I Say I Say I Say

The last in what had been a chart-topping string of albums in the UK, I Say I Say I Say also provided Erasure their last top 20 hit in the US — “Always,” an absolutely beautiful ballad that even in the midst of ’90s alternative rock crunch found its way to the airwaves. It’s unquestionably the album’s highlight — and if there’d been room for it on Pop! with a retitle about it being twenty-one hits instead, that would be even more perfect — but I Say has other lovely numbers to recommend it like “Run To the Sun,” “Take Me Back” and “All Through the Years.”