Soft Cell release final album Danceteria after David Ball's death
Soft Cell have released Danceteria, their sixth and final album, about 11 months after the death of instrumentalist David Ball.
The 14-song album was out on Friday, Sept. 25, Billboard reported. Singer Marc Almond described the release as "bittersweet". He was 66 when he died.
Almond told Billboard he had spoken with Ball two days before his death. Both men said they were pleased with the album. Recording had started almost two years before release and had first been planned for the spring.
Ball had spent much of his later time in a motorised chair after a fall in which he broke his back. The band's website describes Danceteria as a tribute to Ball and as one of the last bodies of work he co-wrote and produced before he died.
The album closes with a remake of Was (Not Was)'s "Out Come the Freaks" recorded with Nona Hendryx. Almond had previewed three songs from the record, including the title track, on the summer Generations Tour with the Human League and Alison Moyet.
Soft Cell began in 1979 in Leeds, when Almond and Ball were students at Leeds Polytechnic, now Leeds Beckett University. They borrowed money from Ball's mother to press Mutant Moments, a limited-edition EP, a short record with only a few tracks.
Their cover of Gloria Jones's 1965 single "Tainted Love" reached No. 1 in 17 countries. It peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and spent 43 weeks on that chart, a run that held a Guinness World Record.
The duo released three albums before splitting in 1984. They reunited from 2000 to 2005 and again from 2018 until Ball's death.
The title has drawn attention elsewhere. Soft Cell's title track arrived one month before the release of a same-named song by Madonna, The New York Times reported, with both songs saluting Danceteria. Madonna has also joined with Charli XCX for a new song titled "Danceteria Afterhours", Pitchfork reported. That announcement came in the weekend Madonna was scheduled to open the VMAs.
What makes this stand out is the timing. For fans, this is both a new record to carry home and a farewell made without one of its makers.
