Before Soft Cell called it a day ( the first time ) and Marc Almond went off to explore Brel, duende and flamenco stylings. One of their last hurrahs was a single Soul Inside. It was more of an EP really as it has a number of tracks on it. Two in particular have become favourites.
The first is a late sixties classic Bond theme song written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. The latter a lyricist who wrote songs for Broadway, Hollywood and two Bond songs, this and Goldfinger. Here Almond really relishes the song, as it gives his vocal prowess something to get its teeth into. What he brings to it is a sense for the pathos in the song. Highlighting the desperation and pain in its lyrical subject matter of failed dreams, as he repeatedly sings - make one dream come true. Dave Ball's electronic rearrangement maintains a lot of Barry's grandness and sweep but there is an added aspect of melancholy, a romantic brokenness here. Its written in the lyrics, but easily overlooked in John Barry's original heroically orchestrated theme.
'You only live twice, or so it seems, one life for yourself and one for your dreams. You drift through the years and life seems tame when one dream appears and love is its name. And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on, don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone. This dream is for you so pay the price, make one dream come true, make one dream come true, You only live twice'
The second song is one Almond and Ball composed. It feels like a much sadder accompaniment to You Only Live Twice, as its about someone who can only dream. The song called Her Imagination, at first appears to be your archetypal Almond song about an isolated person society has rejected. A woman forced to live on the seedier fringes of society, because there is the only place where she can be who she wants to be. Here she can dream the life she wants. In the song, her imagination lives in a more Dickensian, almost gothic lifestyle, with a sense of a past tragedy living on, like Miss Haversham. Everyone in her neighborhood knows what her secret is, but you live and let live don't you?
'She slips in and out of her dull imagination, that floats around the twilight of her tomb, clutching her little treasures, that represent a happy moment, displayed with sad affection in her room.'
'Now its those futile bitter feelings, that clutch you in the middle, you were never really given a chance. And the spite that jabs your mind, hides a heart that's really women kind, and the pulse that races with, each over inquisitive glance.'
The feelings present are placed within a bleakly atmospheric style, with a strong sense for her loneliness and predicament. You have to remember that this is 1984, where being gay might be legal, yet was still barely acceptable. Anything else on the gender - sexual orientation spectrum hardly registered at all. Soft Cell, were unique at that time for being willing to write songs about outsiders, living within our society but not part of it. People few wanted then to acknowledge had any right to exist at all.
'Candle light, candle bright, wont you light my way tonight.'
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