What does it sound like?:
I’m certainly no expert on Soft Cell, being aware of their singles rather than album tracks, so this new twenty song collection, issued alongside the recent mega box set, is ideal for me, rounding up as it does the band’s singles output over the years.
Starting at the beginning with their biggest (or at least most familiar) chart songs such as Tainted Love, Bedsitter, Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, Torch etc, the album wends its way on to their later, less successful period in commercial terms. Indeed, I don’t think I’d heard before any of the last half dozen of the ‘old’ songs, and I have to say they didn’t really strike me as being as immediate as their earlier stuff. Oddly, the set concludes with two new songs, that aren’t included on the box set, which seems a strange decision, and not one I’d have been too impressed with had I forked out eighty quid! Nevertheless, the first half of this collection has some great catchy pop tunes that bring back a lot of memories, and that’s all I ask of an album such as this really.
What does it all *mean*?
Ideal for the casual fan or as an introduction for a newcomer, but the hard core will opt for the full ten disc box set.
Goes well with…
Clubs.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Non stop erotic cabaret.
Mike_H says
Including those two new songs on this smacks of fan-milking to me.
Well-heeled diehards will now have to buy this one as well as the box.
Black Celebration says
I had had a bit of a Soft Cell revival this weekend.
There’s a Monty Python sketch set in a travel agent where Eric Idle explains at great length and with some venom why he doesn’t want to go to a Spanish resort for a holiday. He can’t stop and only finishes when shot dead by the travel agent.
Pretty much the same concept with Soft Cell’s Memorabilia – where the phrase “keychains and snowstorms” comes from – even to the point of signing “Torremolinos” twice.
Moose the Mooche says
Old Smoketoomuch?
Eric Idle is my least favourite Python as a human being by a considerable margin – a bit of a twerp to be honest – but by god, I forgive him anything for that performance in Bounder of Adventure alone. It’s absolutely astonishing.
Black Celebration says
Completely agree. The nudge nudge character too.
Vincent says
Soft Cell were great – warm, sleazy, funny, funky, and provocative. Synth duos are pretty good, actually. Pet Shop Boys, Sleaford Mods, Yello, Zorch (WAY ahead of their time), Yazoo; all great. Sure I’ve missed a few. They seem to work the way power trios do: an inherent balance to the task.
Mike_H says
Blancmange were favourites of mine.
Bit of a hippyish vibe to them, somehow.
Moose the Mooche says
That might be the pseudo-Indian strings on Living On The Ceiling, I think.
Mike_H says
They had a sitar and tabla on that and a few other recordings too, now I think about it.
Santoor and tabla on “The Day Before You Came”.
Hippies. Definitely.
retropath2 says
There was also the album Neil Arthur, the tall curly singer one, did with Asha Bosle
West India Company
Mike_H says
Actually, although Neil Arthur contributed vocals on two tracks of their 4-track 12″ single “Ave Maria”, it was the other one Stephen Luscombe’s project. Along with Asha and percussionist Pandit Dinesh. Neil Arthur isn’t on either track of the 7″ single or either of their 2 albums. I have “Ave Maria” (recorded off the radio from a Peel show) on one of my dusty old mixtapes in the box on top of my bookcase. Hadn’t heard it in years until today.
Doesn’t quite work in 2018, in my opinion, but it has some very interesting things going on nonetheless.
retropath2 says
Well I never, thanks for that, and there was I thinking Luscombe was the dull one. Thanks Mike!
metal mickey says
A single CD Soft Cell collection, especially a chronological one, is doomed to be rather a schizophrenic experience, with five top 5 singles followed by “the rest”, dramatically highlighting their artistic left-turn/career suicide, though I loved them from first to last…
As a massive fan first time around, I’ve bought the box-set, but drew the line at last night’s “final” (we’ll see) O2 gig, which was stupid money for even nosebleed seats, totally unjustifiable for a tightwad like me, I’ll happily wait for the DVD…
And yes, those new tracks that aren’t actually on the box-set feels like milking it, but at least you can buy them as a CD single, not just on this album.
That said, the box-set itself is excellent – yes, there are a few redundant CDs for fans liek me who have everything already, and the new remixes are somewhat surplus to requirements, but the early-early stuff, live tracks and new to CD material is all worthwhile, alongside some priceless video footage from a pre-Tainted Love gig…
MC Escher says
I saw them on ‘Later’ last week doing a song called “Northern Lights.” I assume this is one of the new ones. If so, it’s a bit dreary and not enough of a reason to shell out on the new collection.
Also, his wig needs some work 😉