I was quite mean with the music yesterday, with the offer of just 81 seconds worth to listen to.
I’ll make it up for today, with all five tracks taken from the Canadian release, on Vertigo Records, of a 12″ EP by Soft Cell back in 1984:-
mp3: Soft Cell – Soul Inside (11:58)
mp3: Soft Cell – You Only Live Twice (6:59)
mp3: Soft Cell – Hendrix Melody (10:22)
mp3: Soft Cell – Torch (8:29)
mp3: Soft Cell – Her Imagination (4:25)
It all adds up to the best part of 43 minutes…..and apologies if you’re not a Soft Cell fan, but you can skip all this and come back tomorrow for a happy medium.
Soul Inside was the first single taken from the duo’s third studio album, This Last Night In Sodom, and in the UK it reached #16, with it being released, as usual, on the Some Bizarre label. The Canadian EP, which I picked up on a visit a few years ago, differs quite a bit from the UK release in offering up a couple of tracks from olden days; Hendrix Melody, which consists of Hey Joe/Purple Haze/Voodoo Chile, was originally made available in 1983 as one side of a bonus 12″ single with initial copies of the album The Art of Falling Apart, while Torch was a stand-alone single from 1982.
As I previously wrote, back in 2008 when referring to Bedsitter as being one of my all-time favourite singles, I thought Soft Cell were incredible. I loved that the fact that Marc Almond, being far from a classical singer in the true sense of the word, irritated so many folk, as too did his sidekick Dave Ball whose unconventional appearances on the telly seemed to disturb a lot of folk.
And while the parent album is a wee bit on the patchy side, no surprise given it was recorded by the duo knowing it would be their break-up effort, Soul Inside is a fantastic celebration of what the success of the previous four or so years had brought them, an upbeat and joyous anthem of wild celebration which seems to acknowledge that everything, including the downers after the huge highs, really had been worth it.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I bought this import 12″ single at one of the first (if not the first) record mart I went to (along with the US 12″ of It’s A Mug’s Game) and it’s been a treasured item since. I love the extended versions of Soul Inside and Torch, and the 12″ version of You Only Live Twice Is far superior to the single edit. I used to edit the Purple Haze bit of the Hendrix Medley & frequently drop it into cover version mixtapes at the time and Her Imagination is another long-time favourite. The excellent front and back sleeves are also worth a mention, very different from the UK version. I paid£6 for this back in 1989 which to me at the time was a heck of a lot of money for a 12″ single, but I really felt like I’d got an album’s worth of great music and never regretted it.
Overjoyed that a new album from Soft Cell is expected this year.
Also love the care they put into all their 12” singles . Not just an extended drum break but often whole passages with additional lyrics that took the song in a new direction . That and the fact that they also did 12” extended mixes of the b sides meant they are all worth getting. Also there’s a new lp on the way
Thank you! Don’t think I have all those tracks! 😀