On the Shelf 206: Marc Almond
Mar. 20th, 2020 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Marc Almond is one of my favorite artists. He is a fairly marginal artist in the US with that one big hit, but it's hard to beat his discography for quality and variety.
I compare him to Morrissey, but they are as different as they are similar. Almond has had #1s in Britain, sure, and has some pressure to perform commercially, but he has taken wilder chances. Also, while they share many influences, Almond tends more towards pre-rock n roll influences like Johnnie Ray and Judy Garland. After his 80s glory days, Almond has spent the last 20 years releasing some essential records.
1999's Open All Night is as solid as anything as he has done, and was a rebirth of creativity. It features contributions from the Creatures (Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie) and Kelli from the Sneaker Pimps, and shows Almond using Trip Hop to great effect. He followed this with a Soft Cell reunion in 2002 and interpretations of traditional Russian romance songs on 2003's Heart on Snow before this peak creative period came to an end with a near fatal motorbike accident in 2004.
Since then, I would categorize Almond's work in three categories (and he's been surprisingly prolific).
One column would be his esoteric work. These would include Feasting with Panthers (a collaboration with Micheal Cashmore putting poetry of Genet, Cocteau, and Rimbaud and others to music), Ten Plagues (a stage play, then an album about the Great Plague of London of 1665) and The Tyburn Tree ( a song cycle about the Tyburn gallows).
He has often returned to cover songs. 2007's Stardom Road was almost born of necessity due to making it easier to return to performing. It's the best of these albums as it draws from the artists who “made” Almond (Bowie, Sinatra, Gene Pitney, Bobby Darrin, Dusty Springfield). 2017's Shadows and Reflections is a more standard covers album drawing from 60s era British pop (Yardbirds, Young Rascals, the Action, Peter Frampton's first band the Herd), and thus also tends to be a more standard listen. 2018's album fronting the Jools Holland Orchestra (and its attending UK Christmas tour) is the most crassly commerical album Almond has ever made, as he swings throughs Big Band versions of Tainted Love and When the Saints Go Marching In.
That particular album A Lovely Life to Live is a divisive one. It is Vegas kitsch aimed for an over 60 crowd. Still, Almond has always aspired to be one of the great entertainers, and there is something that feels “full circle” about him joining heroes like Garland and Ray.
The last category of Almond records of course are the ongoing studio ones. His newest album Chaos and a Dancing Star is his third which is basically a core group of Almond, longtime collaborator Neal Whitmore and producer Christopher Braide.
Neal is still probably best known as Neal X, guitarist for Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Briade is a big name producer, whose credits include Sia, Lana del Rey, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Halsey, and Nicki Minaj among many others.
I am not crazy about the Braide collabs, though this one appears to be the best of the three, I prefer Almond's self-produced Variete (2009) and the 2014 Eps collected as the Dancing Marquis (produced by all-star guests like Tony Visconti, Jarvis Cocker and Jason Buckle of the All Seeing I).
I only criticize in comparison. There are still plenty of songs on Chaos that I would drop liberally into music playlist mixes. Lord of Misrule has the decadent Almond swagger over a melody driven by Almond's new friend Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson.
I compare him to Morrissey, but they are as different as they are similar. Almond has had #1s in Britain, sure, and has some pressure to perform commercially, but he has taken wilder chances. Also, while they share many influences, Almond tends more towards pre-rock n roll influences like Johnnie Ray and Judy Garland. After his 80s glory days, Almond has spent the last 20 years releasing some essential records.
1999's Open All Night is as solid as anything as he has done, and was a rebirth of creativity. It features contributions from the Creatures (Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie) and Kelli from the Sneaker Pimps, and shows Almond using Trip Hop to great effect. He followed this with a Soft Cell reunion in 2002 and interpretations of traditional Russian romance songs on 2003's Heart on Snow before this peak creative period came to an end with a near fatal motorbike accident in 2004.
Since then, I would categorize Almond's work in three categories (and he's been surprisingly prolific).
One column would be his esoteric work. These would include Feasting with Panthers (a collaboration with Micheal Cashmore putting poetry of Genet, Cocteau, and Rimbaud and others to music), Ten Plagues (a stage play, then an album about the Great Plague of London of 1665) and The Tyburn Tree ( a song cycle about the Tyburn gallows).
He has often returned to cover songs. 2007's Stardom Road was almost born of necessity due to making it easier to return to performing. It's the best of these albums as it draws from the artists who “made” Almond (Bowie, Sinatra, Gene Pitney, Bobby Darrin, Dusty Springfield). 2017's Shadows and Reflections is a more standard covers album drawing from 60s era British pop (Yardbirds, Young Rascals, the Action, Peter Frampton's first band the Herd), and thus also tends to be a more standard listen. 2018's album fronting the Jools Holland Orchestra (and its attending UK Christmas tour) is the most crassly commerical album Almond has ever made, as he swings throughs Big Band versions of Tainted Love and When the Saints Go Marching In.
That particular album A Lovely Life to Live is a divisive one. It is Vegas kitsch aimed for an over 60 crowd. Still, Almond has always aspired to be one of the great entertainers, and there is something that feels “full circle” about him joining heroes like Garland and Ray.
The last category of Almond records of course are the ongoing studio ones. His newest album Chaos and a Dancing Star is his third which is basically a core group of Almond, longtime collaborator Neal Whitmore and producer Christopher Braide.
Neal is still probably best known as Neal X, guitarist for Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Briade is a big name producer, whose credits include Sia, Lana del Rey, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Halsey, and Nicki Minaj among many others.
I am not crazy about the Braide collabs, though this one appears to be the best of the three, I prefer Almond's self-produced Variete (2009) and the 2014 Eps collected as the Dancing Marquis (produced by all-star guests like Tony Visconti, Jarvis Cocker and Jason Buckle of the All Seeing I).
I only criticize in comparison. There are still plenty of songs on Chaos that I would drop liberally into music playlist mixes. Lord of Misrule has the decadent Almond swagger over a melody driven by Almond's new friend Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson.
