Andy Bell - review

Andy Bell's first solo album is a puzzlement. Any time the singer of a band decides to make a solo album, inevitably questions are raised: ‘Is it a split?’ Often band members will produce solo projects to allow them greater room to express themselves than could be achieved within the group, but Andy’s Electric Blue album is very much in the same territory that erasure occupy.

Weirdly it is also released on Sanctuary records and not Erasure’s home label, Mute – when there was no conflict of interest the boys from Depeche Mode strutted their solo stuff on the same label.

You would think that Andy might take the opportunity to explore beyond the confines of eletropop, but it seems he is content to create his own slightly darker version of his band’s output, complete with the trademark Bell vocal dramatics.

After a misleading atmospheric one-minute introduction, the album establishes itself firmly on the dancefloor. ‘Caught In A Spin’ is a catchy number that will instantly conjure up Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’. Flamenco-style Spanish guitars, electro beeping and a thudding beat give the album a busy, full-on start.

The first single, ‘Crazy’, only scraped the lower regions of the charts despite an infectious dance chorus. Part of the problem is the tempo of many of the tracks: neither fast enough to induce breathless dance energy nor slow enough to allow more sensitive ballading; the mid tempo pacing lends a downbeat feel to much of the programming. What should sizzle often plods.

One of the better tracks teams Andy up with former-Propaganda mainstay Claudia Brucken. Echoing the Pet Shop Boys'‘Love Comes Quickly’ in its opening bars, ‘Love Oneself’ is a mid-tempo hi-energy winner, which sprinkles the gentleness of Andy and Claudia’s vocals over a relentless Giorgio Moroder-style synth bass line. The combination works well and is easily the album’s most promising commercial track.

The other duet, on paper, is a much higher profile event pairing camp singer Andy Bell with the fagtastic Jakes Shears of the Scissor Sisters. The resulting track, ‘I Thought It Was You’, is a bit of a let down. It has a cruisy club sound, but the repetition and lack of direction leave it feeling inconsequential – it is little more than music to grope to.

Industrial, dirty synths continue the sleazy vibe in the title track, ‘Electric Blue’, which thankfully does not refer to the soft porn movie series of yesteryear! The aim is for a dark, claustrophobic, electro feel, with heavy mentions of “dominatrix baby” and “rubber tubes”. Where Soft Cell were the unrivalled practitioners of dance music with its cock hanging out, Andy’s uninspired, empty lyrics leave him looking rather flaccid. “Pain in my heart / Pain in my feet” suggests he’d be better advised having a bit of a sit down.

‘Shaking My Soul’ abandons the darkness of the dancefloor in favour of a soulful stomper. The welcome break from electro to allow a brass section to deliver an upbeat Motown vibe and pump some life into the proceedings, comes not a moment too soon.

That ‘Runaway’ and ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ both sound like forgotten Erasure album tracks is hardly a surprise: Andy has written this album with Manhattan Clique, the London-based remix outfit who have recently worked with Moby, Goldfrapp and the rather familiar Erasure. Both tracks have that choral ambience that features on so many of Erasure’s winning records, but what’s missing is Vince Clarke’s genius for the most addictive hooklines and beguilingly simple chord progressions.

Whenever Andy Bell is interviewed he seems a lovely, gentle soul which appears at odds with the cold, removed harshness of the persona projected in Electric Blue.

An eleventh-hour ballad, ‘Fantasy’, is far more attuned to the real Mr Bell. A soft and fragile multi-layered love song with an airy, r’n’b-lite feel adds some much needed heart and emotion to his debut solo work. It is a standout track and definitely a direction Andy should pursue. Similarly the final track, ‘The Rest of Our Lives’ has an endearing emotional vulnerability and a beautifully-tempered vocal performance.

There is one lyric in Electric Blue which stands out in the memory: “We only have one life / This is not a rehearsal”. Mr Bell should take heed: get off the dancefloor while you can and start singing from your blue heart.

Originally published 3 October 2005

Never really played this one again after reviewing it...