The Circus (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = The Circus
Type = Album
Artist = Erasure


Released = flagicon|UK start_date|1987|3|30
flagicon|USA start_date|1987|7|7
Recorded = 1986
Genre = Synthpop
Length = 54:17
Label = Mute - STUMM35
Sire - 25554
Producer = Flood and Vince Clarke
Charts = #1 UK
Reviews =
* "Q" [http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=60146124&loc=109&sp=1 link]
Last album = "Wonderland"
(1986)
This album = "The Circus"
(1987)
Next album = "The Two Ring Circus"
(1987)
Misc = Singles
Name = The Circus
Type = album
Single 1 = Sometimes
Single 1 date = start_date|1986|10|6
Single 2 = It Doesn't Have To Be
Single 2 date = start_date|1987|2|16
Single 3 = Victim of Love
Single 3 date = start_date|1987|5|18
Single 4 = The Circus
Single 4 date = start_date|1987|9|21

"The Circus" is the second album by Erasure, originally released in April 1987 on Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the U.S. It was Erasure's second consecutive album to be produced by Flood.

"The Circus" became the duo's breakthrough in the UK, spawning four hit singles and reaching number six. It was an immediate success thanks to the number two UK placing of the first single "Sometimes", six months earlier. The album remains Erasure's longest-running on the UK charts.

Although mainstream success in the U.S. did not occur with this album, it did generate two hits (including a number-one) on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. It also became their first record to barely scrape into the Billboard 200.

Track listing

* all tracks written by Clarke/Bell unless otherwise noted.

# "It Doesn't Have To Be" – 3:53
# "Hideaway" – 3:48
# "Don't Dance" – 3:36
# "If I Could" – 3:52
# "Sexuality" – 3:55
# "Victim of Love" – 3:40
# "Leave Me to Bleed" – 3:21
# "Sometimes" – 3:38
# "The Circus" – 5:30
# "Spiralling" – 3:10

CD only bonus tracks:
#

"In the Hall Of the Mountain King" (taken from Grieg's "Peer Gynt" suite) – 2:58
# "Sometimes" (Extended Mix) – 5:22
# "It Doesn't Have To Be" (The Boop Oopa Doo Mix) – 7:12

Chart Placings

"The Circus" hit number six on the UK album charts and number twenty in Germany. It peaked at number 190 on the Billboard 200.