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6 Degrees Entertainment

Title - The Things We Lost: A 65th Birthday 3CD
Artist - Marc Almond

As the centerpiece of his 65th birthday celebrations, Marc Almond has reconvened with award winning record producer Chris Braide (Sia, Hans Zimmer, Lana Del Ray, Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj) to create a concise and unforgettable suite of six ultra vivid story-telling songs for an all new mini-album Things We Lost.

This audio gem is expanded on a 3CD set with the additional inclusion of the audio from the exclusive and acclaimed live concert performed at the Royal Festival Hall in 2020 with Chris Braide and featuring Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull); a celebration, too, of the wider Marc Almond and Chris Braide songwriting partnership.

The bonus 2-disc concert, ‘Chaos And More’ includes live versions of all the tracks from their recent collaboration, ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ album from 2020, as well as six tracks from their first collaboration in 2015, ‘The Velvet Trail’ album.

Disc One is the ‘Things We Lost’ studio mini-album which contains the highly emotive song ‘Dead Stars’, a tour de force lyrical evocation of the legendary status famous stars can attain once deceased. Just as deftly drawn is the songwriting genius of ‘Wolf (Modern Life)’ which distills an almost psychotic projection of self as prey to the enveloping forces of darkness.

Evocative and emotive reflections on ageing and the passing of time; eulogies to the loss of lives fully lived are both omnipresent in the reflective power of the songs ‘A Flowered Goodbye’ and the searing title track.

Feel good album opener, ‘Golden Light’, seems like a ‘feel good’, upbeat paean to love and joy. Seemingly, it elucidates a worthy aspiration to a carefree existence in the all too often elusive sunny uplands of happiness and lovers’ togetherness… but then again, with deft mastery of the contrarian lyrical form, Marc Almond plants the idea that, perhaps, the ‘Golden Light’ isn’t any of these things! ‘Siren’ continues the theme of the title track of Marc’s first collaborative album with Chris Braide, ‘The Velvet Trail’ (2015).

CD 1: Things We Lost:
1. A Golden Light
2. Dead Stars
3. Wolf (Modern Life)
4. Siren
5. A Flowered Goodbye
6. Things We Lost

The veritably shimmering A Golden Light opens the EP and is backed by the free flowing, mid-tempo balladry of Dead Stars, and then comes the low key Wolf (Modern Life), before we are brought forth the simply divine Siren, the recording rounding out on the cinematic scope within A Flowered Goodbye, closing on the beautifully synth-imbued Things We Lost.

Discs Two and Three contain the ‘Chaos & More’ 37 song live set which also includes some of Chris Braide’s best known compositions. ‘Unstoppable’ (Sia) and ‘Kill And Run’ (for the film The Great Gatsby), an emotive stripped back piano and voice suite of cult songs from the Marc Almond and Soft Cell back catalogues as well cover versions paying tribute to Marc Almond and Chris Braide’s unifying love of Marc Bolan on ‘Children Of The Revolution’ and ‘Change’.

CD 2: Chaos & More (Part One) / Marc Almond & Chris Braide / Live At The Royal Festival Hall, 2020:
1. Intro
2. Black Sunrise
3. When The Stars Are Gone
4. Dust
5. Dreaming Of Sea
6. Hollywood Forever
7. Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
8. Cherry Tree
9. Chaos
0. Fighting A War
11. Giallo
12. Lord Of Misrule [featuring Ian Anderson]*
13. Witch’s Promise [featuring Ian Anderson]*
14. Bedsitter [featuring Ian Anderson]*
15. Slow Burn Love
16. The Crow’s Eyes Have Turned Blue

This magnificent ‘Chaos & More’ 37 song live set is literally chock full of incredible hits, beloved album tracks and personal favorite covers, and its almost crystalline sound is a massive tribute to everyone associated with the recording process.

Once the synth Intro has bled into the reaching Black Sunrise, the heartfelt When The Stars Are Gone, and the storytelling within Dust, tracks such as the delicately ornate Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the euphorically-charged Cherry Tree are highlights, before we then get a trio of tracks that include Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson on flute; the highlight for me being the perky, free flowing majesties found within Witch’s Promise.

CD 3: Chaos & More (Part Two) / Marc Almond & Chris Braide / Live At The Royal Festival Hall, 2020:
1. Flames
2. Skin Deep
3. The Pain Of Never
4. Scar
5. Kill And Run [Chris Braide solo vocal]**
6. Unstoppable [Chris Braide solo vocal]**
7. Torch
8. Black Heart
9. Little Rough Rhinestone
10. Flowered Goodbye
11. Winter Sun
12. Change
13. Where The Heart Is
14. Embers
15. Minotaur
16. Zipped Black Leather Jacket
17. A Kind Of Love
18. Dandy In The Underworld
19. Children Of The Revolution
20. Tainted Love [featuring Ian Anderson]*
21. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye [featuring Ian Anderson]*

The second half of the recording opens on the gentle pop hipsway of Flames (It got to number five, but it’s really a number one record, Almond jokes), before bringing us the sweeping, languishing beauty found within Skin Deep and the heartfelt sentiment of The Pain Of Never, and then later we get the Chris Braide sung duo of Kill And Run and Unstoppable.

Along a bit and we then get treated to the delicately fluttering Little Rough Rhinestone, the gentle rock of Zipped Black Leather Jacket, and the recording rounds out on two Marc Bolan classics (Dandy In The Underworld and a gripping Children Of The Revolution), closing on an absolutely mesmeric Tainted Love and a gorgeous flashback to an easier time within Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (both featuring Ian Anderson).

Official 3CD Purchase Link

www.cherryred.co.uk

www.marcalmond.co.uk





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