Nightbird is the eleventh full-length studio album by the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
synthpopSynthpop is a subgenre of pop and electronic music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It originated during the New Wave era of the late 1970s and to mid-1980s, and it has continued to exist and develop ever since....
band
ErasureErasure are an English synthpop duo, consisting of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell.Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That"...
. Produced by Erasure, it was released on January 25, 2005 by
Mute RecordsMute Records was an independent record label based in the UK, founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. In 2002 the label was sold to EMI.-Background:...
in the UK and the U.S.
Nightbird proved to be both critically and commercially successful despite charting no higher than number 27 in UK, thanks to positive reviews by music critics who dubbed it both a "mature masterpiece" and "return to form" - meaning meticulously produced, shimmering three-minute pop songs.
Nightbird is the eleventh full-length studio album by the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
synthpopSynthpop is a subgenre of pop and electronic music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It originated during the New Wave era of the late 1970s and to mid-1980s, and it has continued to exist and develop ever since....
band
ErasureErasure are an English synthpop duo, consisting of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Andy Bell.Erasure entered the music scene in 1985 with their debut single "Who Needs Love Like That"...
. Produced by Erasure, it was released on January 25, 2005 by
Mute RecordsMute Records was an independent record label based in the UK, founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. In 2002 the label was sold to EMI.-Background:...
in the UK and the U.S.
History
Nightbird proved to be both critically and commercially successful despite charting no higher than number 27 in UK, thanks to positive reviews by music critics who dubbed it both a "mature masterpiece" and "return to form" - meaning meticulously produced, shimmering three-minute pop songs. Many longtime fans of the band hailed it as a return to the sound and feel of classic Erasure albums like
Wonderland and
Chorus. Singer
Andy BellAndy Bell is the lead singer of the English synthpop duo, Erasure.-Career:...
's revelation that he was
HIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid,...
-positive just prior to the album's release shed new meaning on the songs' introspective and sometimes melancholy lyrics.
The album's first single "
Breathe"Breathe" is a song by British synth pop duo Erasure. It was released by Mute Records in the UK and the U.S. as the first single from the band's eleventh studio album Nightbird....
" entered the
UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
at number four - Erasure's highest peak since "
Always"Always" is a synthpop ballad by British duo Erasure. It was released in 1994 as the first single from their sixth studio album I Say I Say I Say. Mute Records issued the single in the UK, while Elektra Records released it in the U.S...
" hit number four in 1994. Although no singles from the album charted on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, two of them hit the top ten on the
Hot 100 Singles SalesThe Hot 100 Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It measures sales of commercial singles and is one of three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Airplay and the Hot Digital Songs, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard...
chart. "Breathe" became Erasure's second number-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart - their first being "
Victim of Love"Victim of Love" is a song by British synthpop duo Erasure, released in May 1987 as their sixth single overall.It was the third single to be lifted from the duo's second album, The Circus, released six weeks earlier, and was remixed for single release....
" in 1987.
A massive concert tour accompanied this album which travelled across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
as well as
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
. The tour, dubbed
The Erasure Show, featured the extravagant set designs and costume changes Erasure is known for. The tour wrapped up in June 2005.
Nightbird was Erasure's first studio album not to be issued on
vinylLong-playing record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988...
; none of the three singles were released commercially on vinyl, although promotional remix 12"s exist.
Track listing
- "No Doubt" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Here I Go Impossible Again
"Here I Go Impossible Again" is a song written and recorded by British synth pop duo Erasure. It appears on the band's eleventh studio album Nightbird and Mute Records released this song together with "All This Time Still Falling Out of Love" as a double A-side, the third single release from this...
" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Let's Take One More Rocket To the Moon" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Breathe
"Breathe" is a song by British synth pop duo Erasure. It was released by Mute Records in the UK and the U.S. as the first single from the band's eleventh studio album Nightbird....
" (Clarke/Bell)
- "I'll Be There" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Because Our Love is Real" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Don't Say You Love Me" (Clarke/Bell)
- "All This Time Still Falling Out of Love
"All This Time Still Falling Out of Love" is a song by British synth pop duo Erasure. The track appears on the band's eleventh studio album Nightbird and Mute Records released it together with "Here I Go Impossible Again" as a double A-side, the third single release from this album.The song was...
" (Clarke/Bell)
- "I Broke It All In Two" (Clarke/Bell)
- "Sweet Surrender" (Clarke/Bell)
- "I Bet You're Mad At Me" (Clarke/Bell)