The legendary band Soft Cell - frontman Marc Almond and one of the fathers of British techno Dave Ball - will soon return with their fifth studio album *Happiness Not Included, which will be released in the spring of 2022 under a new contract with the record company BMG. The album is their first since 2002's "Cruelty Without Beauty". A new single, Soft Cell, will be released in the autumn, and in November, the duet will play several shows in the UK.
"*Happiness Not Included," reveals all the things that fans have adored Soft Cell from the start: it's a distinctive and striking balance between light and shadow, hope and despair, personal and public. Purple Zone's passionate airy pop that contrasts with Almond's inspiring sound and dark doomed lyrics, while Light Sleepers drifts with a dreamy elegance that fits the track's theme exactly. "Bruises On My Illusions" is punchier and sharper, its baroque-tinged synthetic energy enhanced by theatrical vocal harmonies, while the sheer grandeur of "New Eden" closes out on an appropriately cinematic note.
“In this album, I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we put profit over people, money over morality and decency, food over animal rights, fanaticism over justice, and our own trivial conveniences over other people's pain. But the album also has a belief that there is a utopia if we can separate the layers and understand what really matters. - Mark Almond