Am I just sitting here at my desk blogging like crazy? Yeah. Basically.

So anyways. Erasure’s newest album Nightbird. I mentioned it when I bought the album on iTunes, but I thought I’d give it a bit more of a review.

I’ve been a huge fan of Erasure since before I came out as gay. I identify with them as they’re something that ‘transitioned’ with me I suppose, from straight to gay. Their music is always fun, got a beat, and great lyrics about love and finding yourself.

Nightbird is no exception. In fact, it’s some of their better work in a while. The cover album, Other People’s Songs, I thought was rather hum-drum. Nightbird is familiar territory, yet Vince Clark is always experimenting with the mix of synth, vocals, backups, and differing intensities and rhythyms. Andy Bell is hanging in there with his fantastic, large-ranged vocals.

On a sidenote, I was thinking the other day about that question everyone asks “who is your role model?”. I never had an answer about it really (yeah, I’ve already blogged on this topic a little, I know, I just did a search on my site to confirm!!!). Anyway, I realized I’d have to consider Andy Bell a bit of a hero/role model believe it or not. He’s a gay man who was flamboyantly out long before it was ok to be so. He’s had knee (or hip?) replacement surgeries but still jumps up on the stage and shakes his thing. He’s HIV+ but he doesn’t let it slow him down. He (and Vince Clark) have done something good with their lives: making fun music that has consoled and uplifted many, many people. What better thing can you hope to do with your life than make a lot of people happy?

Andy, Vince, keep the music coming.