41. MARC ALMOND - Twelve Years Of Tears

Because in large part he's only the greatest singer alive, in case you were wondering. He is! If I wanted somebody technically 'perfect,' I'd have long since ignored all this and been listening to nothing but Michael Bolton,

This said, a couple of songs from this, a live album recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in late 1992, could probably be tanked and I wouldn't miss them or anything. His tone escapes him on "Champagne" and it makes an indifferent song more so (nice intro, though). And knowing he did tracks like "Vision" at that show and they're not on here makes me sad. But this is mere quibbling.

I've been an Almond fanatic for almost ten years now; everyone knows "Tainted Love," sure, but I'm utterly overwhelmed, fascinated, by the huge amount of stuff he's done aside from that, in Soft Cell and so very much more out of it. Tackling so many styles, working from everyone from Coil and the David Tibet/Steve Stapleton crowd to Gene Pitney and P. J. Proby, he's one of the least predictable, most involved and most interesting singers out there. One listen to this confirms it, and just makes me so damn glad I'm finally seeing him in concert in a little over two weeks time. It's going to be great, I already feel it.

And while hearing some of the Soft Cell songs here is certainly welcome -- "Youth" gets it the best, reduced to a spectral, beautiful piano arrangement and Almond's yearning vocal, the barbed, regretful lyric a perfect antithesis to rock/pop's eternal emphasis on young vibrancy -- it's the solo tracks that fill my heart, my head, my soul. Jacques Brel gets it twice with a similarly stripped-down version on "If You Go Away" and the totally over the top version of "Jacky," and both times suit the indulgent, sensual, crazed and hilarious Almond mindset. "Mr. Sad" and "There is a Bed" combine into one song, a perfect sliding medley of Almond at his private obsessive love/lust/loss best.

The two highlights are clear, though. Charles Aznavour's "What Makes a Man a Man" is particularly gripping, a melancholy look at a drag queen's life which tackles gender/sexuality stereotyping just so, just right, just wonderfully. And when it comes to the closer, "Say Hello Wave Goodbye," there is no competition. Take the splashiest ever conclusion to the big production, concert, theater, stage, mass media event, whatever, multiply it by ten, twenty , a hundred, and you come close to this, but not close enough. The ultimate kiss-off-and-farewell moodout becomes the ultimate kiss-off-and-farewell center stage in the spotlight bow out just like that, god knows how many musicians are on stage, but they're all there backing him up, and it makes so much else seem so small.

Marc Almond, supergenius. No argument.

Questions Or Comments? E-Mail Ned......

Previous Album
Next Album

Back To The Ned's 90s Page

Back To Freaky Trigger Central