Leeds, UK · synth-pop

Soft Cell

1 upcoming festival

Marc Almond's cabaret melodrama over Dave Ball's synths — sleaze and heartbreak in equal parts, 'Tainted Love' eternal.

Soft Cell are an English synth-pop duo of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist Dave Ball, who met as students in Leeds and began recording at the start of the 1980s. Their sound paired minimal, often stark electronics with Almond's dramatic, cabaret-influenced singing, and their lyrics dwelt on nightlife, obsession, sleaze and disappointment.

Their version of Gloria Jones's 'Tainted Love' became an international hit and remains the song most associated with them, though the surrounding album 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret' is what established their reputation. The duo split in the mid-1980s, with Almond continuing as a solo artist and Ball working in electronic music, and later reunited to record and perform again.

synth-pop