Most of your will remember the man only because of the hit single “Tainted Love” which he recorded with Soft Cell, the band he formed with Dave Ball. The band split before the nineties, got back together for a brief reunion and an album in 2001, and the two members decided to embark on their own projects. Dave Ball formed the electronic dance band The Grid (whose remix of “Waifs and Straifs” we highly recommend) and whose album “456” is a must-have in every record collection.
As for Marc Almond, he started a solo career, launching a myriad of albums with superb pop songs, flirted with French and Russian music and has been performing solo ever since. The album “Tenement Symphony” or the single “Glorious” are perhaps the greatest living proof of Marc Almond skills.
Trendenz saw the man in Cologne in 1989 at the Saartory Saal during “The Stars We Are” tour where Marc proved he is indeed an master of performance.
For those who never had the chance to seeu him live, “12 years of tears” is a astonishing document live at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Marc Almond’s own songs and some Soft Cell classics.
In this world of fast information it is good to stop a while and look back in delight at the work of someone who has given a great contribution to the story of Pop music throughout these years.
http://www.amazon.com/12-Years-Tears-Royal-Albert/dp/B000K2Q7VY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1358770272&sr=1-1&keywords=12+Years+of+Tears+-+Live+dvd
Where is David Bowie now?
“The Next Day”, the much anticipated and publicised new album by David Bowie is out this week worldwide. It all began with the release of the first single “Where are we now” that brings us to Berlin, to the city where he once lived and recorded three of his best albums and where his creativity was at its peak.
Launched on his 66th birthday, this sad longing song has set the music world on fire, particularly hardcore Bowie fans. The man was back in force with and the album would come out in two months.
All the media buzz is perfectly understandable. After all, this is the man who shaped modern music, the master of style, a multi-instrumentalist, a total artiste, the man who touched nearly all areas of artistic creation, who anticipated music trends, who influenced whole generations and the first pop star to have explored the full potential of the Internet.
Two months after this marketing stunt, the second week of March is here and with it “The Next Day”. It is not an easy album, and surely not the one most fans had expected. The guitars are closer to what he did with Tin Machine, the band he formed in the nineties, or to the atmosphere of “Station to Station” and there seems to be no traces of Berlin in the album, aside from the references in “Where are we now”.
The album seems to go through his career, but rather through what he did after his last brilliant album which was “Scary Monsters”. The two most remarkable songs in the album are curiously the ones with clearer references to what he did in his best days. “You feel so lonely you could die”, both emotional and powerful, brings us closer to what he did between “Space Oddity” and “The man who sold the world”, with traces of soul reminiscent to the “Young Americans” phase. “Where are we now”, on the other hand, is one the most beautiful songs to be released in the first three months of this year, the song which generated the expectation that we might have another “Heroes”.
Where are we now is the question asked in this track. Where is Bowie now is the question many people may ask. This is not surely the review Trendenz wanted to write. We love the man unconditionally but we wanted another Bowie, we wanted more “Low”, “Hunky Dory”,”Diamond Dogs” or “Scary Monsters”. We do not dare to ask for another “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” as Bowie killed Ziggy back in the 70’s, but we wanted a different Bowie.
This review was written after some auditions the day the album was launched. Should we repent after further listening to this album, we will confess our sin.
Carlos Tomé Sousa
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