I always thought there was something epic about the period from 1975 to 1984 in England: no Oasis or Travis in sight, many excellent bands playing very different kind of music and a popstar like Soft Cell’s Marc Almond proudly trying to reinvent himself after the megasuccess of Tainted Love. His career has always been, say, erratic: but this album was the move that almost destroyed him. It was the kind of choice that could be made only on those savage times, when the same singer who sang on Top of the Pops could befriended the naughty boys of Psychic TV. With Torment and Toreros Almond decided to take his artistic freedom completely and moved from the relative straightforward electropop of Soft Cell to new, uncharted territory, trusting only on his own abilities: the recording sessions were long and complicated, the album was filled with (too) many songs, all incessantly swinging about death, dirty love and lost innocence. After its difficult completion, the double lp flopped miserably, the press hated it and Almond escaped in Morocco, just wishing to disappear from the face of the Earth (and probably wondering why he had done it). And, to speak frankly, Torment has many weak sides: it’s too long (more than 90 minutes!), its poetry sometimes is just embarassing and the recording quality itself is amateurish. But, if it is a failure, it is also the case of a gigantic, heroic failure, a bold attempt to express everything in an handful of songs. Torment unveils perfectly the entire Almond’s world, his campy, sleazy, moving take on life. Catch A Fallen Star, for example, is an obscene paen to the losers: Marc sings with histerical anger, but his acrimonious words are underlined by a beautiful string section — the contrast is striking. Black Heart is based on a fake harpsychord phrase and is heavily Spanish-influenced: but it’s a postcard-like Spain, and this dilettante attitude turns the song in something different — little punks on speed trying to play flamenco. The Bulls is an excellent cover of the Brel’s song, and equally good it’s the reprise of Peter Hammill’s Vision (Almond always pays joyously tribute to his maestros). So anyone who likes Scott Walker will be moved by the sweet coldness of Your Love Is A Lesion. A Million Manias and My Little Book Of Sorrows, instead, are the missing link between spidery David Bowie and early Nick Cave; Torment is a goth lovesong about masochism, and it was co-penned by Steve Severin and Robert Smith.
Torment & Toreros is, without any doubt, a mess, but a fascinating, intriguing mess, full of contrasts and dead ends, able to reward its listener with its straight, almost embarassing sincerity. Smudged mascara, traces of lipstick and trash flavour all over the place, but only Marc can sing about these subjects like an innocent from the pit of damned.