song.

It was a good dream and now I like this song.

DAMN, that's a great dream!

Oh, and the song's not crap. Good memories.

For those concerned with such matters, this song is up there with the great pop records. A Little Respect is one of the definitive examples of a certain kind of pop - exclusively pop - composition style in which a simple, satisfying section is repeated with complimentary arrangements increasingly added every set number of bars.

I would say that Jeff Barry learned it from Phil Spector if Spector didn't tend to throw everything at you from the first second, but The Archies' 'Sugar Sugar' is a neat encapsulation of this kind of approach in its 1960's form. At the start of each new verse, a new (usually percussive, but not always) element is introduced. When done well and coupled with a non-shit melody and groove, it is endlessly charming and satisfying to listen to.

Lots of songs do it in a more simple way; a single tambourine or maraca track will be brought in behind verse two ('Denis Denis' is my favourite song that does this). A Little Respect belongs to a tradition which elevates this into an art form.

The technique is a default staple of the Dance/House/Techno industry (holding back layers and drum parts to give the song propulsion when they are "revealed"), but in this idiom it is often predictable and unimaginative - the sound of some lazy cunt smoking a joint while dicking about on Pro Tools in between bouts of Halo 2.

Used as it is in A Little Respect, it turns a humble, catchy song into something transcendentally magnificent. Vince Clark acheived this very same thing one other time that I know of in the Yazoo song 'Only You', another stone cold classic electro pop diamond.

I don't care much for Erasure in general, but this song is masterful, simple and wonderful.

Not crap.

This thread just blew my mind for a second time.

*happy for creating the thread*

great post, space junk.

I'll give my vote to Space Junk.

This is a test right? 72% Not Crap? FUCK OFF. I'm probably one of the least 'rock' here and I know that this song is shit. I can appreciate Clark's work with early Depeche Mode, Speak and Spell was one of my first records. I even had a copy of upstairs at eric's, but Erasure? jeez c'mon, they were bad. Probably one of the reasons that Scissor Sisters ( I'm sorry for mentioning their name on the PRF) think it is ok to release the pish that they do.

not crap, just dated, like bronski beat.