soft cell’s long players

Solid gold sleazy listening action…

NON-STOP EROTIC CABARET SOME BIZZARE, 1981

Recorded in a month in new York’s Media Sound studios, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret stands up as one of the greatest debuts of the 1980s. written as a fantasy of Soho seediness, it was supercharged by the band’s initiation into the ecstatic clubland of early-’80s nYC. Despite all the sex dwarves and seedy films, it manages, with “Say Hello wave Goodbye”, to break your heart.

THE ART OF FALLING APART SOME BIZZARE, 1983

Sick of being marketed as a teenybop act, Almond and Ball dialled up the darkness on tracks like “Baby Doll” (prostitution, heroin addiction) and “numbers” (the emptiness of anonymous sex). Typically they consigned their best song of this period, “Martin” (inspired by Romero’s tale of a teenage vampire), to a bonus 12in.

THIS LAST NIGHT IN SODOM SOME BIZARRE, 1984

Released after the duo had announced a split, this was less last hurrah than final, glorious, self-destruction, taking in murder, rape and drug-addled Latino hookers. Marc was palling around with nick Cave and Jim Foetus, and the brutal “where was Your Heart (when You needed it Most)” rather put Depeche Mode’s softplay flirtation with S&M into context.

CRUELTY WITHOUT BEAUTY COOKING VINYL, 2002

“Why don’t I just give up/And submit to the great God Of Bland?” asked Marc on comeback 45 “Monoculture” as the band returned in a 21st-century pop environment. They should have chimed with the electroclash moment, but though “The night” was a great cover of the Frankie Valli soul stomper, there was a sense of missed opportunity about the LP.