The Cell (2000)

Digitally remastered 1998 reissue of their second release, 1982's six track remix mini-LP "Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing". Contains new cover art, new liner notes, all of the original tracks & six bonus tracks: extended versions of "Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go", "Memorabilia", "What!", "So", "Torch" and "Insecure Me".
Best known for their smash 1981 cover of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love," which turned the pop-soul tune into a haunting electronic torch song, synth pop duo Soft Cell formed in England in the late '70s. Also remembered as the first project of singer/songwriter Marc Almond, he and producer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Ball released four U.K. Top 20 albums together between 1981 and 1984 before pursuing separate music careers. Soft Cell eventually reunited in the early 2000s, releasing Cruelty Without Beauty in 2002, which produced a Top 40 U.K. hit in "The Night." The duo performed a farewell show at London's O2 Arena in 2018.

Although they released three full albums, a number of EPs and a seemingly endless stream of compilations, Soft Cell will always and forever be known as "the duo who did 'Tainted Love'." This obscure R&B single, given a techno-trash workover by singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball, was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has been revived endlessly ever since its 1981 release.

Although they released three full albums, a number of EPs and a seemingly endless stream of compilations, Soft Cell will always and forever be known as "the duo who did 'Tainted Love'." This obscure R&B single, given a techno-trash workover by singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball, was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has been revived endlessly ever since its 1981 release.

For those whose exposure to Soft Cell has been limited to the glorious and inescapable "Tainted Love," the duo's 1984 swan song This Last Night in Sodom should feature a warning sticker. Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball don't attempt to recapture the Top 40 magic of that hit here. Instead, Almond completes his transformation into an electro-pop Scott Walker, operatically singing self-conscious and jaded songs like "Mr. Self-Destruct," "Little Rough Rhinestone," and "Meet Murder My Angel," while Ball's keyboards explore an icy, nearly Germanic abstraction (in the Kraftwerk/Neu! sense). Anyone intrigued by the prospect of faux-decadent torch songs in the Piaf/Brel tradition should be interested in this electronic hybrid of the style, but if you're looking for "Tainted Love, Pt. 2," it isn't here.

For those whose exposure to Soft Cell has been limited to the glorious and inescapable "Tainted Love," the duo's 1984 swan song This Last Night in Sodom should feature a warning sticker. Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball don't attempt to recapture the Top 40 magic of that hit here. Instead, Almond completes his transformation into an electro-pop Scott Walker, operatically singing self-conscious and jaded songs like "Mr. Self-Destruct," "Little Rough Rhinestone," and "Meet Murder My Angel," while Ball's keyboards explore an icy, nearly Germanic abstraction (in the Kraftwerk/Neu! sense). Anyone intrigued by the prospect of faux-decadent torch songs in the Piaf/Brel tradition should be interested in this electronic hybrid of the style, but if you're looking for "Tainted Love, Pt. 2," it isn't here.

Although they released three full albums, a number of EPs and a seemingly endless stream of compilations, Soft Cell will always and forever be known as "the duo who did 'Tainted Love'." This obscure R&B single, given a techno-trash workover by singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball, was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has been revived endlessly ever since its 1981 release.

For those whose exposure to Soft Cell has been limited to the glorious and inescapable "Tainted Love," the duo's 1984 swan song This Last Night in Sodom should feature a warning sticker. Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball don't attempt to recapture the Top 40 magic of that hit here. Instead, Almond completes his transformation into an electro-pop Scott Walker, operatically singing self-conscious and jaded songs like "Mr. Self-Destruct," "Little Rough Rhinestone," and "Meet Murder My Angel," while Ball's keyboards explore an icy, nearly Germanic abstraction (in the Kraftwerk/Neu! sense). Anyone intrigued by the prospect of faux-decadent torch songs in the Piaf/Brel tradition should be interested in this electronic hybrid of the style, but if you're looking for "Tainted Love, Pt. 2," it isn't here.

For those whose exposure to Soft Cell has been limited to the glorious and inescapable "Tainted Love," the duo's 1984 swan song This Last Night in Sodom should feature a warning sticker. Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball don't attempt to recapture the Top 40 magic of that hit here. Instead, Almond completes his transformation into an electro-pop Scott Walker, operatically singing self-conscious and jaded songs like "Mr. Self-Destruct," "Little Rough Rhinestone," and "Meet Murder My Angel," while Ball's keyboards explore an icy, nearly Germanic abstraction (in the Kraftwerk/Neu! sense). Anyone intrigued by the prospect of faux-decadent torch songs in the Piaf/Brel tradition should be interested in this electronic hybrid of the style, but if you're looking for "Tainted Love, Pt. 2," it isn't here.

Although they released three full albums, a number of EPs and a seemingly endless stream of compilations, Soft Cell will always and forever be known as "the duo who did 'Tainted Love'." This obscure R&B single, given a techno-trash workover by singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball, was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has been revived endlessly ever since its 1981 release.