Track Listing

1. Don't Go
2. Too Pieces
3. Bad Connection
4. Midnight
5. In My Room
6. Only You
7. Goodbye '70s
8. Tuesday
9. Winter Kills
10. Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)
11. Other Side Of Love
12. Situation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33341 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
There was a time when you couldn't step into a dance club without hearing at least part of this recording booming over the sound system. The often over- played hit, "Situation", was a bubbling cauldron of nasally synth noodlings, a whopping bass line, and drum machine wallops. Alison Moyet's looped laugh in the middle of the song ended up as a sample, over-used a thousand times over. Yazoo was an interesting blend of Moyet's smoky blues and jazz-tinged vocals with Vince Clarke's digital disco. Moyet's voice alone was instrument enough, and the melodies here perfectly showcased her incredible range. Upstairs easily moved between energetic dance floor exuberance ("Don't Go" and "Good-bye Seventies"), blues-inspired wailers ("Midnight") and icy electronic minimalism ("Winter Kills"). It was an explosion of a debut, touching upon 1980s gay disco, synth pop, and diva-ism in one fell swoop. The album closes with the overlooked "Didn't I Bring Your Love Down", an infectious barn burner with a call/response break that blows the roof off Eric's little techno-pop room. -- Steve Gdula

Customer Reviews

Vince Clarke's Answer To Dare
Vince Clarke has had a prolific and successful career that many artists would envy but for me this album still remains as his best work to date. It contains all the Clark tradmarks of toe-tapping melodies that always leave a lasting mark on the listener but it is also his darkest work to date. Powerful vocals from the blues inspired Alison Moyet helped make Yazoo a class act. It was a clever mix of passionate vocals against the backdrop of Clarke's masterful synth rifts, that make this album such a must own classic. Like many of the acclaimed electro 80's albums, it benefits greatly from the warm sounds that were provided by the old classic analogue synths (Clarke now has the biggest collection of analogue synths in the UK). The depth and lyrical contents of the songs has also helped this album outlive the throwaway New Romantic tag, and it still sound crisp and emotional. For me, this collection represents the definitive Vince Clarke. The follow-up album was a bit patchy in places and Erasure often strayed into camp with the exception of The Innocents which was their finest album. But I still listen to Upstairs At Eric's with as much enthusiasm as I had when I first heard it. Such a shame that they disbanded so soon, but the second album could never match the brilliance of this debut. Everyone knows the tracks Don't Go, Situation and Only You, but the album tracks are every bit as good as those classic singles. Too Pieces and Midnight are wonderful examples of Clarke and Moyet at their collective, creative best. Soulful electro. Moyet's self-penned Winter Kills is one of the album's highlights, a haunting piano led ballad full of atmosphere and emotion. Upstairs At Eric's is one of my Top 10 CD's of all time alongside the Human League's Dare, Depeche Mode's Black Celebration and Propaganda's Secret Wish. Every lover of electronica should own a copy of Upstairs At Eric's.

Classic Vince Clark and Alison Moyet
This was one of my favourite albums in the early eighties. I played the cassette version continuously in my car (or so it seems in retrospect). It lay forgotten for a number of years until the Only Yazoo best of CD came out. I was inspired to dig out my almost worn out cassette of Upstairs at Erics. I was so impressed with how much I still enjoyed the album that I treated myself to the CD version. There are a couple of extra tracks on the CD version that were not on the original and not fillers wither. The single "The Other Side of Love" (which for some rason did not apprear on the Best Of album) and the excellent B side "Situation" which, at the time, was played as much as the A side.

Favourite tracks include the rocky "Goodbye Seventies", the excellent pop song "Bad Connection" (another absentee from the compilation), the Bluesy "Midnight" and the haunting "Winter Kills" (written exclusively by Moyet).

There are hints of Vince Clarke's future with erasure here. There is also plenty of experimentation, particularly "I before Eexcept after C" which uses snatches of TV commercial catchphrases of the time over experimental synthesiser

All in all a varied album which stand up today as it did in 1982 (despite the dated lyrics of Goodbye 70s). Well worth the purchase. Last but by no means least are the two classic singles "Only You" and the heavier "Don't Go"

A stunning debut
Brilliant. Leaving Depeche Mode, the band he founded, during their first flush of commercial success, Basildon's greatest son Vince Clarke was never one to let the grass grow under his feet. Responding to Alison's Melody Maker ad seeking "blues musicians", Vince's mischevious sense of humour and songwriting talent won over the Billericay diva. No wonder the media dubbed them 'the odd couple'. Somehow, despite being poles apart musically, they joined forces and created something really special.

They lasted just over eighteen months but they packed in more superb songs in that time than most bands do in ten years. Vince maintains even now that 'Only You' - the gorgeous debut single - is the finest song he's ever written and it's easy to see why. 'Don't Go' moved the tempo up several gears and from there on it's into a unique hybrid of electro precision and gutsy blues vocals. Standout tracks include 'Midnight', 'In My Room', 'Bad Connection' (rumoured at the time to be the third single, it remained on the album) and Alison's ballad 'Winter Kills'.

This album was a huge success. The summer of 1983 saw them split on the day its follow-up, You & Me Both, was released. That album is different again. My advice: buy both of them and compare and contrast. 'Upstair's...' is a golden moment still.