NEW ALBUM‘*HAPPINESS NOT INCLUDED'SPRING 2022
AUTUMN 2021 UK TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
THEIR FIRST NEW ALBUM IN OVER 20 YEARS - RELEASED VIA A NEW DEAL WITHBMG
AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDERHERE
With25 millionsales, sixUK top 10singles and aBRIT Awardto their name,Soft Cellare one of British music's most visionary bands. They've cast a huge influence over music culture ever since, setting the synth-pop standard forErasureand thePet Shop Boysto follow, inspiring the industrial scene before it exploded in the ‘90s, being sampled onRihanna'ssmash‘S.O.S.'and laying the groundwork for the current alt-pop scene right up toYears & Years.
NowSoft Cell- legendary frontmanMarc Almondand producer/instrumentalistDave Ball- are set to return with their fifth studio album‘*Happiness Not Included', which will be released inspring 2022via a new deal withBMG. It represents their first new album since they issued‘Cruelty Without Beauty'back in2002. They will build towards the album's release by sharing a new single in the autumn and playing someUKshows inNovember 2021.
One play of‘*Happiness Not Included'reveals all of the traits that fans first adoredSoft Cellfor: that distinctive and striking balance between light and shade, hope and despair, the personal and the universal. Highlights include the yearning, airy pop of‘Purple Zone'whichcontrasts its uplifting sonics withAlmond'sdarkly doomed lyrics, while‘Light Sleepers'drifts with a daydream elegance that neatly matches its subject matter. Elsewhere,‘Bruises On My Illusions'is bigger and more abrasive, its baroque-tinged synth energy elevated by theatrical vocal harmonies, while the pure grandeur of‘New Eden'closes with the album on a suitably cinematic note.
‘New Eden'best encapsulates the album's themes asAlmondsings,"All those plans we made in the ‘60s... Seem naïve now we've grown older / Leaving we're leaving looking for the New Eden."Changing perceptions of the passing of time are a recurring theme throughout. At various points,Almondexplores the disappointment of a future that never materialised, reflects on his experiences atThe Factory, expresses disillusionment at the modern media landscape, and comes to accept that life isn't eternal.
"In this album I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others. But in the album there is also a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters. -Marc Almond
"Recorded remotely during a world pandemic. Science fiction stories for the 21stcentury." -Dave Ball
In short: it's remarkable thatSoft Cellare now four decades deep into their career, and sound as relevant, contemporary and accomplished than ever before. ClearlyAlmondandBall'sadventures, both together and apart, have only made them stronger.
The duo first shot to prominence when their singular take on‘Tainted Love'raced up charts all over the world, including a two-week run at#1in theUKand aTop 10position in theStates. It sparked a stellar run of success which saw their first two albums,‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret'and‘The Art of Falling Apart', plus the‘Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing'mini album all crash into theTop 10.
The impetus for making a new album started with the phenomenal "final" show atThe O2inLondonin2018. Emerging to a rapturous reception at the sold-out20,000capacity arena,Soft Cell'sextensive set covered all of the hits and fan favourites:‘Tainted Love',‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye',‘Torch',‘Memorabilia'and many more. What they had planned to be the end instead became a brand new start.
As the duo started to work on new material, they enlisted theGrammy-winningPhillip Larsenas co-producer. Now in a reversal of all expected plans, Soft Cellhave waved goodbye only to say hello once more.
‘*Happiness Not Included'tracklist:
1. ‘Happy Happy Happy'
2. ‘Polaroid'
3. ‘Bruises On My Illusions'
4. ‘Purple Zone'
5. ‘Heart Like Chernobyl'
6. ‘Light Sleepers'
7. ‘*Happiness Not Included'
8. ‘Nostalgia Machine'
9. ‘Nighthawks'
10. ‘I'm Not A Friend Of God'
11. ‘Tranquiliser'
12. ‘New Eden'
Due to overwhelming public demand,Soft Cellwill be previewing tracks from‘*Happiness Not Included'alongside their greatest hits, as well as performing their seminal1981debut album‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret'in full for the first time in a series of live shows this autumn. Tickets go on general saleherefrom10amonFriday, August 6th. The dates are:
Wednesday 10 November 2021 GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY
Friday 12 November 2021 MANCHESTER O2 APOLLO
Saturday 13 November 2021 LEEDS O2 ACADEMY
Monday 15 November 2021 LONDON HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
Tuesday 16 November 2021 LONDON HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
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