Album Review: Erasure - The Violent Flame

If Pet Shop Boys represented an intellectual side of queer ‘80s pop, Erasure defiantly shredded any ambiguity with hi-NRG flamboyance, blonde twink Andy Bell riding former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke’s electropop. Sixteen albums later, they’re still going at it. Bell is back on tune after 2011’s often strained Tomorrow’s World, even if his lyrics rarely rise above disposable party fluff, while bubbling analogue synths give a misty-eyed euphoria but, produced by Richard X, Clarke too seems on autopilot. The Violet Flame thus burns comfortably enough without getting anyone particularly hot or sweaty.