Tomorrow’s World Tour (Live at the Roundhouse)

Listening notes

Inside Tomorrow’s World Tour (Live at the Roundhouse)

By Alex Vale

The studio version of Tomorrow’s World is inseparable from Frankmusik’s compressed, high-gloss production. The Roundhouse recording supplies the practical test: what happens when “When I Start To,” “Fill Us with Fire,” “Be with You,” “I Lose Myself,” and “A Whole Lotta Love Run Riot” have to coexist with a catalog of stage-tested hooks?

“Be with You” gains space; “Fill Us with Fire” holds its anthem shape; the older songs reveal just how differently pop was being framed in 2011. The set does not solve every comparison in the new material’s favor, which makes it more useful than a promotional victory lap.

Hear the studio album first. This is the appendix that separates the songs from the production signature and shows which parts of the campaign belonged to the record—and which belonged to Erasure.