"You Surround Me" is a song by English

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

duo

Erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...

that was issued in November 1989 by

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderm ...

as the second single from the band's fourth studio album, ''

Wild! ''Wild!'' is the fourth studio album by British band Erasure. Released in 1989, it was the follow-up album to their 1988 breakthrough '' The Innocents''. The album was produced by Erasure, along with Gareth Jones and Mark Saunders and release ...

'' (1989). Written by the duo's

Vince Clarke Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously ...

and Andy Bell, it is a heavily synthesized

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

with a dramatic chorus featuring Bell's

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

. Clarke has stated that this song was his attempt at writing a James Bond film theme. Upon release, "You Surround Me" became Erasure's tenth consecutive top 20 hit on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, peaking at #15. It reached #10 on the

Irish singles chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

, and became a top 40 hit in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, where it reached #38. The song was not released as a single in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

B-sides

This release has become more notable for the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

s that were included with "You Surround Me". First was a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Cerrone Marc Cerrone Daryl Easlea, "Supernature Boy", ''Record Collector'', #502, February 2020, pp.60-63 (, ; born 24 May 1952) is a French disco drummer, composer, record producer and creator of concert shows. Cerrone is a producer of 1970s and 1980 ...

's environmental anthem " Supernature". The song, also previously recorded by

Lene Lovich Lene Lovich (; born Lili-Marlene Premilovich; March 30, 1949) is an English-American singer, songwriter and musician. She first gained attention in 1979 with the release of her hit single "Lucky Number", which peaked at number 3 on the UK Single ...

, led to a collaboration between Erasure and Lovich for the song "Rage", which later appeared on a

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

benefit album. Erasure's recording was

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed by

William Orbit William Mark Wainwright (born 15 December 1956),"William Orbit." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 30. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2000. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 7 May 2017. Available onlinvia ''Encyclopedia.com'' known ...

and became a popular hit in dance clubs. Also included on the single as a B-side is "91 Steps", an instrumental with complex synthesizer programming and unusual

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

that, upon playing, may cause some listeners to think that the disc is skipping. The track utilises repeating cycles in which the first seven bars use a 7/4 time signature, followed by one bar in 3/4 time.

Critical reception

Ned Raggett from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

felt that "You Surround Me" "is another flat-out winner -- it's another slow

, but with big, echoing backing that adds a sense of extra theatricality." The Daily Vault's Michael R. Smith declared it as "a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

ballad to die for and is just as intense as "

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

"." He added, "It contains a cascading melody that simply glows. File this one under Overlooked Masterpieces." Chris Gerard from ''

Metro Weekly ''Metro Weekly'' is a free weekly magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington, D.C., United States. It was first published on May 5, 1994. ''Metro Weekly'' includes national and local news, interviews w ...

'' wrote that it is "one of the duo's all-time great ballads", noting that "it has real heart and feeling; it's unabashedly sentimental, but it feels completely genuine." Jaynie Senior from ''

Number One Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

'' described the song as "lush and fulsome". Christopher Smith from Talk About Pop Music viewed it as "a brooding number with

Vince Vince is a given name, it is the anglicisation and shortened form of the name Vincent, as well as a surname. It may refer to: Given name People * Vince Agnew (born 1987), American football player * Vince Cable (born 1943), British politician ...

turning on the synths at maximum level while

Andy Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

remains in subdued restraint for the most part."

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was made to accompany the song. It features Clarke and Bell performing on a three-level circular stage set, with cityscapes superimposed at various points during the song through a mixture of

chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

and ordinary vision mixing.

Track listings

* 7" single (MUTE99) / Cassette single (CMUTE99) # "You Surround Me" # "91 Steps" * 12" single (12MUTE99) / CD single (CDMUTE99) # "You Surround Me" (Syrinx Mix) # "Supernature" # "91 Steps" (+24 Mix) * Limited 12" single (L12MUTE99) / Limited CD single (LCDMUTE99) # "You Surround Me" (Remix) # "Supernature" (William Orbit Mix) # "91 Steps" (6 Pianos Mix) * Limited "Supernature" 12" single (XL12MUTE99) # "Supernature" ( Daniel Miller & Phil Legg Mix) # "You Surround Me" ( Gareth Jones Mix) # "Supernature" ( Mark Saunders Mix)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1989 singles Erasure songs Songs written by Vince Clarke Songs written by Andy Bell (singer) Song recordings produced by Gareth Jones Song recordings produced by Mark Saunders Electropop ballads Mute Records singles Sire Records singles 1989 songs