How do you make a really, really, extremely bad album? Take a handful of songs that aren’t any good, remix them in a way that doesn’t increase their appeal in the slightest and then add a few songs that originally were good, but that you’ve completely screwed up.
Other People’s Songs is a collection of covers tainted by Erasure’s own electronic flair as an added kick to the groin. Instead of listing the highlights, in typical CD review fashion, I’ll detail the low points so that, in case you ever want to hear what really, really, extremely bad music sounds like, you’ll know what tracks to skip to.
First, “Everyday” made me want to vomit. It screams out, “Hey, I’m crappy ’80s bubble-gum pop!” “Walking in the Rain” features guest female vocals which, as is par with the rest of the album, grind like fingernails on a chalkboard. “True Love Ways” presents Andy Bell’s worst falsetto. I’ll stop there before I list every track.
Songs have been successfully redone (especially Bush songs, for some reason. See “Mouth” from Deconstructed and “Letting the Cables Sleep” from Caf