Marc Almond - Chaos And A Dancing Star ⅗
It's all about the drama with this one and 24th (Yes! 24th!) album ‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ is no different. Imbued with Almond’s gothy, velvety tones which time has not tempered this album has the feel of the theatrical, but a frayed, aging theater which lends a dusty authentic-ness to the swooning torch songs.
‘Hollywood Forever’ is a great example of this theatricality but not bellowed over the top vocals, Marc restrains his voice and finds the right angle to present this tale of fading glamour and legends. It's lovely and as good as anything he’s done in the past. Elsewhere there are some beautiful balladry to be had. Both ‘The Crow’s Eyes Have Turned Blue’ and ‘Dreaming of Sea’ have a weary beauty stitched into their fabric and with some rather lovely backing vocals on the latter opens the song up to another level.
Even though Almond loves to revel in stories of tragedy and star crossed lovers he finds the time to insert an ecological message on ‘When The Stars Are Gone’, not the most subtle of messages but worthy nonetheless. He’s also managed to wrangle the services of legendary flutist Ian Anderson (Of folk rockers Jethro Tull) on ‘Lord Of Misrule’ which is a camp tale of politicians and their wicked ways.
‘Chaos And A Dancing Star’ can only be described as ‘very Marc Almondy’ which is obviously a good thing, a bit of theater, a touch of camp, a great set of pipes and the weight of a 30 plus year career resulting in one of Marc's best albums in some time.