Marc Almond, Obscure or Obscene?

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.

i was about to post: paging Ned, ILM is paging Ned.

i only know The Stars We Are and it is brilliant.

what Solf Cell album should i own?

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.

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?

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.

I approve:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcAlmondOfficial

can't believe I haven't heard "The Stars We Are" until now.

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.

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!

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!

Yup, completely exhausted after that. Can't see me listening to it for a while, but I undoubtedly will again.

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.

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

Whoa!!