Upstairs at Eric's

Upstairs at Eric's is the debut studio album by English synth-pop duo Yazoo (known in North America as Yaz). It was released on 16 August 1982 by Mute Records.[3] It was produced by the band and E.C. Radcliffe, with assistance from Mute label boss Daniel Miller on some of the tracks. Named after producer Radcliffe's Blackwing Studios where the album was recorded, Upstairs at Eric's was preceded by two UK top-three singles, the ballad "Only You" and the more uptempo "Don't Go". The album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments in excess of 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[4]

Upstairs at Eric's
Studio album by
Yazoo (Yaz)
Released16 August 1982[1]
Recorded1982
StudioBlackwing (London)
Genre
Length40:29
LabelMute
Producer
Yazoo (Yaz) chronology
Upstairs at Eric's
(1982)		 You and Me Both
(1983)
Singles from Upstairs at Eric's
  1. "Only You"
    Released: 15 March 1982 (UK)
  2. "Don't Go"
    Released: 2 July 1982 (UK)
  3. "Situation"
    Released: July 1982 (US/Canada)

Against the group's wishes, "Situation", originally the B-side of "Only You" in the UK and Europe, was released as the band's debut single in the United States and Canada, where a remixed version of the song by DJ François Kevorkian reached number one on Billboard's Club Play Singles chart. "Situation" peaked at number 73 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while it reached the top 40 in Canada, peaking at number 31. The North American version of the album subsequently replaced the remixed version of "Situation" for the UK album track "Tuesday". Upstairs at Eric's reached number 92 on the Billboard 200 in the US and number 49 on RPM's albums chart in Canada.

Recording and composition

Following the success of their debut single "Only You", Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet rapidly recorded the album to maintain their high profile. As Clarke's only previous experience of a recording studio had been Blackwing Studios in south-east London, where he had made Depeche Mode's debut album Speak & Spell, his immediate thought was to record Yazoo's album there as well: he said later, "I didn't know of any other studios, so I just assumed that Blackwing was the only studio I could record at". However, when the duo arrived at Blackwing they found that not only was Daniel Miller unavailable to produce the album, contrary to Clarke's expectations, but the main studios had already been booked out during the daytime by Fad Gadget, another Mute label act. Instead Clarke and Moyet had to record the album in the early mornings with studio owner Eric (E.C.) Radcliffe overseeing most of the recording process, turning up around 5 or 6 a.m. and working through until 11 a.m. each day in whichever of the two studio spaces were available at the time.[5][6]

On the 30th anniversary of Upstairs at Eric's in 2012 Clarke told The Quietus that there had been no grand plan for the album's creation:

We just came together and it was a bit of a mish-mash really. There was no concept or theme running through the album; we were just messing about in the studio. Part of the charm of that album is a naivety. There really wasn't a profound concept that was running through the recording. I didn't really know what I was doing in the studio and Alison hadn't much experience of being in a recording studio, so everything was new. We'd make one sound and we'd think it was great and just stop there and wouldn't make any more sounds. It wasn't like we were continually honing or over-producing songs because everything at the time sounded fresh. That's why a lot of the tracks only have eight or nine elements to them.[5]

Clarke's compositions "I Before E Except After C" and "In My Room" explore the use of cut-up vocals, including his own spoken word voice. "I Before E Except After C" features both Moyet and the mother of producer Eric Radcliffe separately reading out the instruction manual for one of the pieces of studio equipment, with Moyet struggling to keep herself from laughing.

Moyet later described how her song "Goodbye 70's" had been inspired by her disillusionment with how the late-1970s punk scene had turned out, saying, "'Goodbye 70's' is about punk and not caring how you were dressed, and then I discovered that so many of my friends that I'd thought it all really meant something to just saw it as another trend... That's what 'Goodbye 70's' was all about, about how sour the whole thing became."[7]

Artwork

The album cover depicts two apparently male mannequins in a sparsely furnished loft, facing each other over a table, with the lower part of the dummies' bodies seated on pushed back chairs while the upper portions are perched on the edges of the table. It was shot by photographer Joe Lyons at his first photo studio in north London, and he described how he had set up the shot:

"I'd just shot some furniture for a furniture designer, and got paid with the furniture. I chose dummies and started work—a fortuitous series of events. I felt that the hi-tech furniture worked really well with the rough look of the room, and I put the cake—which was actually the top of my wedding cake—as a focus on the table."[6]

The original UK CD release of Upstairs at Eric's in 1986 featured a close-up of part of the original album cover. Another photograph from the same session was used as the cover for the Yazoo box set In Your Room in 2008.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[10]
Rolling Stone[11]
Smash Hits8½/10[12]
The Village VoiceB+[13]

From contemporary reviews, Melody Maker hailed Upstairs at Eric's as "an album of rich, dark passion, forever burying the hoary old moan that electronics and synthesizers will never be any good because they don't have a button on the front that says 'emotion'".[14]

Lynn Hanna of NME was more critical, feeling that "Upstairs at Eric's is an LP of trial and some error, and it shows all the signs of a collaboration that's still in a promising infancy. The writing is divided almost equally between the two, and at their best each acts as an excellent foil to the other... A little too often, though, this LP speaks of two disparate pasts rather than one new Yazoo facing the future."[15] Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the album a one star out of five rating, referred to Yaz as "stiff-voiced monotony fans" and saying that the group were "even more pretentious than most, working the Lord's Prayer into [their] tedious synthesizer rhythms."[10]

From retrospective reviews, David Jeffries of AllMusic compared the album with Clarke's other debut with Depeche Mode the previous year, stating "While Speak and Spell is, by far, the more consistent record, Upstairs at Eric's is wholly more satisfying, beating the Depeche record on substance and ambition, and is light years ahead in emotion... The clumsier experimental tracks make most people head for the hits collection, but to do so would be to miss the album's great twist... Like its curious cover, Upstairs at Eric's presents a fractured, well-lit, and paranoid urban landscape."[8]

Accolades

Upstairs at Eric's was placed at number 6 on the NME critics' list of albums of the year for 1982, while "Only You" was listed as the number 7 single and "Don't Go" as the number 14 single that same year.[16] The album was also named as one of Sounds magazine's top twenty albums of 1982.[17]

In 1989 Record Mirror placed Upstairs at Eric's at number 35 on their list of the best albums of the 1980s.[18]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Vince Clarke, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Don't Go" 3:08
2."Too Pieces" 3:14
3."Bad Connection" 3:20
4."I Before E Except After C" 4:36
5."Midnight"Alison Moyet4:22
6."In My Room" 3:52
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Only You" 3:14
8."Goodbye 70's"Moyet2:35
9."Tuesday" 3:22
10."Winter Kills"Moyet4:06
11."Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)"Moyet4:40
Total length:40:29
  • North American releases of Upstairs at Eric's features François Kevorkian's remix of "Situation" instead of "Tuesday". The 1990 European CD re-release appends the 12" remixes of "Situation" and "The Other Side of Love" to the above track listing. The 2018 UK box set and 2019 LP reissue contain the original LP track listing above.
Bonus tracks on 1990 CD re-release
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
12."Situation" (US 12")Clarke, Moyet5:45
13."The Other Side of Love" (US 12")Clarke, Moyet5:19
Total length:51:13

Personnel
  • Alison Moyet – vocals, piano
  • Vince Clarke – instrumentation, spoken words on "I Before E Except After C" and "In My Room"

Additional personnel

  • Daniel Miller – additional production and noises on "Don't Go", "Too Pieces", "In My Room", "Only You" and "Situation"
  • "Eric's mum" (the mother of producer Eric Radcliffe) – extra chit-chat on "I Before E Except After C"
  • D. Davis – extra chit-chat on "In My Room"

Charts

Certifications and sales
Certifications and sales for Upstairs at Eric's
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[4] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[35] Platinum 1,000,000^
Yugoslavia — 85,000[36]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history
Region Date Label Format Catalog
United Kingdom 20 August 1982 Mute LP STUMM 7
cassette C STUMM 7
United States 1982 Sire LP 1-23737
cassette 23737-4
Canada LP 92 37371
Germany 1983 Mute CD 600015
France Mute/Vogue 600015/VG 651
United Kingdom 1986 Mute CD STUMM 7
United States 1987 Sire 9 23737-2
Canada CD 23737
Europe 1990 Mute/Intercord Ton INT 846.803
United Kingdom & Europe 9 June 2008 Mute Remastered CD CDXSTUMM7
United States 24 July 2012 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Remastered LP MOFI 1-020

References
  1. "BPI".
  2. Mitchell, Matt (21 July 2023). "The 50 Greatest Synth-Pop Albums of All Time". Paste. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  3. "Record News". Melody Maker. 21 August 1982. p. 4.
  4. "British album certifications – Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's". British Phonographic Industry. 18 March 1983. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  5. Freeman, John (23 August 2012). "Synthesizer Soul: Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's 30 Years On". The Quietus. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  6. Miller, Jonathan (2008). Stripped: Depeche Mode (3rd revised ed.). London, England: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84772-444-1.
  7. Watson, Don (28 May 1983). "What's It All About, Alfie?". NME. London, England. pp. 6–7.
  8. Jeffries, David. "Upstairs at Eric's – Yaz / Yazoo". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  9. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  10. Tucker, Ken (19 September 1982). "New Albums". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 10-I. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  11. Considine, J. D. (28 October 1982). "Yaz: Upstairs at Eric's". Rolling Stone. No. 381. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  12. Cranna, Ian (2–15 September 1982). "Yazoo: Upstairs at Eric's (Mute)". Smash Hits. p. 25.
  13. Christgau, Robert (30 November 1982). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  14. Colbert, Paul (28 August 1982). "Review: Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's". Melody Maker. London, England. p. 13.
  15. Hanna, Lynn (28 August 1982). "Hoodoo That Voodoo Yazoo Do So Well?". NME. London, England. p. 32.
  16. "Vital Vinyl". NME. London, England. 25 December 1982. p. 29.
  17. "Albums of the Year". Sounds. London, England: United Newspapers. 25 December 1982.
  18. "The Top 100 Albums of the Decade". Record Mirror. London, England: United Newspapers. 25 November 1989. pp. 28–29.
  19. Kent 1993.
  20. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 6181a". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  21. "Dutchcharts.nl – Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  22. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  23. "Offiziellecharts.de – Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  24. "Charts.nz – Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  25. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  26. "Swedishcharts.com – Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  27. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  28. Lazell, Barry (1997). "Yazoo". Indie Hits 1980–1989: The Complete U.K. Independent Charts (Singles & Albums). Cherry Red Books. ISBN 0-95172-069-4. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  29. "Yaz Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  30. "Yazoo | Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  31. Kent 1993, p. 434.
  32. "Jaaroverzichten – Album 1982" (in Dutch). Dutch Charts. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  33. Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Jones, Alan (1983). "The Top 100 UK Albums". Chart File Volume 2. London: Virgin Books. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0-907080-73-1.
  34. Scaping, Peter, ed. (1984). "Top 100 LPs: 1983". BPI Year Book 1984. British Phonographic Industry. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0-906154-04-9.
  35. "American album certifications – Yaz – Upstairs at Eric's". Recording Industry Association of America. 22 February 1989.
  36. Volvic, Mitja (12 January 1985). "Pervasive Economic Slump Hits Yugoslav Industry Hard". Billboard. Vol. 97, no. 2. p. 57. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.

Bibliography
  • Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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