Pop Song 193 'A Little Respect' Erasure 1988

2 years ago
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Pop Song 193 'A Little Respect' Erasure 1988

Metro Weekly placed "A Little Respect" at number-one in their ranking of Erasure's 40 Greatest Tracks in 2014. Chris Gerard wrote,

"Opening with that distinct, stately keyboard riff before an acoustic guitar comes in and adds to the rhythm, "A Little Respect" is Erasure at their apex. Very few pop songs can be considered perfect, and this is one of them. It is guaranteed even to this day to get a room full of people singing at the top of their lungs. It just feels good. The heavily rhythmic background, the positive and self-affirming lyrics, Andy Bell's note-perfect vocal delivery… it's a combination that came together to form a song for the ages. It reached #14 in the US and #4 in the UK, but it's had the lasting impact of a #1 hit."

Treblezine included the song in their A History of Synth-Pop in 50 Essential Tracks. They wrote,

"If there's a synth-pop Mount Rushmore, surely Vince Clarke is one of the figures carved on its rockface. He appears here twice, as does a former band, and there are a handful of other short-lived projects we left out. But Clarke's most enduring project is also his most purely pop, with the chart performance to prove it. Erasure had 13 top-10 singles in the UK since 1986, plus three US top-40 singles, including this standout opener of 1988's The Innocents. At a lean 3:33, Clarke and Andy Bell compress synth-pop innovation and disco-pop immediacy into a perfect moment of transcendent pop glory.

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