Marc Almond
Stardom Road

What a nice surprise - sometimes - when things don't go as you expect!
When - basically - you cowardly hope that an artist you always liked, but whom heavy evidence now suggests is over and out, dies soon, so you don't have to be dragged by deceitful hopes to rush and buy the latest album of the scoundrel only to find an announced dud in your player, and then discover that for once you managed to escape this sad mechanism of hope-disappointment! It's an immense satisfaction, and that's exactly what's happening to me this time, with the latest album from that now fifty-something charmer, Marc Almond, which I thought - feared - would be yet another piece of trash, but instead is an unexpected gem.

After a fairly disappointing album (or at least not up to the announced expectations) like "Heart On Snow" (2003) and after some oldies-but-goldies concert rehashed DVDs, and especially after a terrible motorcycle accident that nearly cost him his life in 2004 (coma, vocal and motor rehabilitation, a real tough situation) here's Marc Almond back to himself and to music with this new "Stardom Road", a beautiful cover album (Yes, yes, just like that! Like Bryan Ferry! Go with the covers, because it's YOUR VOICE that does it all!) and one original song ("Redeem Me (Beauty Will Redeem The World)"). The album, as the official site writes, is "a musical journey through covers that have influenced Marc's life and artistic growth - a somewhat diplomatic position given that a little further it's attributed to Marc Almond himself that he listened to hundreds of songs before choosing the ones to sing on this album, but oh well, it's fine like this - and spans many of the genres Marc has been associated with over the years like the 'torch song', '50s crooning, '70s glam, and '80s electropop," but the essential thing is that here - among well-arranged, modern, substantial melodies that are not excessive and have a nice uniform tone, there is once again, assertively and well-used, his unique, inimitable, unmistakable voice, rising and falling, wandering, exploring, revealing and hiding, meowing and exploding, playing among songs that evidently feel his again with a wonderful confidence to hear today - because not only do we find it again after thinking it was artistically lost but especially after risking losing it truly forever on the asphalt of London.

A miracle. A fantastic surprise. To find Marc Almond in such good form, so in control of himself, with songs so well chosen and so engaging - perhaps the only weak moment is "The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men" and the result is debatable on "Strangers In The Night" - brought me back to a lost paradise. This man may not be a genius, perhaps, but a monstrous artist. If you liked him in his golden days and then were disappointed in some off years, grab this CD because it's time to enjoy him again without having to dust off old LPs pulling them down from the shelf, and if you don't know him, this is not just a good but a great opportunity.

The album also features appearances from Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), Jools Holland, and Sarah Cracknell (of St Etienne), but, excuse me, I couldn't care less. The only thing that matters is that these songs ooze Marc Almond in every note.

"I Have Lived"
"I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" (with Sarah Cracknell)
"Bedsitter Images"
"The London Boys"
"Strangers In The Night"
"The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men" (with Antony Hegarty)
"Stardom Road"
"Kitsch"
"Backstage (I'm Lonely)"
"Dream Lover"
"Happy Heart"
"Redeem Me (Beauty Will Redeem The World)"
"The Curtain Falls"