Cruelty Without Beauty

by

Soft Cell

Edit

Cruelty Without Beauty is a fun album that proves "old guys" can still perform with the best of the current crop and even better in many cases. While none of the songs are as sinister as old Soft Cell works (something I kind of lament), there remains a pop sensibility and lyrical and musical craftsmanship that is absent from nearly everything else in dance and techno anymore. Dave Ball has always been an expert at the synthesizer, and Marc Almond's lyrics are often entertainingly sleazy (although sometimes his refined voice makes me long for the days of his more urgent untrained/pitch-poor-yet-striking vocals). A few of the disc's 12 tracks are spotty ("Sensation Nation" being one of the most irritating songs, musically and lyrically, I've heard in yonks), but far more of the songs are well-done, and a few of them are simply amazing ("Le Grand Guignol" strikes me as the duo's best track--a vivid, sleazy updating of the original Soft Cell sound; and "Desperate," which mixes dancy rythms and last-legs-Vegas wah-wah into a breathtaking portrait of neediness). "Darker Times" gets the album off to a great start, mixing tinkling bells with club beats. "Monoculture," "The Night," "Together Alone," "All Out of Love," and "On an Up" all offer great listening. Will it gain any airplay? Probably not. Will it go unnoticed? Perhaps. But that would be too bad, as these boys can teach the current chart-squaters a lot.