Marc Almond - Stardom Road

Covers album in ‘not bad’ shock!

There are usually only two reasons for artists to record an album of covers: they’ve had loads of original hits of their own, or they’re so famous they can do what they want and the public will lap it up. Neither applies in Marc Almond’s case, which should be a recipe for doom, but isn’t, because the chosen material is perfect for his torchsong style and because it’s been produced with huge, clashing, overthe- top brashness.

Stardom Road won’t be for everyone – it’s possibly the campest album ever released, for one thing – but if you have a soft spot for Almond’s wavery, sibilant wails and extravagant arrangements, it’ll work for you. The opener, an upbeat, almost orchestral take on Charles Aznavour’s I Have Lived (a truism in this case) is the obvious high point. Almond gives it serious lungs, with tons more energy than you’d expect from a man who almost died on a motorbike three years ago. Like all his recent work, there’s an autobiographical streak running throughout (a take on Bowie’s London Boys recalls Almond’s own troubled teens). There’s also a certain awareness of the cult of Almond, encapsulated in guest spots by Antony & The Johnsons’ Antony Hegarty (Ballad Of The Sad Young Men) and St Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell (Dusty Springfield’s I Close My Eyes & Count To Ten).

The results are entertaining rather than cutting-edge, for sure. Coming from a singer who has survived a near-fatal accident, decades in a pretty narrow musical niche and (worst of all) the onset of age (Almond turns 50 as you read this), that’s not bad at all.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Sanctuary | cat no tbc

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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