Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

Seedy clubs in Leeds in the late 70's this is the sound of Soft Cell. Marc Almond is the perfect diva and has an operatic range that goes hand in hand with Dave Ball's sparce synth symphonies. Reading the reviews some people seem to miss the whole point of the exercise. This is sleaze and this is early Brit Synth where wannabe stars bought cheap Rolands and dreamed in their bedsits writing lyrics that reflected their angst lives. This is a classic.

Tainted Love is a banger, the rest not up to that standard, although Sex Dwarf stands out lyrically and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is a good album closer. It's all quite urgent sounding and jarring in places. Bit of a punk vibe. Definitely not a relaxing listen. I'm glad to have heard it, but doubt I'd listen again.

If not for tainted love, this would be a 1 star. Some actually bad songs on here

Highlight - Sex Dwarf

The sound of sleaze synth pop - rejects from the cabaret of northern clubland. Also has a song called 'Sex Dwarf' which is cool. Best Tracks: Tainted Love; Bedsitter; Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Sexiest album ever made....

This kind of minimal synthwave is one of my comfort zones. The sound tends to lend itself to a sort of darkness/kinkiness somehow. Seems to go along with the detached approach.

I'll confess, my initial reaction to this album was not great. Tainted Love aside, the songs are pretty under-baked and not well recorded. But I think the not-well recorded thing is something I often consider as feature, not a bug, in a lot of the guitar-based music I like, so I needed to give this a better go. I'll quote from Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984: "Soft Cell's Marc Almond was fragile too, but in a different way: wonderfully uncool and hyper-emotional. His vocal pitch wavered, the intonation was often excessive, but Almond's all-too-human passion burst through. Like the Human League, Soft Cell had no truck with the we-are-robots posturing of first wave electropop: their songs nestled in the gap between glitzy dreams and squalid English reality" I think that gets to what is great about Soft Cell; their ambition to bring a sleazy cabaret, art pop, chanson vibe to their music. Barely musically competent and with minimal technical ability, they recorded this with big ambitions and big emotions. And it is certainly one of the first clearly gay-coded pop records. Marc Almond wouldn't comment on his sexuality at the time, but it's all out there to see, and I applaud the courage to be out in all but name. It paved the way for much of the great pop of the 1980s; the Communards, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and a bunch of others travelled the trail blazed by Soft Cell. Mind you, I don't think they had the expectation of being a big chart band, but that's what happened thanks to their cover of Tainted Love. I'm a lover of Northern Soul, and love Gloria Jones' original, and Soft Cell closely follow her vocal arrangement and performance, but the recontextualizing as synth pop (and prescient of the AIDS crisis) really owns the song. It was a deserved worldwide monster hit and a classic song for the ages. Tainted Love is the absolute banger and clearly the best song on the album. The other tracks have a tendency to be under-developed. I wish they had the time to refine and arrange the songs a bit more and the budget to record them properly, because Marc Almond's vocals are generally terrific. He can really sell a song. But they are not really songs for the ages (although do I hear a resonance between the portamento synth line in Sex Dwarf and a similar lick in My Bloody Valentine's 'I Only Said'?) I also love the fact that their manager, Stevo, used Soft Cell's success to fund and launch the Some Bizarre record label, which brough us not only Soft Cell and Marc Almond's solo works, but also records by Psychic TV, Cabaret Voltaire, The The, Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, Foetus and my own personal white whale Renaldo and the Loaf's 'The Elbow is Taboo' LP. So, there's that. TLDR: I appreciate the idea and influence of this record, but sadly, it's not that great to actually listen to. Except Tainted Love, which is an absolute banger.

Never heard this whole album. Only heard 'Tainted Love". Now I know why...

Just the right balance of sleaze and sparkle. I loved this as a teenager, when I was probably more jaded than now. The sadness and subtext of some of the lyrics here probably passed me by at the time, but they were still quite shocking in terms of subject matter. Not quite Sister Ray, but perhaps the genteel English equivalent with synthesisers instead of guitars? And 'Say Hello' is a classy pop song. A classic of the genre, with it's own take on British life in the early 80s.

Very well! Sexy and dancy! 10\5

Light good electronic music

One hit wonder? No way.

Definitely a surprise. I like the dark electronic mood/sound and marc almond's voice. Say Hello, Secret Life and Sex Dwarf are great in addition to Tainted Love. Very enjoyable.

I mean, I knew I was not going to like it from the title and the front cover but goddamn this is pitiful. What is it with 80’s music being so F ing lame? And that f ing sax, I mean wtf? Is this parody? Not even tainted love saves this one, as the original is a better record and even mansons is better, again WTF? Did we needed to hear this before we died so we experience superior cringe? Is there a lower grade than 1 star? Why is not this at the bottom of the rank?

Yep, loved this sordid little gem

memories of a decade that I really was too young to remember, but love love love

a fun little new wave album. it gets a bit unabashedly horny at times (i'm looking at you 'sex dwarf') but honestly from the title, i don't know how you couldn't expect it. the production is very dated but in a charming way? like it's very silly and of the era, but i found it fun. the big song off here ('tainted love') is clearly the highlight, but there are other fun tracks here. i thought 'chips on my shoulder' was a fun little romp. but yeah, outside of the hit, nothing particularly mind-blowing here, but still fun.

Almost the definition of 80's synth pop. Such a distinctive voice over some of the most iconic electronic sounds ever to come out of the 80's. Great lyrics and structures too, each song having there own feel, although some recycling of sounds does occur. Great pop album

I mean I may be basic but tainted love / where did our love go is just so good lol

Like a cabaret, it's flashy, flamboyant, and devoid of substance. There's a song called Sex Dwarf, and it's exactly what it says on the tin. I had to know that, and now you have to know it, too. Best track: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Fruuuuu strationnnn

1981. New Wave. A great album to listen to on a Saturday morning with coffee. On the back patio with a torrential downpour and an impressive show of lightning and thunder, but my best dog friend doesn't like the storms so we went inside. Now I'm on the couch being terrorized by a 5 month old cat that just showed up in my backyard and we have tamed. Somewhat tamed. Animals show up at my house and they get taken care of. Life is funny that way. But anyway, Tainted Love is an all time banger. I've listened through a few times, this thing is great. Jaunty and upbeat, the sax in track 1 and the female vocals on track 7 are standout for me. Dudes are looking spiffy on the cover too. Good vibes.

Very well titled album. That’s pretty much what it was.

The sleaziness of Non Stop lures you, right from the front cover and into the opening cracking of the whip on Frustration. This was one of the first records I bought back in 1981. I thought at the time that Marc was holding a bag of chips in the brown paper bag. Some childhood innocence was soon overcome when I heard Sex Dwarf. It's a cold album in terms of the beats and lyrics. But also SO warm and genuinely sung from the heart. I could still play this and the sister Ecstatic Dancing every week. Say Hello is up their with the classic torch singer songs.

This album is extremely 80s but was top-to-bottom good. I'd heard three tracks from it before (and liked them) but was surprised how much I enjoyed the others as well. Will definitely listen again.

The best song on this one is a cover.

things heard in my house this morning: “no wonder they’re a 1-hit-wonder” “how is this so bad?” “did he just say sex dwarf?” “…i guess tainted love brings it up to a 2”

80s music. Tainted Love is on this record, nothing else super memorable.

we are all sex dwarf now

Rad as hell. I like "Youth" a lot, got that 80s futurism and a melancholy, haunting feeling and that transition into "Sex Dwarf"!! "Sex Dwarf" + "Entertain Me" are SO good.

Top Album.

That was fun and without any duds.

Amazing. Relatable to me as i step into my 20s.

It's s good album, so catchy, but that basic catchy type, it's a good one, I like some lyrics. It's a brilliant work. A bible of synth pop in the early 80s

Obra cumbre del synth pop. Me gusta sobre todo por lo sórdida que es la temática del disco. Sex dwarf es mi track favorito de aquí. Te dan ganas de contagiarte de gonorrea. Genios absolutos. ¿También es muy divertido, no? Sudorosón. Mil estrellas de mil.

Una estética outrun muy característica de la época, disfrutable empleo del synth. Letras atrevidas, chistosas, desquiciadas y horny en la misma medida. Canción favorita: Sex Dwarf, me parece que el ritmito de esa es el más divertido. Mood: tengo calocha, qués eso? Calor en la depresión ochentera.

I was initially going to dismiss this one with something snarky like, 'We have Depeche Mode at home.' But I slowly realized this album has a unique charm and stands well on it's own, not just as "synth-pop", but really as something adjacent to gothic post-punk. I do laugh a little thinking about the number of people who purchased this LP when it dropped in the states due to 'Tainted Love', to then be shocked and horrified by 'Sex Dwarf'.

Non Stop Erotic Cabaret Sex Dwarf! I really didn’t like Tainted Love in my childhood and teens, but now I love it. Obviously it’s a great song to begin with, but the synth pads and the hand claps at the end of each line are a remarkable work of earworming, taking the hint of them in the original, and turning them into a hook on their own. And there are hooks and earworms all over this, the bassline on Seedy Films, the pitch shifting on Sex Dwarf, the synth line on Entertain Me, the HI NRG pulse and chorus of Chips on My Shoulder, the synth bass again on Bedsitter. And I only really became aware of Say Hello Wave Goodbye after David Gray’s version, but it is a great track, with a naive but affecting melodramatic charm. I love the palpable Punk/DYI ethos being put into synth music. It’s definitely a bit wonky in places, especially the vocals, belying the budget and time period, but a lot of it still feels very modern. You can definitely hear the commonalities with their contemporaries, Heaven 17, Depeche Mode, PSB, the Human League et al, but I like how this has an almost comical amount of seediness, playing around with glitz, squalor, escape and being trapped all wrapped up in melodramatic adolescent emotions. I don’t know how much is tongue in cheek, but there seems to be a bit of deliberate provocation, perhaps poking at moral panic, especially on things like Seedy Films and Sex Dwarf It’s right on the edge of 3 and 4. It’s very catchy with a seedy, wonky, naive charm. Think it just about edges a 4. 💦💦💦💦 Playlist submission: Sex Dwarf!

Tainted Love -classic. Rest of the album…meh

There are things I like here. Such as the almost punkish style, the vocals (when they hit the right note) and Tainted Love. Except for Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, none of the other songs hit this heights, so all in all it’s a little underwhelming.

Pretty poo. Not my type of music

What the hell is this

Yeah there’s a bop but the rest didn’t really stand out

Another album that is only relevant for one song. I'm sure this was a big hit in Great Britain in the 80's, but some songs on this album are just laughably bad. 2/5 Won't listen again

Tainted love doing some heavy lifting here

It's only one song really isn't it

meeeeeeeeeeeh

2/5

1.3/5

Definitely not a fan of synth pop but this album is pretty bad. I have no idea how this cover of Tainted Love became so popular.

Fabulous dark fun

makes me wish I was alive in the 80s so I could have experienced the clubbing scene

From the first notes I recognized that Soft Cell had inspired 2000’s electro-art band The Knife, whom I love, along with early 90’s alt rock band, James, whom I also adore. That was just in the first song. I can also hear Nine Inch Nails and other Industrial, and even Goth inspiration. This album is super solid throughout. The drum machine drips neon coolness and is still ahead of its time, particularly on Sex Dwarf. This record is full of dramatic singing, experimental musicianship, and of course their HUGE hit, Tainted Love, and the songs are mostly bangers. Youth is probably the weakest song, but it’s still good. I’d say I’m now a fan of this album.

Älskar Marc Almond. Ja, inte på det sättet utan mer som artist. Tycker han till och med är bättre solo. Men det spelar ingen roll. Det här är ändå top notch.

Banger after banger, screw everyone who got this review to under 3 stars average. You can really tell marc almond's punk background peeking through in some of the songs.

It is one of my oldest records here. I loved it then, and I still do. It might seem odd or even bad from the current point of view, but back then it was simply genius. Tainted Love was THE definition of British synth-pop at that time and the album was a landmark. Plus the controversies around Sex Dwarf and the inevitable banning of the music video made it extremely popular back then.

Fun!

sexy and weird

Plane listen. Has a hit song everyone knows and a bunch of different sounds that mesh well together. I enjoyed.

There's magic in here between the hit tracks or "Tainted Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go?". The whole album is cheeky and fun and surprising. Poppy and a little dark if you think about what they're saying.

One of the stranger albums my dad recommend to me as a teenager, probably the strangest. Not that the content of the album is outside of my zone, actually an unusually savvy read from my dad, but still, he big upped Sex Dwarf. I think I've come around big time on this album. I used to be pretty negative on it, thought it was a little thin and overly long with Tainted Love being the obvious highlight. Recently though, I've felt more attached to this album. Its sound has this nasty polish to it similar to Cabaret Voltaire. I think Americans might have a harder onboarding with this album than clubbier folks across the Atlantic. Here's the thing, British & Irish music writers (and people generally, anecdotally) love to talk about Soft Cell and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Both acts are so influential on their understanding of electronic pop music. And with an ear tuned closer to the speaker this time around, I have to admit that I'm a big fan of synth thumps here. Even a white boy can suss out the 2s and 4s here.

Super cliché 80s, but the saxophone really elevates this album, and some of the hits are still fun to listen to in 2025

I knew Tainted Love, obviously, and I half new Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. The album is brilliant though! Not quite a concept album, but an album obsessed with the seedy side of Soho and the contrast with suburbia - which they really hate. Hate is often a good starting point for a song, and on here it is no exception. Frustration is a great opener. The fact it's followed by Tainted Love is even better - I oscillate between wanting this version and the original a lot, but both are brilliant. It carries on in a sort of amateurishly brilliant electronica, until you hot Sex Dwarf. I honestly don't know what to make of it, but it is as barmy as its title. I think that's a good thing. And it continues in this vein, until it hits Say Hello Wave Goodbye. While I have heard this song plenty of times I'd never listened to it. It's sad, but a ferocious kind of sadness. I am glad to have listened to it, as its ten times the song I had previously heard in passing. Absolutely astounding. Save for a lull between Sex Dwarf and Say Hello, this is a brilliant album, and I'll definitely be coming back to it. I'm giving it 4/5, but I suspect repeat listens might actually make me love it all the more.

Enjoyable album, iconic hit single.

Tainted Love cant carry a whole album unfortunately. This is weird and even a little spooky at times? I get the attempt to make something different and quirky but its way more misses than hits. Also stop leaning on the synth so dang much.

Pretty generic 80's synth pop, with some risqué lyrics to keep it interesting. The songs were catchy, and not long enough to ever get boring, but this is not something I see myself revisiting. Standout Tracks: Tainted Love

A number of songs start out sounding exactly like Tainted Love but suddenly pivot into their own song, which is pretty neat. There are some pretty cool tracks though. Classic 80's music....very representative of the times. Top tracks: Tainted Love, Where Did Our Love Go, Seedy Films

A lil sleazy synth never hurt nobody

Okay. Good.

Loved the first couple of songs, but felt it was dragging by the end. Who knew Soft Cell were so kinky btw. Good for them Songs added to playlist: - Frustration - Tainted Love - Where Did Our Love Go?

Tainted Love by Soft Cell is a top hit. It's one of my favorite songs. I didn't know the rest of the album. It's less bad than I feared. Nevertheless, there is no other track on it that I absolutely want to hear again. 3/5

5 stars for Sex Dwarf 2 stars for the rest of the album. 5+2 ‎ = 7 7/2 ‎ = 3.5 Ergo, 3 stars.

Not bad from an era I have little interest in.

I've always loved "Tainted Love" but never looked past that into Soft Cell's other music. I really liked this record. Lots of electronic spunk. And, the singer has a voice perfect for the musical style. I like them because they have off-beat rhythms, a great sense of melody, and some wonderful sounding synths. Song title is dumb, but the synths on "Sex Dwarf" are rad.

Listened while mowing the lawn. Recognized the hit but found it a little hard to listen to. Too uniform for the time and nothing really stood out

This album started well enough. I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t awful.. even if I came into it with prejudice because of how synth pop killed new wave. Unfortunately, after 4-5 songs it starts to fall apart. Track 5, “Sex Dwarf”, is simultaneously a high and low point, as it's both pretty funny and pretty awful. I can’t think of a good reason to recommend anyone even bother with side 2 of this record. Only a true masochist would listen through the extra tracks on Spotify to go the full 1hr 14min. I did it, but I was on the train home from Chicago after riding my bike 350 miles in 2.5 days to get there.

Terrible album that cannot be saved by one great song. What’s even more amazing is, I owned the greatest hits of this band as a young teen, and the greatest hits album is also awful, with one good song.

Tirando tainted love o resto é sofrivel

An extra star for Tainted Love, one of the best tracks from the 80s. That's all. Nothing else to be seen here.

Pretty disappointing

Definitely the case where the album made the list on the strength of one song. A cover song at that. Sex Dwarf was definitely a song I've heard, but it's not one I'll forget, but like, not in a good way. By the time I got to Secret Life was ready for the album to be over, only to find out I was halfway through. The second half was not at all memorable. I will give this album :star::star: though cause it had at least one really solid song on it, even if it was a cover.

c'mon.

Holy crap he just could not hit the right note. The sex lyrics are super cringy, the keyboard is overkill, and this adds nothing to the world of music whatsoever. And don't try arguing that it has some value because it spawned an iconic song. The rest of the album definitely DOES NOT make up for it.

It’s a 2 on account of Tainted Love and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. Otherwise it would be a 1. I was put off immediately by the first song and it never really got better.

Listening to the album in its entirety feels like it was a miracle that tainted love got so popular, most songs felt like a fever dream. I honestly haven't laughed as hard to a song as much as Sex Dwarf, felt like it was straight out of an SNL skit or from Lonely Island.

Tainted Love is one of the best songs to exist. The way the singer is ever so slightly off occasionally, the minimal musical track, the distinctive sound. Lovely. The rest of the album is alright,I just don't want to ever hear it again.

Bahahaha, bless. On several songs, the singer is painfully out of tune. Some songs have no real melody against sparse instrumentation. Sex Dwarf…oddly, one of the catchier songs of the album, but Clutch My Pearls, the lyrics! I think you could go to jail for that in todays’s America. Their take on Tainted Love was quite fresh, so good on them for that. Otherwise, this album is a stinker. 2.3.

fuck me this is a terrible album. I guess they were a one hit wonder with tainted love?

Some fun lyrics here and there, and the Tainted Love cover is great, but otherwise this kind of sucked. Just really annoying synths and pretty awful vocals on the whole

SEX DWARF. i had just about had enough of marcs out of tune wailing and this happened. the album really should have been a 40min edit of sex dwarf.

Interesting beats but silly lyrics just made it old fast.

I'm done with the 80s at the moment

I only knew soft cell from their version of Tainted Love. I wish it still was the case. Everything other than Tainted Love is just bad and the number of times the vocals are out of tune is just sad...

Really bad album only 2 cool songs all other can be discarded. Lot of experimental fails.

80's cheesy garbage. The singer can't carry a tune in a bucket. Utter talentless trash. I've said it before....one good song does not an album make... Favorite songs: Sex Dwarf, Tainted Love, So Least favorite songs: Youth....and the rest of this underwhelming album 1/5

painful

Jesus this sucks, the absolute pinnacle of annoying and overproduced music. It's like they are just using electronic instruments because they can, not because it actually sounds good and the end result is just so soulless and annoying.

One of the worst albums I've heard from

"Tainted Love" was the kernel of undigested corn in this turd sandwich. If that's the best song on your album, it's time to pack it up.