THINGS WE LOST/180 GR GATEFOLD SLEEVE BLEU CIEL

Description

Extended 3CD and light blue vinyl edition of 'Things We Lost', a celebration of Marc Almond's 65th birthday. As a centrepiece to his 65th birthday celebrations, Marc reunited with award-winning record producer Chris Braide (Sia, Hans Zimmer, Lana Del Ray, Beyoncé & Nicki Minaj) to craft a concise and unforgettable suite of six ultra-vivid narrative songs for a brand new mini-album 'Things We Lost'. This audio gem is extended onto a 3CD set with the additional inclusion of the audio from the exclusive and acclaimed live concert given at the Royal Festival Hall in 2020 with Chris Braide and featuring Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull); a celebration too of the wider songwriting partnership between Marc Almond and Chris Braide. The 2-disc bonus concert, 'Chaos And More' features live versions of all the tracks from their recent collaboration, the 2020 album 'Chaos And A Dancing Star', plus six tracks from their first collaboration in 2015, 'The Velvet Album Trail'. Disc One is the studio mini-album "Things We Lost" which contains the highly moving song "Dead Stars", a lyrical tour de force evocation of the legendary status celebrated stars can achieve once deceased. Equally deftly drawn is the songwriting genius of 'Wolf (Modern Life)' which distills an almost psychotic projection of self in thrall to enveloping forces of darkness. Evocative and emotional reflections on ageing and the passing of time; elegies to the passing of fully lived lives are both pervasive in the reflective power of the songs "A Flowered Goodbye" and the searing title track. "Golden Light", the album opener Feel Good, appears to be an upbeat, "feel good" anthem to love and joy. Ostensibly it elucidates a worthy aspiration to a carefree existence in the too often elusive sun-drenched uplands of happiness and lovers' conviviality... but then again, with a skillful mastering of the thwarting lyrical form, Marc Almond plants the idea that, perhaps, the "Golden Light" is nothing of the sort! 'Siren' continues the theme of the title track of Marc's first collaborative album with Chris Braide, 'The Velvet Trail' (2015). Discs two and three contain the 37-song "Chaos & More" live set which also includes some of Chris Braide's best-known compositions. "Unstoppable! (Sia) and "Kill And Run! (for the film The Great Gatsby), a moving stripped-back piano and voice suite of cult songs from the Marc Almond and Soft Cell back catalogues as well as cover versions paying homage to Marc Almond and Chris Braide's unifying love of Marc Bolan; "Children of the Revolution!" and "Change!"