Singer Marc Almond has had an extraordinary career spanning almost four decades. From the massive hits he had with electronic pioneers Soft Cell in the 80’s to his melancholic project Marc and the Mambas and a long solo career. Now almost 40 years of his singing career is being collated into a brand new anthology, Trials of Eyeliner.
The 10-CD box set, totalling 189 songs, has been curated and overseen by Almond and spans the length and breadth of his career, from Soft Cell to the present day via B-sides and more. It’s split into four different sections. Four discs of ‘History’ tells Almond’s story through a collection of singles and B-sides. ‘Singles’ gathers together all of the official Soft Cell, Mambas and solo singles in roughly chronological order for the first time. Three CDs of ‘Gems’ collates rarities from fan-only releases, one-off collaborations, and soundtracks, including 18 tracks previously unreleased from Almond’s own private collection. A 69 page hardcover book is also included in the anthology, with a brand new interview and essay by Alexis Petridis and a wealth of photos and other imagery.
Almond says in the sleeve notes: “There’s a whole big swathe of the British public that only know me for part of my music, and don’t know me for another part. And that’s absolutely fine. I always thought that music was a ride. You go on it, and sometimes it’s successful and sometimes it’s disastrous, sometimes it gets acclaim and sometimes it gets absolutely knocked down. You pick up different people for different parts of the journey. It just happens. But you’ve just got to go on that ride.”
Trials of Eyeliner will be released on 28th October 2016 by Universal Music Catalogue.
