Marc Almond is a true influential icon: a career of almost 40 years and over 30 million albums sold. Between a busy solo career and huge success with SOFT CELL, Almond has managed to impose his distinct style on the underground scene, as well as on the general public.This new album "Chaos and a Dancing Star" was recorded in Los Angeles. The album harks back to Hollywood's golden age and the demise of the great movie stars. Sometimes nostalgic, sometimes a little mournful (Almond speaks of the graveyard of stars as the elephant graveyard), this new opus highlights Almond's splendid voice, his crooning never more seductive than when it presents itself, as here, in its most natural form.The arrangements are both classic and minimalist, a departure from his recent electro or synthpop experiments. The album was created with producer-musician Chris Braide, who specializes, with Lana Del Rey among others, in these classy and flamboyant atmospheres with 60s majesty. Marc Almond is here in his world of fading glamour, suicide, red carpets and lavish decadence, as if in his own domain: regal and sovereign.Marc Almond's new album, 'Chaos and a Dancing Star', represents a new development of his unorthodox craftsmanship, which has become the hallmark of his entire career. The title plays with a quote from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra": "one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star". In essence, this means that an artist must learn to accept their individuality and experience to create unique art, a statement that has influenced everything Marc Almond has created and that he would like to place on his tombstone.Along the way, Marc Almond has already garnered several awards and distinctions during his impressive career. For example, he received an OBE Award in 2018 as well as the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award, the Attitude's Icon Award, and the Mojo's Inspiration Award.The album was made in collaboration with producer, songwriter and pianist Chris Braide, who also worked on 'The Velvet Trail'. Braide's many high-level merits include work with artists such as Sia, Lana Del Rey and Halsey. The duo started writing for the album three years ago, their initial plan for a prog rock album evolving into something more geared towards strident pop melodies.The title informs many of the album's themes, and impermanence is also a recurring subject. It manifests in various forms: mortality in "Black Sunrise" and "Dust," as well as saying goodbye and leaving a legacy in "Cherry Tree" and "When The Stars Are Gone."The playful 'Slow Burn Love' provides light in the darkness, with its hope of finding an eternal love rather than one that is "over before you blink" - a counterpoint to Marc's common premise that love inevitably turns out to be a disappointment.Almond's creativity extends beyond music. He has already published two successful autobiographies, 'Tainted Life' and 'In Search Of The Pleasure Palace', and three volumes of poetry, 'The Angel of Death in the Adonis Lounge', 'A Beautiful Twisted Night' and 'The End of New York'.And he has already earned his spurs on the big stage, winning the Scotsman's Fringe First Award with Ten Plagues and making himself memorable in his critically acclaimed tribute role to Seneca in the experimental rock adaptation at the Théâtre du Châtelet by Poppea.
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