Customer Reviews

The Very Best of Soft Cell

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great to hear all these tracks again now that they've been fully remastered. The sound is much improved but, I only wish they had included the tracks from their very first single "Mutant Moments".

I'm not a big fan of remixes of old records.
But, an exception must be made for the (Electronic Drum & Bass-styled) 2XS remix of "Tainted Love". Which somehow manages to update but, not spoil the original magic. Whereas Marilyn Manson's take on the song is slow. This version is faster than the original! I read in a Dave Ball interview that they personally asked them to remix this and loved the results. Always nice to know whether the artist approves i think. Buy without doubt.

The early 1980s saw the emergence of the synth duo in the form of Yazoo, OMD, Eurythmics and Soft Cell amongst others, following in the footsteps of the 1970s synth pioneers like Kraftwerk, Suicide, Gary Numan and Daniel Miller's The Normal. Yazoo had soulful vocals, OMD made spacey, almost classical music, Eurythmics changed their approach with every album and Soft Cell had a certain air of dramatic decadence. (It's not hard to picture Marc Almond as a latterday Joel Grey in a 1980s synth cabaret). This superb collection of melodic songs includes two versions of their stunning hits Tainted Love and Say Hello Wave Goodbye. My other favourites are the catchy What?, Memorabilia and their lovely interpretation of Where Did Our Love Go? Marc Almond's voice doesn't have the widest range but the interplay between the vocals and the synths are always innovative. This hits collection is consistently enjoyable while some of their individual albums had lots of filler material, so this is truly the best and a fantastic listening experience.

This album is so different and can't be compared to anything by any artist. It makes you wanna dance and sing. It's a mug's game makes you wanna groove with it's bass and drums. You'll feel like you were dancing on broadway while you were listening to Down in the Subway. You would be singing to Tainted Love. This album is great. I bought it and haven't been able to stop listening to it. The only thing I don't like is how they seperated Tainted Love and Where did our love go? That should be one song but the rest is great!

Soft Cell is easily the best band of the 80s, and Marc Almond is quite possibly the best performer of the 90s. And hey, with the recent reuniting of the band, Soft Cell may go on to be the best band of the 21st century.

Ranging from synth-pop to dark jazz, every song touches a deep mark of sadness, and each song, along with the entire compilation....
...is fabulous.

How can it be "the very best of" without FRUSTRATION? It's the first song on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret for a reason. It's a fantastic track, and it should be on this CD.

This compilation is perfectly representative of Soft Cell inasmuch as it includes four songs from Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, three songs from Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing, four songs from The Art of Falling Apart, two from This Last Night in Sodom, and the Torch/Insecure Me single. The remaining four songs could have and probably should have been left off -- this would have become a tight and delectable package.

Although the songs have purportedly been remastered, they lack the volume that most if not all remasters have. This is a serious shortcoming in this day and age of shuffle play on MP3 players and the like. Indeed, this might as well be a 1980s era CD, which as most who have them in their collection know, were mastered at lower volumes than albums over the past 15 years or so.

Finally, the vocal track on Loving You, Hating Me has either been re-done or is an alternate take. This is truly a shame. It's most obvious on the second verse -- on the original cut from The Art of Falling Apart, Almond shifts up an octave, doubling down on the emotional intensity of the song and sending a shiver up the spine. Here, he stays an octave down -- and the song remains flat. Given that Almond's voice is the necessary focus of any Soft Cell song, the difference comes as a big disappointment to those who have the original vocal track firmly implanted in their memories. Still, it's not as bad as the atrocious "Memorabilia: The Singles" package from 1991, which contained "new" versions of a number of songs in place of the originals.

I had completely forgotten about this CD. Track 6, "Sex Dwarf" is the most manic
Soft Cell song ever. Multi-layered with so much energy. ['Martin' is a close second!]
In 1978 Martin Ball & Marc Almond formed Soft Cell whilst at Leeds Polytechnic.
[now called VoTech's or Universities]. They made an album called Mutant Moments.
The vinyl version is now highly prized amongst collectors of Soft Cell music.
Do not hesitate to buy if you happen to find one down a dusty street somewhere.

If you ever hear David Ball playing solo piano,you will understand why he was so
proficient on the synthezizers. Marc was the master of the tongue in cheek lyrics,
and wowed most people up on the stage with his leather and lace.This compilation is
sexy, homegrown British pop at it's best.[You can read all about Marc & David eleswhere.]
I'm just happy to own this CD."Memorabilia",is one of the best songs...Torremolinos,
[a vacation place in Spain..popular with Brits.] Try the Sol Aloha Puerto Hotel.At
check in, ask for a Soft Cell admiration discount. Any trouble from the management
should be directed to Marc.

Don't you just "love this life"? As for 'Sex Dwarf' the mixing of the syntheziers makes
it manic. The words lag behind, but such lines as "dumb chauffeur" are true Marc Almond.

I despised Tainted Love but always loved Mug's Game and Sex Dwarf so for me it's worth the price of admission.

Soft Cell encapsulated the early 80s new wave/synth pop phenomenon, a music form that took the world by storm with the 'British invasions'.
Best known of the songs here are the feel-good unforgettable beat of Tainted Love.

Favourites include Tainted Love, the heady beat of Where Did Our Love Go? the deliciously meandering Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, and the plainitve Memorabilia.
Also notable here are a lot of songs about the darker side of life, things like Drugs (Bedsitter), kinky sex (Sex Dwarf), murder, which made Soft Call popular on the Goth Scene.

This is really a good cd but I'm disappointed that tainted love and where did our love go are not mixed together as played on the radio. It may seam like a small complaint to some, but that was my main reason for buying this cd.