have a friend who saw him at a Jacques Brel tribute thing in London recently, was said to have been all kinds of great. Including when duetting with Momus.
― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Monday, 26 October 2009 20:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Hahah well yes.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 October 2009 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5178xMoj70L._SS400_.jpg
Varieté is a studio album by Marc Almond. The album will be released on July 13, 2010 on Cherry Red Records.
Disc: 11. (Intro)2. Bread And Circus3. Nijinsky Heart4. The Exhibitionist5. The Trials Of Eyeliner6. Lavender7. Soho So Long8. Unloveable9. Sandboy10. It's All Going On11. Variety12. Cabaret Clown13. My Madness And I14. But Not Today15. Swan Song16. Sin Song
Disc: 2
1. My Evil Twin2. A Lonely One3. Cat Dancer4. Criminal Lover5. I Am No One6. Smoke7. Kiss The Ghost (Goodbye)
― Bee OK, Friday, 16 July 2010 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Somehow I kept thinking this was already out -- can't wait to hear it, of course. I think he's said this one might be his last one featuring original songs as he'd prefer to concentrate on covers and standards in the future.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 July 2010 04:52 (thirteen years ago) link
i was about to post: paging Ned, ILM is paging Ned.
― Bee OK, Friday, 16 July 2010 04:57 (thirteen years ago) link
i only know The Stars We Are and it is brilliant.
what Solf Cell album should i own?
― Bee OK, Friday, 16 July 2010 05:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Well, all of them (the reunion one aside, some charming moments but...). Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is for many the be-all and end-all and deservedly so, it's arguably the first overtly Suicide-referencing album to be a smash pop hit. (You know, like Maya.) A stellar run of songs, holds together as an album still, cheap on the one hand, produced by Mike Thorne with careful detail on the other. But The Art of Falling Apart and This Last Night in Sodom are no less compelling, if very much steady turns away from the pop world Marc's always had a very ambivalent relationship with.
This all said, you really could do worse as a starting point than to go with the 12 Inch Singles collection, three CDs worth of all the original remixes and B-sides and so forth. Ignore the later remixes and you've got yourself a hell of an overview. There's various further compilations out there; the original The Singles remains unimpeachable.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 July 2010 05:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Personally I prefer Almond's solo material to Soft Cell. Especially on the first SC album his singing is so bad, it got much better later on.
My favourite Marc album is probably Enchanted, I can't believe AMG gave it only like 1,5 stars or something... Sure, the combination of dance beats and melodramatic strings on it is kinda cheesy, but I think it fits the camp nature of the tunes perfectly. And the actual songwriting is among his strongest: "Waifs and Strays", "Toreador in the Rain", "Death's Diary" - how can you not love these?
― Tuomas, Friday, 16 July 2010 06:54 (thirteen years ago) link
I listened to the new album just a couple of times, but it seems good.A couple of songs were written with Michael Cashmore (ex Current 93) and the general mood is, well, moody. The bonus cd maybe is even better: stripped out, smokey, noirish, a couple of songs have a kind of rockabilly nuance.
― Marco Damiani, Friday, 16 July 2010 07:21 (thirteen years ago) link
I approve:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcAlmondOfficial
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 03:23 (eleven years ago) link
can't believe I haven't heard "The Stars We Are" until now.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 March 2013 00:25 (eleven years ago) link
JEEZ.
But I'm glad you did. He's been recording lately, also has some performances lined up later in the year. Resigned to never seeing him again in the States but at least I have seen both him and Soft Cell.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 March 2013 00:29 (eleven years ago) link
I can't believe I haven't heard Torment and Toreros until now, I'm halfway through it now and still can't quite believe what I'm hearing. Holy fuck!
― Welcome To (Turrican), Thursday, 13 November 2014 13:05 (nine years ago) link
Like throughout the course of this album, I've went from laughing, to being deeply moved, to being genuinely terrified and back again. Man, this fucking record!
― Welcome To (Turrican), Thursday, 13 November 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
Yup, completely exhausted after that. Can't see me listening to it for a while, but I undoubtedly will again.
― Welcome To (Turrican), Thursday, 13 November 2014 13:48 (nine years ago) link
Deep regret I couldn't make the live performance at Meltdown a few years back, but such is life. Meantime, he has a new album and tour soon -- this was an insanely busy year for him, with the Tyburn Tree collaboration, Ten Plagues and the various Dancing Marquis tracks, so The Velvet Trail just feels like his usual overdrive will continue without a pause.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 November 2014 13:57 (nine years ago) link
Woah, this collab with Ian Anderson(!) on flute! Would totally have nommed it for ilx-tracks-2019 had I heard it before the deadline (slightly annoying repeated flick-like noise artifact(?) in the chorus aside). Few can mouth "turmoil" with such delicious disgust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTVrBN7JvPQ
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 10 January 2020 11:01 (four years ago) link
Whoa!!
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 10 January 2020 14:10 (four years ago) link