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Released: 14/10/2023 Limited to 4000 copies |
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Featuring the actual Trevor Horn produced Tenement Symphony sequence restored as was his original intention with the dramatic statement of the orchestral ‘Prelude’ as a precursor to the intoxicating energy of lead hit single, ‘Jacky’, as written by Jacques Brel.
Tenement Symphony was an attempt, at the time, to make the definitive Marc Almond album as masterminded by Warner Music UK’s then chairman Rob Dickins. The effect of the album was meant to be like looking through the windows of different rooms in a tenement building and hearing a bouquet of narrative songs about disparate characters residing therein. It saw the first post-breakup rekindling of the songwriting partnership with Soft Cell’s Dave Ball (with The Grid’s Richard Norris) on the three techno-torch tracks ‘Meet Me In My Dream’, ‘I’ve Never Seen Your Face’ and UK hit ‘My Hand Over My Heart’. It was an album that also featured three co- writes with Marc’s long-standing collaborator and arranger Billy McGee (Marc and The Mambas, The Willing Sinners) on the emotionally charged tracks ‘Vaudeville and Burlesque’, ‘Beautiful Brutal Thing’ and ‘Champagne’.
LP - In this re-sequencing of the album, to enable optimal mastering, ‘Champagne’ now opens the predominantly ‘bonus tracks’ second disc, the other songs were B-sides to the album’s three hit singles, ‘Jacky’ (UK#17), My Hand Over My Heart’ (UK#33) and ‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’ (UK#4). Many of these B-sides feature such stellar songwriting that they could have easily created a double album back in the day to showcase all the contemporaneous involved talents of Trevor Horn, The Grid, John Coxon and Billy McGee. This special double, coloured vinyl edition for fans provides a glimpse into how such a release might actually have panned out.
2CD - First ever expanded edition of Marc Almond’s landmark seventh studio album. Originally released in 1991 Tenement Symphony, a collaboration with Trevor Horn yielded no less than three Top 40 UK hits. With a second bonus CD of remixes, extended versions, lesser heard 7” variants of the album’s singles including Marc’s joyous cover version of Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’, a previously unheard John Coxon 12” mix of ‘My Hand Over My Heart’ and the 7” edit of the shelved fourth single from the album, ‘What Is Love?’. Plus a 32-page booklet full of lyrics, photos and listening notes.
6CD/DVD - Same as 2CD set plus exclusive to this boxed edition are four unique CDs adding to a total 76 audio tracks, 34 of them never previously having been commercially released. Plus a DVD that showcases all three promo videos and Marc Almond’s five contemporaneous BBC TV appearances.