Upstairs at Eric's [Import]

Product Description
Includes 'tuesday' and 'the Other Side of Love (12 Inch Mix)', Not Found on the Us Version. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

Don't Go
Too Pieces
Bad Connection
I Before E Except After C
Midnight
In My Room
Only You
Goodbye Seventies
Situation
Winter Kills
Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)

Amazon.com

There was a time when you couldn't step into a dance club without hearing at least part of this recording booming over the sound system. The often over-played hit, "Situation," was a bubbling caldron of nasally synth noodlings, a whopping bass line, and drum machine wallops. Alison Moyet's looped laugh in the middle of the song ended up as a sample, over-used a thousand times over. Yaz was an interesting blend of Moyet's smoky blues and jazz tinged vocals with Vince Clarke's digital disco. Moyet's voice alone was instrument enough, and the melodies here perfectly showcased her incredible range. Upstairs easily moved between energetic dance floor exuberance ("Don't Go" and "Good-bye Seventies"), blues-inspired wailers ("Midnight"), and icy electronic minimalism ("Winter Kills"). It was an explosion of a debut, touching upon '80s gay disco, synth pop, and diva-ism in one fell swoop. The CD closes with the overlooked "Didn't I Bring Your Love Down," an infectious barn burner with a call/response break that blows the roof off of Eric's little techno-pop room. --Steve Gdula

Customer Reviews:

hear.......2007-06-05

I Before E Except After C -- My hearing is very acute. Crowds of people sound much like this song to me.

Still sounds great.......2007-04-28

Don't pay any attention to the review that says this sounds dated - still sounds great! Of course there are couple songs you have to skip over (or leave off your iPod or whatever) but the rest are great. I play this CD every time I have to paint around the house because I can listen to the same CD a couple times before having clean my hands to change the disk. Highly recommended. I only wish I could get into Alison's other albums.

Doesn't hold up well........2007-02-18

I loved this album when it first came out. In a fit of nostalgia, I bought the CD (the old tape I had owned was long gone). Alison Moyet has a fabulous voice but the music of Yaz is now unbearably dated. I played the CD once and blushed with embarrassment that I had ever liked this type of electronic pop music.

Don't go............2005-11-28

You'll NEVER remove this disc from your player. This is a promise to all the music lovers out there. Young and old alike. This collection of tracks sways from the digital orgasm of Clarke's instrumentation to the bassa boom of Moyet's vocals.
This collection is started with the energy inducing "Don't Go": Moyet pleads with you not to exit, you'll never want to as Clark's keyboard hugs you as tight as Moyet's voice. The other "shiners" here are "Goodbye Seventies", "Situation", "Bad Connection" and the mega-looped "I Before E Except After C": an eloquent vocal conocotion. "Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)" is another crooner. You'll be dazzled by both the odd instrumentation and the oddly masculine femininity of Moyet's voice. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Can't get it out of my mind.......2005-10-02

These comments apply to "Upstairs at Eric's" and "You and Me Both" by Yaz:

Turned on to these albums in high school in a very interesting way (long story ... :->), I have not been able to get these albums out of my head. (The fact that later I was able to connect with one of my supervisors over these very albums is another very interesting story ....)

I bought the cassettes when they first came out, then later the CDs, and somewhere along the line lost the CDs and bought them again recently.

These albums are most excellent, with a classic late 1980s/ early 1990s feel with a slightly different twist. I like the beat that is indicative of the time, but the lyrics, the language, has a meat, a bite, with much more depth than a lot of the music of that same time.

To me, a music library is just not complete without these two albums, and now that I've verified my previously purchased CDs are not merely misplaced in a move but truly lost, I feel much more complete now that I've repurchased these albums and have them in my musical collection.

I could discuss each track in laborious detail - but suffice it to say, if you're even remotely a fan of late 1980's/early 1990's music, you'll love Yaz.

Average customer rating:

Soulful synth-pop
Great CD with Terrible Sound
A must-have
One of the BEST 80s synth-pop CDs; Import has BONUS tracks!!!
One of the best from Erasure early albums

Upstairs at Eric's
Yaz
Manufacturer: Mute
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000247UC
Release Date: 1993-01-22

Tracks:

Don't' Go
Too Pieces
Bad Connection
Midnight
In My Room
Only You
Goodbye '70's
Tuesday
Winter Kills
Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)
The Other Side Of Love (12")
Situation (U.S. 12" Remixed by Francois Kervorkian)

Album Details

Includes 'tuesday' and 'the Other Side of Love (12 Inch Mix)', Not Found on the Us Version.

Customer Reviews:

Soulful synth-pop.......2007-07-08

This classic album came out of the early 1980s synth-pop craze. OMD and Eurythmics were two other duos that produced superb music in the style, and Human League's wonderful album Dare dates from the same era.

Moyet's soulful vocals blend perfectly with Clarke's simple but engaging synth melodies to create timeless pop classics like Don't Go, Situation and the sublime Only You (The Flying Pickets recorded a remarkable a capella version). This song is sheer poetry!

Not all the tracks are of this high standard, but they're all interesting, including the sound collage thingie I Before E. This is certainly one of the masterpieces that brought synth-pop to the mainstream in the footsteps of artists like Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Suicide and Gary Numan.

Great CD with Terrible Sound.......2007-06-20

After reading the reviews here on Amazon I picked up the import version of this CD. What all the prior reviewers have said is true. This is an excellent CD from beginning to end with maybe only a hiccup or 2 along the way.

The sound quality on this CD stinks and I don't like it. I understand this is an older recording but the volume on this CD is super low. This is a CD in need of a remaster. I would think at this point they could just run it through some software to fix it but what do I know.

A must-have.......2005-12-20

If you are a fan of Vince Clark/Alison Moyet/Yaz(oo), then you must have this album. It is superior to the American release, as it has the great album track "Tuesday," and their third UK single, "The Other Side of Love," neither of which appear on the US CD.

"Situation," "Don't Go," and "Only You" are three of the finest technopop songs ever produced. The marriage of the voice of Alison Moyet to the spare techno landscape provided by Vince Clark provided a template for 80's dance music. Often imitated, never equalled.

One of the BEST 80s synth-pop CDs; Import has BONUS tracks!!!.......2005-06-22

While I love the U.S. version of this seminal synth-pop CD, now that I just bought the UK Import version, I love it even more, if that's possible?! WHY? Because for some strange reason, the U.S. version OMITTED the amazing "lost" album track "TUESDAY," as well as YAZ(OO)'s final single together, the hyper electro dance ditty "THE OTHER SIDE OF LOVE," as well as the sought-after ORIGINAL U.S REMIX of "SITUATION" by Francois K! What are you waiting for? EVERY track is brilliant - I am partial to non-single tracks like MIDNIGHT, IN MY ROOM, etc. - but now with these "new" cuts, this really is a nice addition to any 80s/electronica/pop/soul CD collection. I wonder why ALISON MOYET and/or VINCE CLARKE can't quite make albums as good as this one nowadays?!

One of the best from Erasure early albums.......2003-08-20

I remembered early '83...:) very nice! If you like Erasure, you must like this album.

Average customer rating:

ITV 50: The Album

Manufacturer: EMI
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Album Description

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Average customer rating:

Upstairs at Eric's

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000A29ESW
Release Date: 1994-04-11

Album Description

Import version of their classic album features two bonus tracks, 'The Other Side of Love' (12-inch version) and 'Situation' (12-inch version remixed by Francois Kervorkian). Mute.