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Rating:
Gather a handful of dark and new wavers under the guidance of a singer with a highly sensitive personality and a unique voice...
season the whole with the opportunity to express whatever comes to mind, giving free rein to creativity without any pressure from the record label and... let's turn the clock back 30 years...
we will get one of the most beautiful albums in the history of music: "Torment and Toreros" by Marc and The Mambas.
The Soft Cell experience for Marc Almond was almost over, but Stevo's Some Bizzare still believed in Him, despite a first album with the Mambas collective "Untitled" with little commercial appeal (and meager sales).
An inspired Marc Almond, in the midst of creative fervor despite reaching the lowest point of his drug dependency (including heroin), creates a double album with the most diverse traveling companions including Foetus, McCarrick (Siouxie and The Banshees), Matt Jhonson (The The) and his faithful companions Annie Hogan and McGee (first Willing Sinner, then La Magia, always with Almond). Everyone is free to come and go as they please from the recording sessions; no compromise to regulate the creative process.
the result? True milestones. From the splendid "Boss Cat" in which we hear Almond simulate cats' meowing inside a musically impeccable refrain that makes the nerves vibrate, to the Brel cover "The Bulls" where the sound of the violin and piano is broken by the olé of a phantom crowd watching the bullfighting show.
The decadent "In My Room" lifts the curtain on the album's most intimate and dark side, exploding in the elegance of pearls such as "First Time" (a song about the loss of innocence), "(Your Love is a) Lesion" and the decadent "My Former Self".
One cannot and should not remain indifferent in front of masterpieces like the sobbing "Black Heart" supported by an organ that entertains chasing the sound of a liquid guitar, and the immense "Torment" written by Almond along with... believe it or not... Steve Severin and Robert Smith (Glove period) - the credits of "Torment" are not on the record but it's Almond himself who reveals how things went in his splendid autobiography "Tainted Life".
And if all this isn't enough to convince any potential detractors, know that one of the best songs in the whole lot is "Your Aura", nothing less than a b-side of the single "Torment". One of the most original and perfect songs I have ever had the pleasure and honor to listen to.
At the time, it was commercial suicide to release such a particular double album. This decreed the premature end of the Mambas.
To acquire this double cd gem, I had to apply myself assiduously in meticulous and persistent research.
I was lucky enough to find a used copy, in perfect condition, of the 2009 Some Bizzare reissue, remastered and containing all the indispensable b-sides.
Unfortunately, the album has been reissued a few times, in limited copies, which sold out immediately, and those who own it are reluctant to part with it (just look at the sale prices).
But start searching, now... This is not a record to save... it is THE RECORD.
Tracklist
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