Soft Cell have released their latest live album, ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret… And Other Stories’, across digital platforms.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the duo’s classic debut album, Marc Almond and Dave Ball embarked on a UK tour in support of the LP in 2021, featuring the 10-song album played in its entirety.
During the run of shows, they performed two dates at London’s Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, which forms the basis of their new record.
Alongside the seminal 1981 album, the collection also includes the band’s chart hits, deep cuts from across their career, plus songs from the duo’s current album, ‘*Happiness Not Included’.
Check out ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret … And Other Stories’ below.
Soft Cell recently teased plans to release a repackaged edition of their Top 10 album, ‘*Happiness Not Included’, later this year in a post on social media.
Released in 2022, the LP features the hit Pet Shop Boys collaboration Purple Zone and reached No. 7 in the UK, becoming the group’s highest-charting album in 40 years.
Celebrating one year since its release, Marc Almond and Dave Ball announced a “brand new chapter” with the hashtag, #*HappinessNowExtended.
They later shared what appears to be artwork for the album, with an industrial scene featuring two power plant smokestacks and the album title.
Firm details, including tracklist and release date, have yet to be confirmed.
‘*Happiness Not Included’ was the first album of new material from the duo in 20 years that, Dave told RETROPOP ahead of its release, “reflects the dreadful government we have at the moment and the levels of hypocrisy and incompetence”.
Marc added: “In this album, I wanted to look at us as a society, a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others.”
“I think it’s very much reflective of what’s going on in the world,” Dave continued. “The fact we had someone like [Donald] Trump in power. We’re not in a very good place globally.
“Whatever your political beliefs are, the state [of the world] isn’t too good. And obviously, with all the global warming and all that sort of stuff going on, it’s not fantastically happy times.”
In a review of the album, RETROPOP said ‘*Happiness Not Included’ “boasts 12 fabulously Soft Cell numbers, laced with Marc Almond’s lyrical wit and underpinned by standout instrumentation from Dave Ball.”
