Naughty naughty

I made the fatal mistake of deciding to fill in the half hour I had before I met friends for drinks tonight by popping into Cash em in CDs. And it got worse when I left the $2 rack for the inner depths of the shop.

Suddenly the $50 I had tucked into my wallet had leapt out, grabbed two CDs and was sitting at the counter looking very smug.

I must admit it appeared to have quite good taste - in its company was the new Erasure CD Union Street ($15.95) and Andy Bell's solo album, Electric Blue ($14.95) so I decided not to argue and let them come home with me. After stopping for a couple of cheap cocktails at Candybar, of course...

I have to say at first approach I wasn't impressed by Union Street - possibly I had preconceived notions but when the original songs are so perfect, why remake them, even if you are the original artists? I played the first couple of tracks and found my mind wandering. Then I realised they'd covered Rock me Gently, my favorite Erasure song of all time so I skipped to track 11. And very very soon was skipping down the stairs to find the original to rinse out my ears.

I'm still hopeful it'll be one of those CDs that will grow on me. At the very least it will tide me over til the next "proper" Erasure CD arrives and will complete my collection.

On the other hand, when the Andy Bell CD was released I was underwhelmed. Had no interest in buying it. Vince was my man, not Andy. But I'm finding I may have been hasty in my assessment as (on first listening) it's rather good. OK, I'm biased as Claudia Brucken pops up on it and I have more and more time for her work particularly after the fantastic OneTwo CD with ex OMDer Paul Humphreys.