Erasure WORLD BE GONE

Erasure's self-produced 17th studio album, World Be Gone finds the duo honing in on a reflective synth pop befitting the wind-down portion of the dance. Affected by the political upheaval of the period leading up to its release in the spring of 2017, it features a few calls to action amid selections that are more generally about the need for love. The rousing opener, "Love You to the Sky," is a straight-up love song (and classic earworm) that begins with Krupa-like drums, establishing a thumping drumbeat that makes it the closest thing to a club track on the record. More sociopolitical in nature are "Lousy Sum of Nothing," a plea for political engagement and caring, and "Oh What a World." The latter is a darker, gothy entry that opens with the lyrics "I want to be in the witness protection program/I don't like what we've become," later adding "A million voices go unheard/What became of wanting to be free?" It builds to a gospel-tinged chorus for singer Andy Bell, who provides his own c