Cowboy

Listening notes

Inside Cowboy

By Alex Vale

Cowboy gets back to short, direct songs after the expansive self-titled album. “Rain” opens the record, while “In My Arms” supplies its most immediate invitation. It is an easy album to overlook beside Erasure’s bigger commercial successes, but an especially satisfying one to find once the early singles are familiar.

“In My Arms” carries the immediate melodic case. “Don’t Say Your Love Is Killing Me” adds tension, and “Rain” supplies a different emotional weight. The album’s scale makes those songs feel like parts of a focused pop record rather than isolated singles.

BMG’s 2024 two-CD hardback reissue gave the period a useful second look with a new master and a disc of b-sides, remixes, live tracks, demos, and curiosities. Hear the original album first; use the expansion to understand the working material around it.