Marc Almond - The End Of New York FLAC album

Mr. Almond really goes for it all this year. We’ ve had Soft Cell, Stranger Things, various collaborations (even leading to an appearance at the Grand Prix de la Eurovision) and there’s even talk of a Soft Cell CD and more in the can. Now here’s a spotlight on his writings.....

The End Of New York is a selection of poems, prose and lyrics dating back until 1981 centering around his impressions of NYC. Nearly all of them have seen the light of the day in his previous collections ”The Angel Of Death In The Adonis Lounge” (GMP, 1988 out of print) and
”Beautiful Twisted Night” (Ellipsis, 1999) or on various recordings with the two exceptions of ”Cats” and ”Show World Girl”.
So at 1st sigh(t) there’s not too much excitement coupled with this re-thought edition, but the included CD with him reading most of the selections and the illustrations - or should I say photo works - of Scott Ewalt should have made it a decent item for his followers and those new to his writings
.
The works of S. Ewalt are actually better than the cover implies, based somewhere beetween Otto Dix and Pierre et Gilles in a very American kitsch style. Also featured are some b/w shots of NY maybe by Marc A. himself which remain uncredited.
The selection itself is no point of criticism; powerful and emotional writings with colorful images of his favorite subculture in his own style serious attempts to push further in any directions.

But : for the price of $23 / 15 P.St. one could have expected a little more care with this Publication.
The CD contains a Reading of ”The Puerto Rican Go Go Boy” which can`t be found in print, also the Illustration is featured and to top it off it`s indicated as ”The Lonely Go Go Dancer” which is - vice versa - not read.
Another illustration,starring Marc as a devil, remains uncredited and some details just pass by unmentioned, titles have been shortened or altered and earlier comments like dedications or when and where written just disappeared without notice.
Another question raising is : why did`nt he read all of the selections - only most? In 27 minutes he managed to read down ¾ of the texts, so there ’d even be some time left to feature a few seconds pause between the selections as the strength of the lyrics does suffer through the haste you find yourself in while listening.
So this CD-sized package leaves me a bit disappointed, the two unpublished pieces don ’t add very much new or different to the whole picture and even the reading itself sounds partially like he had not found very much time for recording it in his undoubted busy schedule.
It seems like Ellipsis where just to eager for a follow up to “Tainted Life” and so it go go‘s.....

[Reviewed for The Brain in 2001].