Marc Almond

After the split of his synth pop duo Soft Cell in 1984, Marc Almond pursued a solo career that has allowed his multi-dimensional theatrical and musical personas a freedom of expression and equanimity of exposure that his former band could not provide. Almond’s strength lies not in the quality of his voice, which tends to waver around notes instead of hitting them, but in the massive force of his chameleonlike persona. He so completely inhabits songs that he becomes inseparable from them. As a solo performer, Almond has often worked in series.

Between 1982 and 1987, he issued three albums with the Willing Sinners (including Stories of Johnny) that portrayed him as an aesthetic descendant of the Weimar Republic cabaret singers. 1988’s The Stars We Are marked a brief return to sophisticated dance and theatrical pop. The following year, he and Gene Pitney delivered a duet single of the latter’s 1967 hit “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart.” During most of the 1990s and early 21st century, Almond was a torch and musical theater singer. 1993’s provocatively titled Absinthe (The French Album) reveled in his obsessions with chanson and romantic excess.

Between 1995 and 2000, he offered a new vision of wonderfully sleazy, emotionally (and often electronically) wrought pop on albums such as Fantastic Star and Open All Night. 2003’s Heart on Snow, recorded in Moscow, was a collection of translated Russian songs. 2009’s Orpheus in Exile: Songs of Vadim Kozin paid tribute to the persecuted Russian singer and songwriter. 2014’s The Tyburn Tree with John Harle was subtitled “Dark London,” while The Dancing Marquis featured pop collaborations with Jarvis Cocker and Jools Holland. In 2016, the massive ten-disc career-spanning retrospective Trials of Eyeliner: The Anthology 1979-2016 appeared.