Hits! – The Very Best Of Erasure

Onge's Review

Just months after purchasing Mute Records, EMI released this second Erasure singles compilation after the band had enjoyed a small revival of fortunes from the Other People's Songs album. In the end, twenty songs made the grade including all the greats such as Oh L'amour, Sometimes, A Little Respect, Stop!, Blue Savannah and Always. Where this album differs from Pop! - The First 20 Hits is that singles from 1992 have also been included to bring the collection up-to-date. The problem with this is that, I Say I Say I Say aside, Erasure's biggest hits were pre-Pop! meaning the new additions are rather dubiously labelled as 'hits'. Only one single from I Say I Say I Say, Erasure, Cowboy, Loveboat and Other People's Songs are catered for, rather underlining the fact that Erasure's chart heyday was the era of 1986-1992. That said, there's nothing to fault to quality of the tracks, which serve to reinforce just how brilliant Erasure are at writing exceptional pop music, and have been for the best part of two decades. Erasure biggest hit single ABBA-esque is over compensated for, with three out of the four tracks making the tracklist. All the tracks on the album have been remastered which is perhaps reason to buy this album even if you own all the songs, but remastered tracks cannot always be appreciated by untrained ears, and can sometimes feel inferior to the original mastering. If you can tell the difference between the original recordings and their remastered counterparts, it is largely hit-and-miss.

Despite the mishandlings, there's an incredible amount of great pop and dance music here, and you can program out the fluff if you want. Just know that even as a casual fan you will at some point in your life have to get back in the car, head to the store, and buy the other Erasure collection.

All Music Guide

As is the additional megamix which is featured as a bonus CD on the Limited Edition release of Hits! - The Very Best Of Erasure. It is extremely inconsistent: some tracks merge nicely together, other times the editing is harsh and abrupt. There are three distinct sections to the megamix which starts slowly with largely faithful mixes of the ballads Stay With Me, You Surround Me and In My Arms. During the middle section the mix starts to add additional beats to stripped Erasure arrangements before concluding with dance floor versions of such classics as Oh L'amour and Sometimes. The megamix is utterly dispensable and it's the inconsistent nature of the mix in its entirety that works against it. It's not dreadful, but certainly not essential.

Summary

The superb double DVD aside, the Hits! release as a whole offers little to die-hard fans (the only 'new' track being the dull and soulless August Mix of Oh L'amour). Back in 2003 when Hits! was released Pop! – The First 20 Hits! (especially the Plus edition) was still a better value purchase. With the subsequent release of the comprehensive Total Pop! - The First 40 Hits in 2009 the only reason to purchase Hits! – The Very Best Of Erasure over Total Pop! is if you are an Erasure completest.

Fan Reviews

Below are some fan reviews written by visitors to this very site. Once you've read these, please feel free to use the form at the end of the page to write your own review.

  1. I’m forced to rate this album as 9 since Hits! was supposed to be a big compilation for celebrating Erasure’s long career, however I consider it as a partial disaster because of the unnecessary inclusion of 3 covers from ABBA-Esque and because of the absence of more than essential singles such as Run To The Sun, Fingers & Thumbs, Rain and Make Me Smile. Thus it was a almost complete waste of time (and money from the fans) to me and it should have been better to release it after Nightbird album, I think. Anyhow, all the songs chosen for being put here are great, except for Freedom, which is just good, but it matches well Solsbury Hill, just like Always, Stay With Me and In My Arms, an excellent sequence from this one. All the other tracks can be found on Pop! compilation.

    9 out of 10
    Reviewed by Ocean Soul, Rio de Janeiro
    28 January 2006 1:07 am (GMT)
  2. This is what I believe should have been the track listing

    Everything the same but take the ABBA tracks, freedom, Stay with me out.

    And what happened to Who Needs Love Like That, Star, Love Is A Loser, Waiting For The Day and Phantom Bride.

    10 out of 10
    Reviewed by Shaun, uk
    16 October 2007 2:49 pm (GMT)
  3. I can’t remember if I bought the CD. But I got the Hits DVD, which is fab, with the videos of every single up to and including OPS. By the time Erasure came along I was past the age where TOTP was compulsive weekly viewing so I’d not seen most of the videos, and of course the sound on the DVD is CD quality. There’s a bonus DVD with loads of extras too.

    10 out of 10
    Reviewed by Paul, UK
    11 August 2011 10:05 am (GMT)
  4. A good compiltaion that is now available cheaply, worth buying but you would be better off with pop or total pop-both the latter covered all the classics whereas this (a single cd) focused a tad bit more on the good but not so great late 90s stuff.

    7 out of 10
    Reviewed by pmrelliott dublin
    2 March 2015 4:19 pm (GMT)
  5. Did I buy it? Yes, because I am a completist for Erasure material. Did we need another greatest hits? Well some record company did and hopefully the boys reaped some benefit.

    The overall merits of the album are not very high. I liked the Mark Towns remix on disc 2! The first 11 tracks are good choices. Why did we need the 3 Abba covers? Starting with Always the disc simply dies until the August mix of Oh L’amour.

    Oh L’amour
    Sometimes
    Victim of Love
    Ship of Fools
    Chains of Love
    A Little Respect
    Stop!
    Blue Savannah
    Chorus
    Love to Hate You
    Breath of Life
    Lay All Your Love on Me
    Take a Chance on Me
    Voulez-Vous
    Always
    Stay With Me
    In My Arms
    Freedom
    Solsbury Hill
    Oh L’amour”(August Mix)

    Erasure Megamix
    Remixed and reconstructed by: Mark Towns, Chicago 2003

    Stay With Me
    You Surround Me
    In My Arms
    Solsbury Hill
    A Little Respect
    Chains of Love
    Take a Chance on Me
    Love to Hate You
    Stop!
    Victim of Love
    Blue Savannah
    Always
    Freedom
    Chorus
    Oh L’amour
    Sometimes
    Ship of Fools

    5 out of 10
    Reviewed by Jonathan Andrews – Florida, USA
    15 March 2016 2:05 pm (GMT)