The Innocents by Erasure

The Innocents, the third album from English synth-pop duo Erasure, came out in April 1988, on Mute in Britain and Germany and Sire and Reprise in America, and it's the record that made Andy Bell and Vince Clarke superstars at home and finally broke them in America. Stephen Hague produced, and he gives Clarke's keyboards a gleaming, full-bodied polish while keeping plenty of room for Bell's big, soaring, openhearted voice.

These are pop songs that wear their hearts on the outside. "A Little Respect" is pure elation, a bright, bounding synth line under a melody that begs to be sung back, "Chains of Love" glides along on a warm, easy pulse, and "Ship of Fools" slows into something grander and more wistful. "Heart of Stone", "Yahoo!" and "Phantom Bride" show off the duo's playful, dramatic side.

It became the first of a run of number-one albums for Erasure in Britain and went double platinum there with more than 600,000 sold. In America, heavy exposure on MTV brought two major Hot 100 hits, a place in the top 50 of the Billboard 200 and a platinum album. Twenty-three years on it had sold five million copies worldwide, still the duo's biggest seller. A 21st anniversary edition came out on 26 October 2009, with rarities including their cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" and, in a limited set, a hardback book of interviews in which Clarke and Bell talk through every track. The cover image comes from a stained glass window at Chartres Cathedral.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.