Albums to watch

*Happiness Not

Soft Cell

*Happiness Not

First full-length studio album in twenty years from the synth-pop duo Marc Almond David Ball includes a song collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys

ADM rating[?]

7.1

Label
BMG Rights Management
UK Release date
06/05/2022
US Release date
06/05/2022
  1. 9.0 |   God Is In The TV

    That these guys – with Almond’s life-threatening motorbike crash and Ball’s lung disease (and recent cracked vertebrae) – are still making music at all is remarkable; that they’re making music as fresh, inspired, angry, sexy, innovative and downright wonderful as this is nothing short of a miracle
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  2. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Marc Almond's slightly-too sharp voice and Dave Ball's compendium of antique synth tricks are once again a perfect pop match. Print edition only

  3. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Two decades after their last album, the band return with a wryly hopeful record – and some trademark electro bangers
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  4. 8.0 |   Uncut

    While these dozen faithfully and fabulously Soft Cell-ish songs do not stint on paranoid foreboding, they are buoyed by an undimmed pop instinct and Almond’s waspish wit. Print edition only

  5. 8.0 |   The Arts Desk

    The title track gives a pretty accurate summation of the state of our lives today
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  6. 7.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Synth legends Soft Cell serve up darkness you can dance to (again) on Happiness Not Included
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  7. 6.0 |   The FT

    The estranged 1980s synth-pop duo of Marc Almond and Dave Ball reunite for another album
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  8. 6.0 |   The Independent

    After “bowing out” with a string of farewell shows in 2018, Soft Cell have returned to a landscape that’s almost certainly worse than when they left it
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  9. 5.0 |   musicOMH

    They’ve had their day doing one thing, they now need to do another, and while further albums are even less likely than this one, Happiness Not Included feels like something of a missed opportunity
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