{"id":10368,"date":"2024-01-19T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=10368"},"modified":"2024-03-05T17:43:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T17:43:26","slug":"marc-almond-goes-back-to-his-roots-with-debut-album-by-garage-band-the-loveless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=10368","title":{"rendered":"Marc Almond goes back to his roots with debut album by garage band The Loveless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALBUM REVIEW: The Loveless – Meet The Loveless (Cadiz Music)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

With more than 30 million album sales to his name, Marc Almond is at the stage of his career where he can damned well do what he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he wants right now is to revisit the roots of his lifelong love affair with music by releasing a new album with his garage rock band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almond – best known as the voice of ’80s synth-pop duo Soft Cell – formed The Loveless with his long-term guitarist\/sideman Neal X (formerly of Sigue Sigue Sputnik) back in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair recruited punk icon Iggy Pop’s rhythm section, Ben Ellis (bass) and Mat Hector (drums), plus keyboard player James Beaumont, and this is a compilation of their two self-released albums from 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing material from Almond’s back catalogue, it also pays dues to influences like T. Rex, Iggy, Alice Cooper and David Bowie, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Marc Almond. Pic by Etienne Gilfillan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s a delicious slice of ’60s R&B and garage mixed with ’70s rock, and Almond’s voice sounds as good as ever at the ripe old age of 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things kick off with Wild In The Streets<\/em>, an Almond\/X original which comes tearing out of the speakers like a hurricane. It’s followed by a cover of The Yardbirds’ Putty In Your Hands<\/em>, so faithful it sounds like their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the highlights is Pills<\/em>, featuring original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock. It’s a harmonica-soaked version of the 1961 Bo Diddley classic, with a deliciously sleazy riff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moody I’m Not Like Everybody Else<\/em> sounds like an Almond composition from his solo years, and if it sounds familiar that’s because it was written by Ray Davies and was the B-side of the Kinks smash hit Sunny Afternoon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a couple of songs I’d not heard before: Take A Heart<\/em> was first released by the Boys Blue in 1965, with the best known version by mods The Sorrows, while Dark Side<\/em>, a slower number showcasing Almond’s velvet-like croon, was first released by US garage rockers The Shadows of Knight (who covered Them’s Gloria<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s another Almond\/X original in Nothing At All<\/em>, which sounds like the Rolling Stones, while Hot Hard & Ready<\/em> by LA’s leather-clad underground queer rockers Smokey finds Almond in delightfully sleazy mode as he sings “I’ve got a ton of steel between my legs and I’m hot hard and ready.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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