Wonderland (Erasure album)

Infobox Album |
Name=Wonderland
Type=studio
Artist=Erasure


Released=start date|1986|6|2
Recorded=1985
Genre=Synthpop
Length=49:05
Label=Sire
Mute
Producer=Flood
Reviews=
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7x68mp939f3o link]
This album="Wonderland"
(1986)
Next album="The Circus"
(1987)
Misc=Singles
Name=Wonderland
Type=studio
Single 1=Who Needs Love Like That
Single 1 date=start date|1985|9|2
Single 2=Heavenly Action
Single 2 date=start date|1985|11|11
Single 3=Oh L'amour
Single 3 date=start date|1986|4|21

"Wonderland" is the debut album by Erasure, originally released on 2 June 1986 by Mute Records in the United Kingdom and Sire Records in the United States. Not an immediate success, the three singles released from it failed to crack the top forty in the UK, nor did any of them enter the "Billboard" Hot 100 (although "Oh L'amour" became a UK top twenty hit in 2003, in a remixed form).

Erasure's initial exposure in the U.S. came via dance clubs, as two singles did hit the top ten on "Billboard"'s Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

Group member Vince Clarke had originally planned for this album to feature different singers for each track, but because of their musical chemistry, he and Andy Bell collaborated for the entire album and shortly after its release Clarke and Bell formed a permanent partnership. Unfortunately at the time of its release, many considered it to be a failure, especially when comparing it to Clarke's prior successes with Depeche Mode and Yazoo. Early reviews of the album dubbed Bell as an Alison Moyet imitator.

Nearly two decades after its release, "Wonderland" is widely revered as a classic example of mid-80s synth pop and is appreciated now as the beginning stages of one of electronic music's most enduring acts.

Track listing

All songs were written by Bell and Clarke, except where noted.
#"Who Needs Love Like That" (Clarke)
#"Reunion"
#"Cry So Easy" (Bell)
#"Push Me Shove Me"
#"Heavenly Action"
#"Say What"
#"Love is a Loser"
#"Senseless"
#"My Heart... So Blue" (Clarke)
#"Oh L'amour"
#"Pistol"
#"March on Down the Line" (remix)
#"Say What" (remix)
#"Senseless" (remix)

US release

#"Who Needs Love Like That" (Clarke)
#"Reunion"
#"Cry So Easy" (Bell)
#"Senseless"
#"Heavenly Action"
#"Say What"
#"Love is a Loser"
#"March on Down the Line"
#"My Heart... So Blue" (Clarke)
#"Oh L'amour"
#"Who Needs Love Like That (The Love That Mix Version)"
#"Oh L'amour (The Funky Sisters Remix)"

Chart performance

"Wonderland" peaked at number seventy-one on the UK album chart and never hit the Billboard 200 in the U.S. In Germany the album climbed to number sixteen.

Release history