Hits! The Very Best of Erasure

Listening notes

Inside Hits! The Very Best of Erasure

Hits! The Very Best of Erasure has a different job from Pop!. It is not a complete chronological ledger. Its 20-track audio sequence selects the established landmarks, makes room for the Abba-esque covers, then carries the story through “Always,” “Stay With Me,” “In My Arms,” “Freedom,” and “Solsbury Hill.”

That compression creates useful arguments and obvious omissions. A listener gets the major eras in one sitting, but not enough room to understand why Wild!, Chorus, and the self-titled album feel so different from one another.

Use Hits! when one disc and wider date coverage matter. Use Pop! for the exact first singles run, or Total Pop! when breadth and archival extras justify a larger package. The companion Hits! The Videos DVD is a separate release, not this album’s track list.