Marc Almond

Since splitting from synth pop duo Soft Cell in 1984, singer and songwriter Marc Almond has shaped a solo path granting his layered theatrical and musical identities a latitude the group had never supplied. His reedy yet emotionally resonant voice tends to hover around pitches instead of striking them cleanly, fully embodying each song until the two become indistinguishable. From 1982 through 1987 he released three albums with the Willing Sinners, among them the seminal Stories of Johnny, presenting himself as an aesthetic heir and contemporary embodiment of the pre-War Weimar Republic’s cabaret performers. The 1988 album The Stars We Are signaled a short-lived return to dance and theatrical pop. The provocatively titled 1993 release Absinthe (The French Album) immersed itself in passions for chanson and romantic excess. Between 1995 and 2000 he advanced a freshly sleazy, emotionally charged vision of pop across records such as Fantastic Star and Open All Night. Recorded in Moscow, 2003’s Heart on Snow delivered affecting Russian material. 2009’s Orpheus in Exile: Songs of Vadim Kozin honored the persecuted Russian songwriter. The 2014 album The Dancing Marquis included work with Jarvis Cocker and Jools Holland. The ten-disc career overview Trials of Eyeliner surfaced in 2016, coinciding with Almond’s Los Angeles sessions alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Braide that produced 2020’s Chaos and a Dancing Star. Reunited with Dave Ball, Almond’s Soft Cell issued Happiness Not Included in 2022.

Prior to launching his solo work, Almond assembled the loose collective Marc & the Mambas, which included Matt Johnson of The The and Annie Hogan. The group’s debut Untitled (1982) contained interpretations of Lou Reed, Syd Barrett, and Jacques Brel. Almond has returned repeatedly to Brel’s catalog, material first encountered through Scott Walker’s recordings. Like Walker, he treated Brel’s densely orchestrated pieces and social observations as foundations, yet introduced a deliberate layer of camp drawn from Euro-disco and occasionally provocative lyrics. Marc & the Mambas’ second album, Torment & Toreros (1983), pursued this direction with greater elaboration against an orchestral backdrop before the ensemble disbanded.

Almond assembled the backing band the Willing Sinners in 1984 and issued Vermin in Ermine that year, an album that realized many of his cabaret-flavored theatrical impulses. The following year’s Stories of Johnny proved more unified and yielded a British hit with its title track. Despite sustaining a devoted audience in England and select European territories, his recordings remained unavailable in the United States at that time.

In 1987 Almond delivered Mother Fist and Her Five Daughters, his initial proper solo album and his most somber statement to date; the same year brought the compilation Singles: 1984-1987. Released the next year, The Stars We Are presented a sunnier, more accessible collection that restored his commercial momentum. Alongside a duet with Nico on “Your Kisses Burn,” Almond shared vocals with Gene Pitney on Pitney’s own “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart,” which reached number one. The Stars We Are also became Almond’s first album to appear in the U.S. market since his Soft Cell era.

Following the success of The Stars We Are, Almond issued the personal project Jacques in 1990, a set of Brel songs. That year he also released Enchanted, which outsold Jacques without matching the commercial peak of The Stars We Are. 1991 brought The Tenement Symphony, followed in 1993 by the live album Twelve Years of Tears and a pair of EMI releases. Almond subsequently moved to the New York independent Thirsty Ear, which reissued earlier material, and later to Instinct for 1999’s Open All Night. Throughout the early 2000s he remained active issuing archival live recordings on CD and DVD while producing the studio albums Stranger Things (2001) and Heart on Snow (2003) for Psychobaby. He also published the travel book In Search of the Pleasure Palace: Disreputable Travels in 2004.

Shortly after the book’s appearance, Almond suffered a severe motorcycle accident in October 2004 and devoted most of the following year to recovery. He resumed recording in 2006 and released the covers album Stardom Road the next summer. His 2009 effort Orpheus in Exile spotlighted the work of Vadim Kozin, the Russian songwriter and performer active during the 1930s and ’40s. A year later the single “Nijinsky Heart” introduced Varieté, Almond’s first studio album of original material in more than a decade.

In 2011 Almond collaborated with composer Michael Cashmore of Current 93 on Feasting with Panthers, an album setting several of the singer’s favored homoerotic poems to music. Late in 2012 he began working with vanguard composer and saxophonist John Harle. He appeared on Harle’s 2013 album Art Music, performing three songs derived from William Blake’s poetry. The two artists joined forces fully for 2014’s The Tyburn Tree: Dark London, a collection of contemporary songs addressing London’s grimmer history.

When Almond issued Varieté in 2010 he indicated it would be his final album of original songs, citing numerous other artists’ material he wished to interpret. Producer and songwriter Chris Braide persuaded him otherwise in 2014. The pair composed and recorded ten tracks together, supplementing them with two instrumentals by Braide; the resulting album, The Velvet Trail, appeared on Cherry Red in early 2015. The following year Almond returned to touring and oversaw the release of the career-spanning ten-disc box set Trials of Eyeliner: The Anthology 1979-2016, which gathered tracks from every album along with numerous one-offs and rarities.

In July 2017 Almond received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Edge Hill University in Lancashire and delivered that year’s graduation address. In August he performed at the I Feel Love concert marking the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 decriminalization of homosexuality in England. The event featured live renditions of landmark gay songs and readings of works by Oscar Wilde and Alan Hollinghurst, among others. Almond shared the stage with Will Young, Alison Moyet, and Tom Robinson. That same month the pre-release single, a cover of the Young Rascals’ “How Can I Be Sure,” preceded the September BMG release Shadows and Reflections. The album contained originals written by Almond and John Harle as well as cinematically orchestrated versions of songs by the Yardbirds, Burt Bacharach, the Herd, the Action, Bobby Darin, Julie Driscoll, Billy Fury, and Johnny Mandel. After years of occasional touring with rhythm & blues pianist Jools Holland, Almond finally recorded an album with him, 2018’s A Lovely Life to Live.

In 2020 Almond released Chaos and a Dancing Star, again working with producer Braide. The duo had begun writing the material in Los Angeles in 2017 with the initial intention of creating a prog rock album; during the process the songs shifted toward boldly progressive pop melodies. The title reflects many of the album’s themes, while impermanence surfaces repeatedly as a subject. Almond next collaborated with British poet, novelist, and translator Jeremy Reed on a soundtrack for Reed’s poetry collection Piccadilly Bongo. Almond supplied an accompanying audio disc containing re-recorded acoustic versions of earlier songs plus interpretations of public-domain material and songs linked to Piccadilly Circus. Although originally issued as a combined book and CD package, Soho Songs... For Piccadilly Bongo appeared as a standalone release in February 2021. May 2022 brought Soft Cell’s Happiness Not Included. September saw the demos and rarities collection Little Rough Rhinestones, Vols. 1 & 2, followed in November by the previously unreleased archival live recording Sin Songs: Torch & Romance - Live at the Almeida Theatre 2004.