10 tracks · 40 min
Following its antecedent by less than a year, World Beyond is a track-by-track orchestrated version of Erasure's 2017 album, World Be Gone. The band last did something like this in 1987 on a handful of tracks from The Two Ring Circus, a companion LP to their second album, The Circus. A re-recording more than a "reimagining," it captures Andy Bell back in the studio for fresh vocal takes, this time with the Belgian chamber ensemble Echo Collective. Given that Erasure's other half, synth pop icon Vince Clarke, would seem to be excluded from such an endeavor, it may surprise some to learn that he was the one who came up with the idea, for a single. (He's credited with "bright idea" in the liner notes.) As the project expanded, Clarke was heavily involved in planning with Echo Collective, though it should be noted that members of the septet did the arrangements, and Echo Collective received the sole producer credit. With some of its songs addressing anxieties resulting from election outcomes in 2016, it's one of the duo's melancholier releases, and the material lends itself well to these sparer, warmer arrangements. Having said that, the band's own tendencies already lend themselves to…
