Upstairs at Eric's

1982 studio album by Yazoo

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. 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. 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:Blockquote|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.

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:
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'". 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." 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." The album was also named as one of Sounds magazine's top twenty albums of 1982. In 1989 Record Mirror placed Upstairs at Eric's at number 35 on their list of the best albums of the 1980s.

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.

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