The British Electronic music duo Soft Cell – Marc Almond and Dave Ball – has just released their final album – “Danceteria” – to close out a 47 year music career.
A concept album, “Danceteria” features a day in ‘80’s New York from bopping in the club to daylight, and back to the club again.
The album is available in vinyl and on CD. The CD offers two bonus tracks.
Marc Almond spoke on the album saying, “Soft Cell have always had a strong connection with New York, and my Soft Cell lyrics often look at America through British eyes. New York in the 1980s was a particularly creative place for me. It was a pivotal era in terms of changes in my personal life and changes in the city itself. New York shaped Soft Cell, as it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It was dirty, dark and dangerous – a real Wild West – but it was also deeply inspiring and exciting. A lot of our original influences came from America anyway: New York punk, Devo, Suicide, Lou Reed, disco and 1960s soul. But New York was like nowhere else on earth. There were 24-hour nightclubs, music, art and underground theatre. It offered a cornucopia of energy and edge, and the lyrics on Danceteria reflect that time of my life.”
“Danceteria” was the final work created by Dave Ball, completed just two days before his death in October of last year. The album is also a tribute to Ball. Almond called Ball a “brilliant musical genius”.
In tribute to Ball, the album release went on as planned. Almond noted, “there can be no more recordings of Soft Cell without Dave, it would not be possible. The sad reality is that Dave Ball was half of Soft Cell, and live work aside, I can’t write Soft Cell songs without him.”