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The title track, which starts it off, is a wonderful song with a very energetic dance beat. The really experimental lyrics are mostly replaced with a nature-oriented theme. Other songs, like "Waiting for the Day" and "Joan" feature more common relationship-oriented vocals. Both are slower songs, but Erasure always was strong on slow and mid-tempo songs. The next three songs were all singles, and deservedly so. "Breath of Life" is a fast dance track with a darker sound to it than normal Erasure fare, although it still is definately Erasure-light material. "Am I Right" is a nice slow song that features very little percussion. Again, it showcases Bell's ability to hit the lower bass range notes as well. And "Love to Hate You" is another dance song with a ton of pop appeal added in. "Turns the Love to Anger" is more of a filler track, as is "Perfect Stranger." Neither are particularly innovative or remarkable, although "Perfect Stranger" somehow really sticks in your head is very difficult to remove. In between these two tracks is "Siren Song" which is innovative. It's a beautiful slow song with a moody feel and very different sounds. "Home" is probably my favorite song on the album. It starts off slow and melancholy yet builds energy into a great song.
Overall, the album is much more thoughtful than other fun Erasure albums, but it doesn't suffer from the lack of fun that their experimental artistic cds have been plagued with. It was also, alas, the last truly fun Erasure album. I don't have Cowboy yet, but the next two cds are somewhat tired sounding compared to this one. I hope that Erasure hasn't just slipped into decline. I've heard very little about Cowboy although I'll review it as soon as I get it, and it almost seems as if Erasure have parted company since Vince Clark is running around doing other projects, like his collaboration with Robert Marlow or his other collaboration with Marin Ware of the Heaven 17.
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