Marc Almond
Vermin In Ermine

THE REVIEW

A few months after the release of "This Last Night in Sodom," the farewell album by Soft Cell, again in 1984, the various facets of Almond's sensitive personality come into play once more to converge into a new work (originally with 9 tracks, which in later reissues would become 14).

If the opener "Shining Sinner" seems to have escaped from the grooves of the second Soft Cell album - The Art Of Falling Apart - the little devil on the cover is ready to shock his diverse audience with a sequence of tracks ready to surprise both those who followed him for the project with his faithful friend David Ball, and those who loved his incarnation in the Mambas.

"You Have" surprises both types of fans with a turn towards a cheerful and almost carefree rhythm to which Our Man had not accustomed us. The game gets tough, so why not upend the mood of the album with a lulling "Ugly Head" dominated by trumpets that create a sound vortex to amplify the endlessly repeated refrain?

At this point, what's happening? What's going through Almond's mind? The splendid "The Boy Who Came Back," performed with unparalleled pathos, gives us the first real glimpse of what the future Marc Almond will be like on upcoming records. In this track as well, the trumpet plays a fundamental role, as if marking a new stylistic path, also developed by the experimentation of the subsequent "Solo Adultos" - one wonders if Douglas P. of Death In June took these lessons to heart for the splendid albums that would soon see the light of day -.

And then finally, the masterpiece, one of Almond's most beautiful songs ever: "Tenderness Is a Weakness." The majesty and romance of this track alone are worth the entire work.

Oh yes, the little devil on the cover has played a trick on us, but what a great gift he has given us!

A must-have!