Soft Cell

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN – 7 New Firecrackers Week 33

Posted on by JL

What happened this past week…

Turn Up The Volume‘s selection of
7 firecrackers from the past 7 days.

This week’s Magnificent Seven on Spotify…

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Track by track…

1. ‘Soap And Cigarettes’ by NUN HABIT (London, UK)

Can’t stop playing this sickly sticky amplified pop cracker. It’s a tremendous
shot of adrenalin. The kind of tickling tune that dances in your head on repeat.
My favorite track from their excellent new album Hedge Fun.

Catch the vibe here…


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2. Trigger by LUNA BAY (London, UK)

Wham bloody wham bam! Firework from the kick-off. This jagged jackhammer rocks
big time and triggers your appetite for going bonkers. Ace tune, ace chorus, ace score.

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3. ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’ by THE WOMBATS (UK)

Brisk and breezy. The Wombats do what they do best, putting a smile on
your face with easy-listening pop bliss.  It’s the lead single from upcoming
LP Fix Yourself Not The World.

Start smiling…


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4. ‘Living In The Heart Of Love’ by THE ROLLING STONES

A previously unreleased corker from the upcoming 40th-anniversary
edition of their Tattoo You LP. Vintage Stones, buzzing and fuzzing.

Start yourself up, Mick…

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5.’Heart Like Chernobyl’ by SOFT CELL (UK)

A tantalizing doom and gloom meditation infiltrating your mind before you realize
it. An unexpected, but truly bold and clear-cut return. First single from the duo’s
forthcoming longplayer Happiness Not Included.

Tune in…

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6. ‘diditagain’ by THALA (Berlin, Germany)

This sparkling dream-pop ditty makes you forget the grim reality for a while and makes you lose yourself in your head. Light as a feather and starry-eyed vocals. If you are a fan of Mazzy Star, Beach House or Cigarettes After Sex then this sweet little gem will give you aural pleasure.

From her debut album Adolescence, out 17th September.

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7. ‘Vortex’ by NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

A previously unreleased track that features on a ‘B-sides and Rarities’
collection arriving in October. A characteristic, moody Cave musing.

Sing it, Nick…

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See/hear you next week, music junkies…

Synth Pop Icons SOFT CELL* Are Back With Doom And Gloom Single ‘*HEART LIKE CHERNOBYL’

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries

15 August 2021

Band: SOFT CELL (Leeds, UK)
Who: Vocalist Marc Almond
and instrumentalist David Ball

Active: 1978–1984, 2001–2003, 2018–present
Five studio albums, including the new one

New album: *HAPPINESS NOT INCLUDED
Out: Spring 2022

Marc Almond: “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.”


(photo by Turn Up The Volume)

Lead single: *HEART LIKE CHERNOBYL

David Ball: “When I wrote the music to Heart Like Chernobyl it was
at the height of lockdown and I had been alone for about 6 weeks. I
was feeling a bit Joy Division and recalled their track Isolation. I played,
programmed & recorded the track digitally in my home studio – Kitchen
Sink Drama. The track title was Marc’s idea, as was the subject matter.”

Turn Up The Volume: The song’s title is the gloom and doom harbinger for a
scary, realistic reflection on the roller-coaster times we live in. Pandemic, desolate
lockdown loneliness, intolerance, racism, sexism, nature taking revenge on its
destroyer, humankind.

When you profoundly think about, it feels like Armageddon is just around the corner.
Time to act, it’s not too late. Sonically, Heart Like Chernobyl is a tantalizing tune infiltrating your mind before you realize it. An unexpected, but truly bold and clear-cut return. Welcome back.

“Jesus was a naive romancer.”

Press play here…

SOFT CELL: Facebook

New album *HAPPINESS NOT INCLUDED out spring 2022 – more info here

‘WHAT!’ By SOFT CELL – Released 1982…

Posted on by JL

25 January 2020

Band: Soft Cell
Song: What!
Author: Written in 1965 by American musician
H.B. Barnum and first performed by Melinda Marx,
daughter of Groucho Marx
B-side: …So
Released: 11 August 1982
Score: The single reached #3 in the UK

Here’s the original Soft Cell clip…

Here’s Melinda Marx‘s version…

SOFT CELL: Facebook

TODAY’S YESTERDAY ALBUM – ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ – SOFT CELL

Posted on by JL

Remarkable longplayers from the past

‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’
SOFT CELL
Released: 27 Nov 1981
Debut album

ALL MUSIC wrote: “‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ originally released in Britain in the fall of 1981, contained both the band’s first hit and its follow-up, “Bedsitter,” its title referring to what in America would be called a studio apartment. At full album length, lyricist Almond’s primary preoccupation, only suggested in ‘Tainted Love’ was spelled out. This was a theme album about aberrant sexuality, a tour of a red-light district. The point was well made on ‘Sex Dwarf’ with
its oft-repeated chorus ‘Isn’t it nice/Sugar and spice/Luring disco dollies to a life of vice?’ The insistent beats taken at steady dance tempos and the chilling electronic sounds conjured by
Ball emphasized Almond’s fascination with deviance; it almost seemed as though the album
had been designed to be played in topless bars. British listeners saw through Almond’s
pretense or were amused by him, or both. More puritanical Americans tended to disapprove, which probably limited the group’s long-term success stateside. But the music was undeniably influential.”

TURN UP THE VOLUME‘s favorite track: SAY HELLO, WAVE GOODBYE

Album in full
(Original track list: #1 – #10)…

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SOFT CELL: Discography / MARC ALMOND: Website – Facebook


For one night only…