Andy Bell
Ten Crowns
CROWN RECORDINGS LIMITED
Andy Bell has been singing and writing with and for Erasure for so long that when you first hear his new solo album Ten Crowns, it’s hard not to imagine hearing Vince Clarke as part of its miasmic mix. And yet, it’s Dave Audé, the GRAMMY-winning producer, remixer, and iconic dance-music composer who plays Bell’s partner on the record, working out something open and anthemic, sure, but, also shadier (by both the term’s “shadowy” and “catty” definitions) and subtler. The breathily big-belting, high-voiced Bell has been far away from Clarke in his past, on solo albums such as 2005’s Electric Blue and 2010’s Non-Stop—both good, both nearly Erasure-y, with only the latter and its collab with Kylie Minogue producer Pascal Gabriel coming close to Bell’s regal nature.
Hence (I guess) the whole Ten Crowns thing. The theater camp of “Godspell” and the space jam of “Breaking Thru the Interstellar” are royally ruby-red-hot in a manner rivaling the pair’s earlier work on chart-topping dance-club smashes “True Original” and “Aftermath (Here We Go),” if for no other reason than Bell and Audé falling into each other’s grooves when it comes to post-house/hi-NRG pop. “Lies So Deep,” for some reason, reminds me of the fast and swishy soul of Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” remix, but with a dose of the wedding-bell blues and a singer named Sarah Potenza to bottom-end Bell’s hysteria. The mid-tempo rush of “Don’t Cha Know” could’ve wound up on Tom Cruise’s heroic Top Gun films as an upward-swooshing electro-epic that says nothing, but sounds crucial, what with Bell’s earnest delivery. And “Heart's a Liar” features Debbie Harry, which is good enough for me.
The whole album is great enough for me, too. The Bell and Audé pairing shouldn’t scare Erasure fans—Ten Crowns is far from the sleek vulnerability of the duo’s contoured brand of electro-pop—but maybe, just maybe, Vince Clarke should still check in from time to time with Bell to make sure things are OK.
