Yazoo
Upstairs At Eric's

There isn't much to say about this group; it was a very short but extraordinary and intense relationship that produced two creations called "Upstairs At Eric's" and "You And Me Both".

But their fairy tale is all encapsulated in "Upstairs At Eric's".

The sprite Vince Clarke, an ingenious electronic innovator always on the move (he didn't like staying in the same group, see Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, and then Erasure) and Alison Moyet, a fairy with a captivating smile and voice, with untouchable and passionate vocal abilities, amused themselves by imagining a world all their own, and the result was a fairy tale full of deep and sensitive soul.

An explosion of energetic synthesizers and a mix of techno-pop and blues melodies.

"Don’t Go" a legendary, galvanizing, playful track with synthesizers in full swing and Alison’s high notes are like... "beware of crystal glasses!"

"Too Pieces" mainly instrumental, deeply sensitive, a simple and tender caress accompanied by a background of voices fading into electronic rhythms

"Bad Connection" there are phone rings and a long and cheerful gossip conversation 

"I Before E Except After C" repetitive voices and whispers, ironic and paranoid laughter that play at mixing  with experimentation with a cold, frenzied synthesizer

"Midnight" an extraordinary introduction and consecutively Alison shows her skill in vocal endurance, with keyboards being fundamental

"In My Room" a track more spoken than sung that is a mix of experimental electric-punk

"Only You" the most beautiful track of the entire album, an extraordinary dream, a rare and blinding beauty, melodies, synthesizers, and an unfillable voice that will remain in music history

"Goodbye 70's" a punk-glam track, thundering keyboards and an overwhelming energy, with an alluring, exciting, and very feline Alison

"Tuesday" a not very demanding track, gentle and the voice hovers

"Winter Kills" and naturally the time has come for a painful track, very sad and miles light years away from all the other tracks, written by Alison where she wanted to express that side of life that lives in all of us, willing or not

"Bring Your Love Down (Didn’t I)" and after the previous painful parentheses, we plunge back into a pneumatic hammer finale, with highs and lows based on monotonous and repetitive refrains.

For Vince and Alison, it was a fairy tale that turned into reality and amused them a lot, and naturally us too.