Vince Clark and Andy Bell wrote the material for the dance-oriented album on synthesizers, a first for them.

“We’ve always been very traditional on guitar and piano,” Bell says. “Vince gets worried, because he says you have to have a very strong melody. I can understand that.

“Sometimes, when we’re writing on guitar, as soon as I hear those chords, I fall into folk mode when I’m trying to think of a melody. That’s why a lot of our songs are quiet and very melodic, a bit melancholic.

“This time, because we wrote on the synths, Vince came up with some dance riffs. I just sang along with those, so it was much more immediate. We also did the writing in Miami rather than New York, so it was much warmer.”

Erasure worked on The Violet Flame with Richard X, who also produced last year’s holiday album, Snow Globe.