Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

Not my kind of album. Next.

Álbum ochentero. Me gustaron algunas canciones, creo que a papá le gustaría el Álbum

Was surprised by this. Feels a bit more tongue in cheek than I'd expected. Fun and seedy in equal measure - I can kind of imagine this being a bit of an influence on Jarvis Cocker.

Very dirty. I liked it more than I wanted to.

Tainted Love is one of the best songs ever recorded. The singer’s voice is lovely. Sex Dwarf entertains. But this is a genre that gets a bit tiresome before the album is over.

This is one of the rare occasions where I get to see your review before I write my own and, as I admitted in advance that I like this album, I can hardly ignore your thoughtful, if broadly negative comments. But that is not to say that I disagree very much your assessment. Marc Almond is not a good singer and Dave Ball is not a great keyboardist. The subject matter is awkward and cringy. But I don't view these as particular cons and I certain don't see the whole thing as a con trick. Rather I think Almond is a good performer - the "wrong note" in Entertain Me a broader confession than piece of clever song writing. And Ball manages, with few tools available to him, to build what I feel are generally compelling arrangements - he only has two hands, only one keyboard; the female vocalists are a charming addition, making the arrangements a little fuller, but the cabaret of the title much emptier. While the singer and piano configuration is not original in any regard, I can't think of many others that manage to make a sound so aggressive spare: Suicide and The Vichy Government perhaps. And I think this is perhaps what I like about this album - provocative at the time, maybe, but I think eternally sad. To me, a non-stop erotic cabaret sounds like a very lonely, monotonous place, not existing in contrast to the bedsit of Bedsitter but as part of a continuum of estranging, unsatisfying places. So, you are right, Marc and Dave aren't enjoying themselves: two oddballs come down from Leeds, one of them an effeminate young gay man, are confronting the reality of the London demimonde, the shattering glamour of everything they imagined from tawdry paperbacks and, yes, seedy films, not as big and beautiful as the Northern Soul clubs of the north, where they danced to Tainted Love. The corollary of that, of course, is the slow, depressing cover of Tainted Love by Coil, where Almond appears as the angel of death at the deathbed of an AIDS victim. The first AIDS death in the UK comes a few weeks after the release of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, but that's where it is all heading. London is all for show and it is awkward and cringy, because they are young men - certainly, when Martin Gore writes about the same sex clubs in Depeche Mode songs, he does so without embarrassment and it is much more embarrassing for it. But he didn't do that on their early records, he did it after their success - so no shame. I don't think there is much shame on Non-Stop Erotic, but it is, as you say, a debut album. It is awkward adolescent fumbling, but that is the point. I can promise you, the group doesn't get better on their following albums. I don't think they were really supposed to have further albums: this the document of the dream meeting the reality, they can only go on to The Art of Falling Apart. Marc Almond will become a more accomplished and camper performer, even if he doesn't improve as a singer. Dave Ball will become a more intricate electronic arranger, even if he doesn't get better at the piano. They will become more assured as people, but that is not the point of Soft Cell. Soft Cell is a life that only a young person can have and can dream of. The unexpected success of Tainted Love managed to sustain the label, Some Bizarre, in making a bunch of noisy goth records that nobody bought, so, even if it overshadows everything else, it is necessary for that alone. 3.5 We have had a couple of ‘albums‘ recently that call for the inverted comma. Whatever credit we were able to give Here’s Little Richard and Club Classics vol 1, they were basically compilations. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, whatever else it is, is a genuine album - something like a cohesive artistic utterance from a specific moment over its ten tracks or at least a unifying conceit at work. It’s Marc Almond mugging and winking and sticking his tongue out for the punters at the nightclub, with big Dave on the wacky keys, right? Not exactly an original idea but no doubt they hope, as others did before them, that you will enjoy the show; sit back and let the evening go, you’re such a lovely audience...etc. I gather that Soft Cell, at the time, were given great credit for daring and successful provocation, but in all honesty I can’t escape reading much of the framing here as mere defensiveness. Lift the gaudy veil of the supposed ‘performance’ and the truth is certainly that Marc Almond is a poor singer and Dave’s keyboard work is childish plodding amid the constant mugging of conspicuously silly synth voices. The question becomes then whether you put the veil back in place and commend the artist for judicious concealment and utility or whether you decide to feel that you have been rather cheated. Haven’t the legs been cut from any notion of artistry? Wouldn’t it be more commendable if Marc Almond was covertly a brilliant singer who is aiming to be unpleasantly sharp here or a little flat there for the sake of intended dramatic effect? ‘Doing’ the sound of a man struggling uncomfortably in front of the karaoke machine instead of simply being that man? When Almond declares on Entertain Me that he is ‘hitting the wrong NOTE!’ wouldn’t it be funnier if that note was genuinely any more inaccurate than most of the others he hits on this album? Should you fall into the trap of this perspective, as I have on this encounter with the Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, the whole show is goosed; I can no more find Say Hello, Wave Goodbye moving than I can find Seedy Films provocative. The brash show of the spoken word moments become recast in one’s mind as a mere cover story for the dodgy singing elsewhere. The presumed symbiosis of sexual and musical shamelessness breaks down as you realise the musical side of things is all adolescent fumbling. The spectacle becomes uncomfortable not because of any confrontational content but because it’s all a bit pathetic. The cringe centrepiece is Sex Dwarf - 5 minutes (!) which is neither successful comedy, convincing hedonism, or decent music. I know that you like this album so I have gone back a couple of times owning to myself the unreasonableness of some of the criticism above. I am picking on a debut album after all; they were only wee and clearly giving it all they had. What’s my problem? To Soft Cell’s credit there is some poetic life about the lyrics throughout. But it’s the introspective grumbling - the voice that ‘Kid[s] myself I’m having fun’ on Bedsitter - that rings true. Never throughout forty minutes of dancey beats and farty synths and comedic ‘wrong notes’ do I really believe that Marc and Dave are actually enjoying themselves. There is too much palpable survival. Nevertheless, Tainted Love is a great cover, and I think one of only a few tracks that survives daily rotation on U105 - I am never tired hearing it. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is an excellent original. Sex Dwarf, rotten as it is, has for me a lovely nostalgic quality to it. 2/5

This album gets its stars just for unleashing Marc Almond into the world, but mostly holds up. Everyone should have to struggle to get "Sex Dwarf" out of their head at least once in their life. "Secret Life", "Bedsitter", "Seedy Films" go beyond the camp to create a life you can step in for a moment and "Tainted Love" might be the best new wave single there is.

I loved “Tainted Love” and had wondered what else Soft Cell had up its sleeve, so I’m glad I had the opportunity to listen to this. It’s almost a concept album about an ordinary family man (see “Frustration”) who breaks free of his conventional bonds by indulging his inner sexual freak. It paints a vivid picture of the peep-show red-light district culture and sounds like a hell of a good time: “Blue flims flicker / Hands of a stranger / Getting to know you / And I’m getting to like you.” The four-on-the-floor electronic backing evokes the musical era in the best possible way, and I’ll add that it’s fascinating as a kind of capstone to the sexual revolution at the dawn of the AIDS crisis.

I know this album by heart and it's probably not essential, but your life is probably better for having heard "Sex Dwarf "(Title and chorus inspired by a real tabloid headline).

When the only two listenable songs on the album are covers, and the rest is synth pop soft core porn, I'm gonna argue that it is NOT an album anyone needs to hear before they die

I scoffed at first cause I knew it was very much new wave, based entirely on the one & only song of theirs I knew, and I don’t normally like new wave. But I was surprised to hear it had a certain upbeat, interesting energy which was enough to capture my attention. I loved the flow from song to song. I’d consider listening to some of their other stuff.

A couple of bangers but otherwise mid

Its not bad prob not for me I like tainted love and seedy films but the rest just weren't it.

Tuttuja Marilyn Mansonin Tainted Love biisejä ja oli kyllä muitakin, mitä klassikoita jostain kuullut

Meh…a lot of repetitive beats

Favorite Track: Tainted Love

Fun, but got a bit repetitive & a bit much after a while

Sometimes at about 11pm old episodes of top of the pops come on BBC 4. When bands like soft cell come on I would usually take the opportunity to go and make a cup of tea. On the first listen to this whole album I enjoyed a surprising amount of it. But on second listen it's only really a few songs that grab me. Bedsitter. Tainted Love of course. Sex Dwarf. But it's all a bit silly. Like pulp without an edge and with limited musical or lyrical depth.

I don't think the glossy production matches the lyrical sleaze, but I think that's because I love the inspirations more than the influences

2.5

I mean, besides tainted love it’s pretty chaotic nonsense. Fun, but nonsense.

I’m not usually into 80s heavily produced, synth music but this album did it really well. The different levels of meaning and the sonic personification of a club really caught my attention

Note that the song Sex Dwarf is "to make a comment on the bizarreness of tabloid exploitation". Tabloids are smaller newspapers that do a lot of gossip. The song title came from the title of a one of the newspapers: "Sex Dwarf Lures Disco-Dollies to a Life of Vice" I especially like the synths on Sex Dwarf and Chips on my Shoulder I also really like the album cover

Enjoyed this

Fine. Recognized the one hit

Wow. I’m surprised how bad this is. Tainted Love is iconic, and I will always love that song and the nostalgia that it invokes. I also really enjoy 80’s music, but this is just… not good.

Album cover 5

Didn't like what I heard at first, or at the end

I don't know why this week I have been given so many Synthpop classics but I guess I am here for it to finally check them off the list. As much as I wish I could enjoy this project and appreciate it on the same level as many others here, I am not going to sit here and lie about how much I enjoyed this. Out of the past Synthpop classic albums I have covered, this one seems to have aged the most like milk with its' very over the top theatrics really becoming a bit of burden to myself. I appreciate the energy on display here, but if it was backed up by some actual quality then I would be much more into it, instead we have a bunch of rough trial and error styles tracks with the one titular hit most people continue to talk about for years with Tainted Love. There are some tracks here with production that feels so sloppy, like with Secret Life, that I am surprised anyone in the 80s even enjoyed the sound of it. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is an utter mess of an album and that was even before this album got aged by 45 years of time. Nuff said.

Bit of a weird album tbh. Tainted Love obviously A++! But some of these songs were pretty dodgy. I'll give it an average rating 3 ⭐️

Haha funny

i like dis

This album is both brilliant and both slightly grating on my nerves at once - but I enjoyed listening to it nevertheless!

unfortunately this did not make me like 80s synth pop

This is giving me a headache

Like a lot of "ground-breaking" albums, it hasn't aged all that well. And you have to like Almond's pseudo showtune vocal style to really "get" Soft Cell. As a museum piece, it shows just how much could be achieved with limited technology, pre-Fairlight etc, before it all got way overblown as the 80's progressed.

Syna poppia, eikä kauheen parasta sellaista. Mutta oli muutama ihan hyvä kappalekkin tai sit ne huonot kappaleet vaan nosti niiden tasoa. Parhaat: Chips On My Shoulder, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Tainted Love

This is surprisingly hard to listen to. Besides the hit song, everything sounds like a mad blip of 80s where absolutely everything has to have strange synth noises. The core of the tunes is not always terrible but I'm glad we moved past this.

Missing the Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go mashup, but I've always enjoyed the synths and snark combo.

I like the general synth sound and Tainted Love is a great cover. The end track was also a high.

Poor song writing. When you bare in mind they didn’t write Tainted Love - there isn’t really much here

Not for me

There are a number of reasons why this is a very peculiar record, most prominently Soft Cell’s exploitative approach which doesn’t settle on a particular style. It manages, mainly through the vocals, to hang on to a cohesion despite this. They are a little darker and edgier than The Human League, sometimes with a hint of the sort of outlandish and extreme flavours you might expect from Suicide. I don’t think that it’s a problem that my two favourite songs are the ones that deviate the most from their centre ground. The cover, Tainted Love, is a proper bop which has transcended the band. And then the closer Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is one of my favourite songs from the 1980s. It’s strangely sentimental and beautifully melancholic. After some hectic tracks it’s nice for things to resolve so peacefully.

Yeah Soft Cell are not for me, a couple of the singles are good fun and pretty engaging but i don’t love a drum machine and i think the songwriting is a bit weak throughout, final track pulled it up to a low 3

Not too bad. Definitely points for weirdness. The 2 best songs are covers. And the 3rd is sex dwarf.

I really liked it, though Tainted Love, Say Hello... and SEX DWARF did a lot of the heavy lifting. It's fun, raw, they don't care.

I hate to parrot the majority, but the majority is right in this case – outside of "Tainted Love," Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret doesn't have a whole lot to offer. I found some enjoyment in "Sex Dwarf" and "Entertain Me" as well, but not enough to make me feel like the album deserves more than two stars. Highlights: Tainted Love, Sex Dwarf, Entertain Me

A disappointing listen. Tainted Love, because it is so iconic, is the only highlight of the album.

Ok, a British pop band from the 80s with one hit song that is a cover. Not exactly an indicator of quality, but you never really know. Unfortunately, I was right in presuming the album wasn't going to be good. Aside from "Tainted Love", the album focuses on airy synth soundscapes over pop hooks. When done right, that can make excellent albums, but it's not done well here. The singer is very annoying, and the lyrics tend to suck more often than not. There are some passable songs here, but it's not anywhere close to essential listening. You could probably tell that simply by the fact that there's a song called "Sex Dwarf" on it. That song is pretty crap, and the rest of the album isn't much better. It's mostly just a forgotten relic of the early 1980s without much influence in modern pop culture, and there's a reason for that.

Peaked early😳

Tainted Love is super, other songs are fun but it gets boring after a while

Enjoyed a few songs, but they’d probably hit better at a new age club night than at 9 AM

Wild recounting of new age musicians' lives of sex, drugs, and partying, or two guys developing a concept album so they can get laid more. It's hard to tell. Either way, it's quite the novel listen and an intriguing album.

Honestly quite a bad album, and the music I'd consider competent just was not my thing, too minimalist at times, way too repetitive, pretty boring and a lot of the time irritating.

One hit wonder 1/5

Vision. Execution.

Non-stop okayness.

This has shown me how surprising it is that I like Tainted Love, I really disliked his voice and singing style on every other track

Now I like the original crash bandicoot soundtrack as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure about the guy trying to freestyle over the top, he’s very loud. 4 / 10 Best track: obvs Tainted love

3.5/10

Some fun moments. Cool production and subversion lyrically. Kinda meh here and there. I love the last track, say hello and wave goodbye. I heard it decades ago covered by David gray, very acoustic guitar sad guy vibes, and was astonished to find out these bangers wrote it!

Sometimes the synth tones are too bright for me, but the brooding vocals and breezy synths worked surprisingly well. Of course Tainted Love rules, but it's not alone.

Don’t love it, but also don’t hate it

another one that started ok and then went downhill fast

That man in just not a good singer. Synth pop grungy music that didnt quite hit with me i was mainly waiting for it to be over. But! Did get to listen to tainted love

Vocals are irritating - not a great voice even for its style

I love this guy's voice. I feel like he could've been in the original London cast of Les Miserables. The playlist I listened to also included some singles that I don't think were on the actual album, but I really liked them too. Plus, openly gay artist in the 80s gets a bonus star from me.

Luring disco dollys to a life of vice!

preety nice album, like the vibes I dont have a bird for this one

I hope it is serious because it is very bad as a joke. The first Depeche Mode album from the very same time is much better than this. 2 points, not far from 1.

Winning sound

This band is a one-hit wonder, and that hit is a cover. It's not bad, it's just not great. Clear 2*. So, no, you don't have to listen to it before you die. Instead, you should listen to Cake's Fashion Nugget. Also a one-album wonder (2 smash hits instead of one) with a hit from a cover. Their cover was also better than the original. Yeah, skip this one and listen to Fashion Nugget instead.

5 stars for tainted love, 1 or 2 stars for the rest, but tainted love is on there 3 times, so pretending to do the math in my head makes this a 4

Eugh. Call me a dickless freak or some brand of homosexual, but cabarets are too old-timey to ever possibly be erotic. I guess the sordid display of debauchery and excess don't end until this album does, so I'll have to tough this one out. I'm unsure of what an album with this title and album cover could be, but going by the year of release I'm guessing that this will be a new wave album. Here goes. Yup. On the money, but this album was practically giving its genre away. "Tainted Love" is pretty great, but the rest of this album kind of dicks about. The songwriting is nowhere near as tight or memorable, and the instrumentals sound more stripped back and unremarkable as the album progresses. The longer tracks don't really justify their runtime, either. Still, I can appreciate the finer aspects of this album. I generally like the dense, submerged, wavy synths which hang on these tracks, and the vocalist carries himself well. I don't like the lyrics, but I'll get to that later. Overall, this was decent, but with little that hooked me. I've heard the aforementioned Tainted Love before. Most notably through my Dad's car speakers, though I'm pretty sure I've encountered it multiple times on the Internet as well. The songwriting is pretty golden - very dynamic and jumpy with a great bit of kick. The instrumental is less remarkable, but I liked the more ambient aspects of the composition and there's a decent bit of kick, too. I don't remember the song ever being this short, however. It would have been better if the material were more substantial, but I can respect a bit of conciseness. Solid tune. Book time. Romanticises lowlifes and the sleazy parts of town. "The duo took their roles as ambassadors of sleaze a little too seriously: when a filthy video they had made for the high-camp "Sex Dwarf" was sent to the tabloids, apparently by the starring midget, the furor led to police raids on the Some Bizzare offices." I had to read that sentence five times over to even grasp what it was trying to say. I thought they recorded a sex tape with a midget and overlaid it with their song, but it's referring to the original, banned music video for the song, where a lady is strapped naked to a table and there's some weird BDSM shit happening, including the presence of a dysgenic midget guy. "However, sex is not the sole theme on Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret - it is a mix of the credulous and the world-weary...", whatever that may mean. "Tainted Love" topped the singles chart in 17 countries. One of the band members stormed into the office of a music newspaper and whipped a journalist for giving a bad review to one of their later albums, which lead to the dissolution of the band shortly after. Okay, that's pretty funny. Turns out I was heterosexual the whole time - this album is incredibly lame and gay. With how far Western morality has been denigrated and perverted in the decades since the release of this album, I find it hard not to view stuff like this as subversive in normalising dysfunction. Seems like it's the Pommies doing it this time instead of the Jews, however. Wikipedia reveals that "Tainted Love" was a cover this whole time, which I suppose I can believe. The album exceeded pre-orders of 200,000 copies in the US following the success of Tainted Love, was created on a budget, was well-received by critics and made it onto the year-end charts in the UK, US and Canada. This album seems to be coasting by on the success of its one major single, but I suppose I don't mind this album being on here. I cosign this inclusion.

Fucking hype

Saved? ❌ Would listen again? 🤔 Would recommend to anyone? ❌ Would buy on Vinyl? 🤔

I thought sex dwarf would be fun, but I don't like this album at all

1- Tema bastante malo, no me gusta para nada, es ruido al pedo 2- GTA San Andreas en su maxima expresion, nada mas que agregar 3- Decente, lo escucharia si tuviera un fiat uno sin patente 4- No es de mi gusto en particular 5- La baja que a mitad del tema se pone a gemir, empieza bien y la caga 6- No. 7- No me gusto al punto que me quedé dormido 8- Tipica seguidilla de temas que son parecidos, no me gusta la verdad 9- Recien llegue a la mitad del disco y es la 5ta vez que me fijo cuanto falta para que termine, va mal 10- Decente despues de varios temas pedorros. 11- La copia del exito, fija 12- No. 13 y 14- Son temas olvidables, no me di cuenta cuando empeza y terminaba el otro,,, 15- No 16-18- Lamentablemente se me hizo chicle para mal, se queria experimentar pero la voz del cantante y los sintetizadores de más la cagan Albúm de lugar preferiblemente palermitano inspirado en los 90's, me cagaron una hora de estudio para escuchar esta bosta.

More like soft bell

Electro pop classic. Lots of good seedy synth pop songs. Mixture of the mundane and red light glamour. Don’t hear Sex Dwarf on the radio enough. Big hits with the 2 classic covers plus the excellent Say Hello Wave Goodbye. No idea if the version I listened to was the original track listing but could get rid of a few tracks to make this a higher 4 (could lose Seedy Films, Youth and Insecure Me for a start).

Where would have been without Tainted Love at crap discos? That is a highlight but usurped by Say Hello, Wave Goodbye which is biting and also heartbreaking at the same time. Otherwise some good stuff with Bedsitter, Sex Dwarf, Entertain Me and Frustration. The other songs not quite so much

I think I like my synth pop with a touch of sleaze, and this delivers, although also relieved Sex Dwarf didn't come with a video.. Does lack a bit of the incomparable Cundy Ecstacy though, who I think only appeared on the spin off Ecstatic Dancing.

Okay, I’m just going to say it as it is. It’s a two song album. Tainted love is much inferior to the Gloria Jones original. Say hello wave goodbye is inferior to the David Gray cover which discards all the playful electronic pomp production we witness here and exposes the track for what it is. A really well written song. There. No more needs saying.

Far too long Psyco synth sex fury Can't get onboard with the New Order esc vocals After all the initial hype looses attention + lil sameh, albeit with nice synth soundslike combining a Duke box with a pinball machine Not something to take too seriously

Quite an... interesting album name, so not sure what to expect. It's a bit of a shame that 'Tainted Love' isn't their original creation, but it is still a fun track. And I found the rest of the album cool too! Quite a flimsy synth album with its blips and blops, but it works well within the bounds of itself. There are some weird tracks, like 'Sex Dwarf' that I suppose are there to provoke and to bring some weirdness to the mix (like it wasn't quite weird already), and I suppose it succeeds in that. Does it make it better though? Not sure. In the end I enjoyed this. It feels unique and differentiates itself well from other typical 80s synth albums. Not the best I've heard, but a fun trip. Definitely worth a listen! Strong 3.

Felt like a pretty standard synth record. The main stand out track is of course “Tainted Love” and their version really brings something different to the table from other versions. The vocals work well with the synth backing but I hade trouble getting exited for it. Mid 3.

brilliant

A few decent songs but mostly weird 80s synth pop.

Another 80s mediocre album. There's not much to say about this one except that the lyrics were extremely corny and the synths were bad. Sex Dwarf did not need to be 5 minutes long, there no standouts at all on this album except for maybe tainted love, don't waste your time on this record.

“Tainted Love” is a bop, but the rest of this is just mid. “Sex Dwarf” is an insane song (derogatory)

1981 was the year British synth-pop arrived in full-force. Depeche Mode had a smash hit with 'Just Can't Get Enough', New Order emerged from the darkness of Joy Division with the danceable single 'Temptation', and Soft Cell, the subject of today's album, rose to stardom off the back of their mega hit, a cover of Gloria Jones' 'Tainted Love'. But there's certainly more to Soft Cell than 'Tainted Love', and their debut record, 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret', cetainly attests to that. 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret' is a playful mix of synths, atmosphere and vocalist Marc Almond crooning about sex, youth, frustration and a range of campy topics. For every song like 'Youth' or 'Bedsitter' that deals with loneliness, melancholy and existentialism, there's a song like 'Sex Dwarf' with ridiculous lyrics about a pretty obvious fetish. I mean, it catches you so off guard that you can't help but burst into a raging fit of laughter, and I certainly did! It's almost hard to tell whether Soft Cell are being sincere with their lyrics or are simply taking the piss, because at times, it seems like they're delicately walking a tightrope between both camps. Almond's lyrics sound deep and heartfelt, but he often delivers them in such a sardonic and provocative tone that it makes it hard to tell how serious he is. It's actually quite intriguing to decipher, as it appears that, at times, clear cries for help are being masked by happy-go-lucky 80s camp. Either way, it's certainly an interesting listen. So, long story short, 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret' proves Soft Cell were more than 'Tainted Love', but I can also see the argument that listeners may have struggled to take them seriously given their campness. Still, it's a fun record, and a 'must listen' as far as synth-pop is concerned! Best songs: Frustration, Tainted Love, Bedsitter, Secret Life

Most of this is 80s British new wave drivel but Tainted Love is obviously a banger. I also liked Entertain Me. I think this album set itself apart from other 80s British new wave by not muddying the vocals as much with reverb. The clarity makes for a much more enjoyable sound to me.

I was hoping this would be good, as I usually enjoy new wave albums with deep cool tracks. Really did not hit the mark for me

Diabolical. Genuinely hate Tainted Love now and can never see it the same after trying to get through this album. Awful beyond measure

Loved way more than expected! Raw.

2/3. It’s cool for sure, but the music doesn’t do much for me. I liked Frustration, Tainted Love, and Sex Dwarf (just for the lyrics), but outside of those songs a lot of the album just slipped by. But I respect the sleaze and lack of inhibition, so that bumps it up for me.

Some good stuff on here that’s not Tainted Love. Sex Dwarf is weird though.

This album was really good. I had only heard Tainted Love and I've never liked it. However, hearing it in the context of the rest of their work, it is much better. The rest of the album is some excellent synth-pop. The guy has a really cool voice, and some of the synth hooks are incredibly catchy. This caught me totally off guard.

Franchement, j'ai trouvé l'album vraiment bien. Beaucoup de gens ont des apprioris plutôt défavorable vis à vis de Soft Cell à cause de Tainted Love, en disant que le groupe n'est qu'un One hit wonder et même si le reste de l'album brille moins que la chanson, ça reste un projet vraiment sympatique à écouté, qui a su me faire apprécier son côté electronica alors que c'est pas donné.

Day771 - tainted love is timeless and sex dwarf is as crazy as it sounds

Not sure why I didn’t think what this would sound like based on “Tainted Love” but not bad, considering I’m not usually a big fan of 80’s synth pop. “Sex Dwarf” was weird.

I wasn't that into this album, most songs just didn't do a lot for me. "Seedy Films" "Sex Dwarf" and "Chips On My Shoulder" aren't too bad but overall not much to say.

A longtime favorite of mine when it comes to 80s synthpop. One or two songs might not have aged too well (lol Sex Dwarf) but it still remains a fun and enjoyable listen. Marc Almond's sleazy and/or depressing songwriting has the perfect backing of either somber or ironically upbeat arrangements, provided by a cheesy but endearing setup of early 80s synths and a drum machine. Not to strictly pigeonhole them into the descriptor, but as part of that demo myself I do find them as one of the best gay male artists in their genre/time period, right up there with Erasure and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. If you enjoyed this album their follow-up, The Art of Falling Apart, is also just as good. 8.5/10.

exactly as advertised. Frustration is the most insane track 1 I've ever heard. Favourite track: it's still Tainted Love baby

9/10 This album just sounds like what an 80s synth pop album should sound like, it's dancey and doesn't take itself too seriously. Marc's singing is so fun it makes me want to sing along 10 seconds into any song.

Than hauskaa synapoppia akustisen maustein. Sympaattinen klarasoolo Seedy filmsissä

#272/1001. Early 80s synth pop rules. Soft Cell were not the only ones who took pre-aids period gayness to the front, and the whole album is like a luring introduction to queer side of sexuality to the average Joe. The version Spotify gave me seemed a bit long - perhaps there were extras (the album lasts way more than your typical sexual act, even in gay worls I would presume). Still I can't but love the early synth sounds and all the jingle jangle that goes on in the legt and right throughout the record. Also a pity the two best songs are covers (with the same riff even). But also they remind us of a wonderful musical genre, which was named after music, which was played by dj's and danced to by dedicated fans in bars: Northern Soul. This is what it sounds like, when that genre collides with elwctronic experimentation by (British) bands, kraftwerk and disco. Blue movies in music.

Seedy Films is by far the stupidest song i have ever heard. I know that sounds pretty histrionic, but I really can’t think of a more cringe inducing aural experience. You’ve heard Tainted Love so many times it has lost all its charm, and everything else is soulless drivel. Except Sex Dwarf. It is everything a song with a title like SexDwarf promises to be.

Only Tainted Love saves this album.

very 80s

Not that great. Their big hit song I believe is a cover first of all and the rest of the album is pretty mid. I didn’t mind seedy films but the rest is kinda trash nah this is a skip save your time for me!

Better than Coldplay

I’ve always hated this. Still do as it turns out.

Wank music, not the sort you tug to, just wank content that's dates badly I'm afraid.

Of course "Tainted Love" is great (although I didn't realize it was a cover until reading Wikipedia), and the rest of the album was fun, too!

SEX DWARF

Tainted love is quite literally the only song worth listening to in this album.

Weirder and funkier than I expected. Will definitely be giving this another listen.

Had a couple of standouts but overall wasn't that impressed with it. Loved tainted love and say hello, wave goodbye, enjoyed the synch sound

Kinda funny album; very sexual themes. Tainted Love is a certified banger of a cover.

2 bops. The rest was unbearable

I didn't really care for Tainted Love in the first place, and the rest of this album was pretty rough going for me.

I usually give albums that are just a single and barely any decent other songs a 2. But tainted love wasn’t good enough to justify the rest of it

É interessante. Se fosse mais curto podia ser um 4/5 ou, pelo menos, um 3/5 muito forte. Mas é um álbum, para mim, demasiado longo. Se tivesse menos 20/30 minutos era melhor. Como é obvio, um dos destaques é Tainted Love. Os outros destaques vão para Say Hello, Wave Goodbye e Youth. As músicas são todas do mesmo estilo característico da banda, mas são todas únicas e creativas. A última música (So) prova que a banda podia ter feito um álbum so instrumental que seria muito bom. Esta última música fez me lembrar muito os Air e o seu álbum Moon Safari.

3.5

3.5

I must admit I didn't get into the South until I was in college and one of my friends had a copy of it . Always loved "Tainted Love" but really got into many of the songs on this album. "Sex Dwarf", "Chip on my Shoulder", "Bedsitter".. And "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", which went to number three in the UK. Unfortunately it never charted in the US, but it's quite frankly the most emotional song of the album.. (8.75) ★★★★

Cool for a sunth pop album. A bit grity. 3.5 stars

This album starts off pretty cool. I like the 1-2 punch of "Frustration" and "Tainted Love". Unlike other synthpop of the 80s, there's sort of a snotty punkiness to Soft Cell that makes them a little cooler. Unfortunately, I think there's definitely a little to be desired after the first few tracks. The album does finish strongly with "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", which is probably the best thing the band ever wrote. 3.5 stars.

Begins pretty shittily and aggravating with the earachey aggro-fest Frustration but then it snaps into true all-time synth-soul classic Tainted Love and things become all right again. Seedy Films then sets the tone just fine for the rest of the album with its talk of sleazy city n sleepy people plus on top of that Sex Dwarf is just so sordid that it needs to be heard. As Kevin Eldon in his 2000 appearance of the cleaner in Black Books would say, dirty… nasty… shameful… very, very dirty! Overall a very dirty 3.5.

3/5 Tainted Love laps the field

Some favorite nostalgic songs on her. Vocals make sense on those. But for a lot of the album it felt like he was really straining for the notes. Off putting sounds on many songs.

They don’t really expect me to listen to a song called “Sex Dwarf,” do they? Oh they sure do. And it’s 5 minutes long.

Yeah not bas

Synth pop hasn't aged well, the only song on here worth its place is a questionable cover

Strong singles. So-so filler.

Great

Tainted love was okay, the rest was awful.

I generally quite 80s, but this is ... not good. It's fairly obvious why "Tainted Love" is the only track I knew, because the rest of this album is just really naff. I'm not a fan of the vocals, the synth stuff is mostly fine, but not all that interesting. "Seedy Films" was actively unpleasant to listen to. I loved the fact it had a saxophone but it was absolutely ruined by the wailing. The rest of the album was just uinteresting. Besides "Sex Dwarf" which was funny in a really cringy awkward way. Can't rate higher than a 2.

Sex Dwarf might be the funniest song I've ever heard what the hell is going on. The rest of this album is very boring. Not enough for me to hate it but enough for me to regret listening to it. This was a slog to get through. Every song finds a gimmick and plays it on repeat as if it's the greatest thing discovered in music. I respect them for trying something so out there but maybe they should have had some guidance telling them to reign it in a bit. They do genuinely have some interesting/good sounds but they can't figure out how to use them well. Mid 2

Soft Cell war bei mir als One Hit Wonder eingeparkt. Das ganze Album habe ich erst hier das erste Mal gehört. Da habe ich wohl was verpasst, gefällt mir überraschend gut. 3* + 1* für den Queerfaktor :-D

Fairlight synth on a diy record?

Let’s be honest we are only listening to this for tainted love, because that’s an absolute banger. Say hello, wave goodbye Torch Where did our love go All did a job for me actually. Some of this album is far fetched, I can see why it’s on here for the time it was out. Deep in the era and the vibes of the time. Has it got a timeless sound, definitely not, but it is a nice change to give this a listen all the same. Just glad I listened in private and didn’t have it on in a bathroom I was installing, client would have thought I was getting down and steamy. Middle of the road.

Think goes without saying that tainted love was the big hit off this album , also quite liked their interpretation of where did our love go , originally by the supremes It was a tongue in cheek album , not memorable as such but I found it fun , in terms of how it set the scene sleazing about in the 80s , the synth driven pop oozes out of every song probably a little too drastic at times Marc Almond has charisma as a lead singer and some tunes are catchy and flamboyant a little out of tune at times but that adds to the charachter of his voice , A good album but two good songs can’t carry it as a whole unfortunately

Only things I know about Soft Cell are Tainted Love and stories about Marc Almond and his love of depravity and nightclubbing heh. My dad probably has this one in his collection at home as Soft Cell are from Leeds and he was involved in that scene. I mean, Tainted Love is a certified banger and classic.. but when you get to the song Youth, the music isn't too bad but his vocals, kinda chalkboard-y at times and cringey. Sex Dwarf is a synth banger, love it for the title and bopping music in its own crazy way, and I mean the lyrics are just fun. Trent Reznor covered this one apparently in the 80s, which means points up for me. Marc Almonds voice is pretty iconic, even though it's out of tune and atonal at times but also alluring, you can't help but enjoy it even though you know you probably shouldn't.. some classic synth work on this one too, I bet this was fun to make in the studio playing with all those toys, in that way, I envy them. These boys also influenced so much pop music that succeeded it, for that you have to give them credit. Is it an album I'll listen to again and again? No. Are there some tracks I'll add to my playlists, yep - some good ones on here! Probably a 2/5 for me but I/d bump it to a 3 just because they're our boys from Leeds, they influenced so many great English and international bands. But I just can't bring myself to give it a 3.. sorry!

4/5. I think this can be a tough listen outside of the major singles for the average person — but for those who like this type of music, it's probably an outstanding album. My read on it is this is a couple of extremely talented dweebs having fun. It's a fun and competent album, oftentimes purposely ridiculous and silly. Naturally we have to talk about "Tainted Love," a legendary cover. It's punchy, dramatic, and keeps attention the whole way through. The bass double stops provide chills even on repeated listens. "Where Did Our Love Go?" is the other knockout here, and although not as hard hitting as "Tainted," it's just as timeless. It has a jaunty quality that is very much welcome considering the otherwise frenetic and aggressive nature of the album. But there's other good stuff here. "Youth" is haunting and beautiful. "Sex Dwarf" has a sinister chord progression and has a sick synth riff (I'm pretty sure it's a synth — I'm referring to the theremin sounding ooos that follow verses) throughout. You get lifting vocal melodies backed by churchlike synths, expressive vocals, and creative synth all the way through the album, and it never gets old despite safely staying within the synth pop guardrails. There's so much amazing stuff here — there's constant flashes of untamed brilliance. That untamed qualifier is a double-edged sword: Soft Cell appears to have put no limits on this album, trying everything they wanted to, whether it was old hat or cutting edge. I feel it would've benefited from some a stronger vision, or perhaps a more ruthless and destructive producer that might've cut or lessened some of the more madcap and distracting pieces in the album. But overall? It's great. A worthwhile listen for sure.

Tainted Love and Where Did Our Love Go by Soft Cell are iconic and some of my favorite 80s songs, but this was my first exposure to their other works and this album. It was also news to me that Tainted Love was a cover! First impression was a good sound, but kind of strange/pointed lyrics. Ultimately, like the other 80s album I got for The Human League just recently, I feel like the success of the single propelled the album, and I didn’t take much else from it.

Tainted Love is the only Soft Cell song that I knew beforehand and will likely be the only Soft Cell Song I enjoy haha.

This album got my through some dark times. Singing Yellow brick road helps me breathe during panic attacks.

Palpable sexual tension.

Ok

A lot of diddling and jiggling in this entertaining collection of pop songs. Glorious bouncy fun at the time.

es ist sehr sehr 80er wow. er singt 80er funny ich ha eig no gern, aber frustration isch etz nonig wüüürkli en song. die version vo tainted love isch chrank ebe. aso rieeese hot gsi, halt meeega catchy. aber au sooo tight und afoch guet arrangiert meega eifach. seedy films isch wieder nur en halbe song und INSANE horny. glaub eh alles megga horne.

ich han nöd gwüsst, dass tainted love es cover isch hahahah UND DASS ES SO CHURZ ISCH HANI IWIE AU NÖD CHEGGT? aber so oder so BANGER seedy films isch na cool? chli weird aber fun? sex dwarf isch WEIRD UI entertain me findi echt scheisse hahahaha aber no en geile übergang zu chips on my shoulder poah sorry ich han echt nüt chönne demit ahfange

Grappig te ontdekken dat de hit in feite een cover is van een soulnummer uit de vroege jaren zestig. Voor de rest moesten de heren (getuige het openingsnummer) kennelijk wat frustraaaaaatie ventileren. In eerste instantie werd ik wat kriegel van toon en onderwerpkeuze, maar gaandeweg luister je daar niet meer naar en blijft wat niet onaardige jarentachtigsynthpop over.

Na de eerste frustrerende soundbit klinkt kort een aardige basis voor de latere rave. Verder is dat nummer niet zo interessant. Later hoor je een vroege basis voor bijvoorbeels Praga Khan. Die begrijpelijk over het hoofd is gezien, maar wel een plekje in deze lijst verdient. En dat is dan ook de waarde van dit album. De meeste (duidelijke 80's) nummers stellen als geheel niet veel voor. Maar elementen springen eruit en hebben anderen flink geïnspireerd. 'Tainted love' is een positieve uitzondering en levert een dik bonuspunt.

Het was alweer even geleden, maar we zijn weer in de promiscue jaren 80 beland. Een beetje heel erg fout allemaal, je ziet het al aan de hoes. Maar ergens toch ook wel weer grappig. De zang is zoals gewoonlijk ietwat verveeld, al nemen ze zichzelf bloedserieus denk ik, ondanks hun maffe uiterlijk. Qua muziek is het new wave gemengd met electro, dus veel synths en drums uit een computertje. De zang, Brits uiteraard, is iets te prominent, verveeld en aanstellerig. Het doet me denken aan een soort kruising tussen Patrick Hernandez (Born to be Alive) en Frankie goes to Hollywood. Behoorlijk "vrolijke" muziek dus. Het is absoluut niet mijn stijl, ik kan het uitzitten, maar dit zet ik niet voor mijn eigen lol op. Dat een aantal nummers wel bekend zijn, vergemakkelijkt het luisteren. Ik zou een krappe 3 kunnen geven, maar vind dat eigenlijk teveel.

I thought it was a great debut album from Soft Cell! Obviously ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ are standout tracks but overall I thought this was a great new wave album that I would definitely listen to again in the future.

"Tainted Love" is not enough to overcome "Sex Dwarf".

Decent album with a couple hits. Middle of the album very good.

Tainted Love cant hold this up, "Seedy Films" had many flat vocal runs à la Yoko Ono. 1.5/5

Aside from the hits this is straight garbaggio.

sex dwarf

Better than expected

Kinda hated it all apart from Tainted Love. So pretentious.

Oh I love Tainted Love. I know this is about to be so cunt. Gay 80s is the definition of cunttttt. This is so fun and camp there are so many noises bro the vocals haven't heard a key in their lives I love it why are there moans in the background. This is so whipping my hair around in a club montage. Is it really a queer 80s album if there isn't a really weird sex song. I don't think so. This is a good album to listen to at a hockey game. I really like this guys voice he has a really interesting cadence. Very similar bases to some of the songs methinks. There are some standouts but a lot of them follow the same formula. With these kinda songs I can't really listen to the lyrics I just lockout and enjoy the vibe. I really like the vibe of this little twink in the video with the song. These songs were meant for vinyls I really believe it. Like even the ambiance created by have a record player crank these tunes would make all these 70s and 80s tracks way better tbh. Wait some of these are actually sweet that's cute. I kinda feel bad about it but for these kinda albums I only listen to half of the song then skip to the next lowkey there's not a lot happening. This is their debut that's crazy!! Tainted Love is a cover?? I know if I was a teenage girl in the 80s this would've gone platinum in my house bruh. And of course there's the instrumental. Favourite: Seedy Films Least favourite: Youth/What

This album is still as much fun (and wrong!) as it was when it came out! Say Hello Wave Goodbye deserves credit as an all time classic song, superb.

Great fun - bouncy synth pop made from the cheapest keyboards 1980 had to offer but capturing a gritty determination to fuck around and throw the best party possible. Dark, funny, ironic, detached, but earnestly throwing themselves into the moment.

This was electronic in a way I really didn’t enjoy. The vocals felt disconnected from the music, which was also jarring and unpleasant. Sex Dwarf was truly awful. Favorite song: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.

Tainted love. That's it.

I did not like this at all. "Tainted Love" was the only song I was familiar with, and that was okay. It's a 2.5 minute song and that was about how much time I wanted to spend here. I used to say that I hated 80's music, that was silly, but this vibe is exactly why I said it.

Tainted Love is a fabulous song. The rest of the album is everything you would make fun of about the 80's. Like... I can't tell if this is serious or Andy Kaufman level satire.

- 0 nummers toegevoegd aan MMMM - 0 nummers al toegevoegd aan MMMM

At first I didn’t get it, but then I got to ‘Sex Dwarf’ and now I understand why this is here.

2 stars for Tainted Love

Reminds me of dark seedy clubs with neons light. Totally my vibe.

Artsy synth-pop, nice

2 very good songs and 16 miserable ones. This was a challenge.

Groupe connu essentiellement par le tube 'Tainted Love'. C'est la première fois que j'écoute un album entier. Cet album contient 'Tainted Love', morceau que j'apprécie toujours autant (+1). L'instrumentation est un peu datée de nos jours (en particulier les percussions), mais j'apprécie les chorus de sax et clarinette, très réussis (+1). Seul regret : ils sont trop peu présents ! Je l'écouterais probablement de nouveau, mais il ne rejoindra pas ma collection. =>3/5

I can understand why this album is on this list. It has a fairly historical impact on music, club culture and open sexuality. That said, it feels very self indulgent and the production is fairly clunky.

Pure synthy 80’s, why were they having so much more fun than us in the 80’s?! Bring back synthy dance pop. Standouts: Tainted Love, Entertain Me

I don’t think we’ve properly examined the impact that a decade of Reagan and Thatcher had on the psyche of a people

This is the album one buys after hearing the radio song. They take it home and excitedly drop the needle. They suffer through track one, and then track two plays. “Great! This is why I bought this!” says our dear friend the consumer. Slowly (but surely) they find themselves full of regret, buyers remorse and shame that they were once fooled again by one catchy tune….

Sounds just like it’s supposed to. It’s gotta be cranked up LOUD to really get it, though.

Frustration - 5/10: I just wasn't really into it. I like the beat/ instruments (whatever you call it) but I'm not super obsessed with the vocals and lyrics. Tainted Love - 7/10: I like the beat on this song. Seedy Films - 4/10: I like the beat. Youth - 7/10: I like the vocals and beat on this song. Sex Dwarf - 2/10: It's just kind of weird. Entertain Me - 5/10: I think the beat is okay. Chips on My Shoulder - 3/10: Just didn't stand out to me. Bedsitter - 3/10: Same as the last one. Secret Life - 6/10: I like the vocals and beat on this song. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - 4/10: Just a little boring. Overall Score: 46/100 Overall Rating: 3/10 - I didn't really enjoy the album, the vocals were a big part of that. They weren't terrible, but sometimes he was just screaming and it was just weird. I don't see myself listening to this album again.

nope. Did not really like this at all. Goofy 80s production. Only a couple of songs were worth listening to and even then nothing was exceptional. Just not good

Teenage kicks! Maybe doesn't quite deserve before but I'm giving it one anyway due to a banger and some weirdness

Actually not bad. I wasn’t looking forward to this based on the description, but was reasonably enjoyable. 3.5/5

I assessed a two-star penalty for "Sex Dwarf." Then I realized I couldn't go to -1.

Soft shit by Soft Cell Brit pop at its worst, a lot to dislike about this album. Even their “hit” cover song “Tainted Love” has not aged particularly well, Manson’s more recent version outduels it.

me after five songs: surely this erotic cabaret will stop soon marc almond and dave ball: hold on tight, spider monkey

80s camp disco mush without the charisma, variations in synth use or hooks in the songwriting. And WAY too long. Struggling to think of many people willingly playing through the whole album without it happening to be required by this 1001 world we inhabit. Could have been a 1 if a few of the more bearable songs weren’t there.

Typical 80's synth pop machine. It has aged but suppose it is something of a novelty especially for the time. Has some solid bones but the 80s pop twist isnt my prefered format and this album is not the best example. Tainted love was a strong song that they covered but original was better and even gothy Manson did a better job. Their seedy 80s, synth pop fest was fine for it but not leveled up. They take the energy out of the songs somehow is my feeling. Right music slightly wrong band is my conclusion and dont mind it as there were some stronger songs skattered about. Could have been 2 or 3 so will just go with my gut on this one on the day.

This is definitely a vibe... Just not a vibe I particularly want to indulge in. I can see why it's on the list because it seems like a perfect example of a specific type of music from a specific time and place. Probably someone's jam but it's definitely not mine, despite 'Sex Dwarf' which is crying out for a metal cover.

Ok

I like the urban underworld aesthetic it gives off, I don't know if that's the album art doing the lifting but it's a valid part of the experience, sounds musically unique enough for a synthpop album and Marc Almond's voice lifts it well (or pushes it deeper into the concrete darkness)

Where to start. Horrible out of tune vocals. Pitiful lyrics. Total lack of talent. Single hit is a cover. Unnecessary long suffering. It can only be understood as a parody, but apparently it is not. 2/10

About 3 songs on this album I LOVE...the rest are annoying.

#817. Look, we all already knew Tainted Love was amazing before going into this, but the rest of this album is the epitome of mediocre. Reminds me of Alien Ant Farm who did the same thing 20 years later- had one huge hit that was just a cover of someone else's song that everyone loved, but was unable to maintain that with their own music. 2/5: meh

Let’s be honest…..for those of the era, they know one song from Saft Cell. The rest of the album sounds way too similar. I saw them in concert this summer and except for Tainted Love, it was one long song.

Edge lords. Flere af sangene lyder som Taintet Love. Ret godt underholdt, men fik nok til sidste af et 7 minutter lange nummer, det viste sig heldigvis at være CD bonus tracks, så jeg lukkede den dér.

Tainted Love er klasse. Resten af albummet har svært ved at nå samme niveau.

the cover doesn't lie: this album is not for the young'ins. Soft Cell's famous cover of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" went down smoothly enough to hit #1 in 17 countries, but how many of those people do you think heard "Sex Dwarf" or saw its music video, both of which caused a major outcry in the British tabloids? "Seedy Films" also doesn't leave much to the imagination. it makes me wonder if anyone actually found these songs titillating at the time, or if it was just the usual conservative moral panic cycle; maybe it's the cultural barrier (with Marc Almond's accent and all), but I find this album mostly goofy rather than erotic. the synth sounds (both the keyboards and the drums) are really tacky and dated, which doesn't help. like, what the hell is happening on "Secret Life"? I'll keep "Frustration" (complete with its gloriously cheesy tenor sax from Dave Tofani), "Tainted Love" and the iconic new wave ballad "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", but the rest is simply not my cuppa. decent 5/10.

“Tainted Love” earns its place in pop history without argument, and there are a couple early moments where the album hints at something sharper and more focused. But beyond that, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret steadily loses me. Tracks like “Youth” leave little impression, and “Entertain Me” crosses the line from provocative into simply annoying. I get what the record is trying to do. The sleaze, the camp, the discomfort. It’s intentionally theatrical and confrontational, more performance art than traditional pop album. The problem is that the provocation doesn’t reward the time it asks for. Too often the songs feel stretched past their ideas, leaning on mood and shock rather than musical payoff. I don’t hate it, and I can appreciate its place in early synth-pop history. But enjoyment matters, and this just doesn’t deliver much of it for me. Outside of its iconic single, it’s an album I respect far more for what it represents than for how it sounds. A two-star record: interesting in concept, thin and grating in execution, and not something I feel any urge to revisit.

Tainted Love and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye are such great tunes, and the rest is pleasantly sleazy.

7 - GOOD

Favorite track(s): Frustration, Sex Dwarf, Chips on My Shoulder

Soft Cell show a talent for creating atmosphere. Tainted Love is definitely a timeless hit while the rest of the album is often much darker and satirical. The opener takes a grim look at ordinary life and sets the tone very well. A few songs in the latter half were topically interesting but sonically uninteresting. Still, the closer is an oddly bittersweet moment that ties everything up well.

Sex Dwarf is a great name for a song

sometimes horny on main is acceptable. this is one of those times.

Two hit 80’s wonder

Very, very 80’s

Cocaine induced club music. Man the 80s were great.

Didn't do it for me.

27/1089 3.0037* Soft Cell is a quinticential 80s band and sound. Fortunately, all 4 of their hits are on the album but the other tunes fit perfectly as a soundtrack to any number of 80s movies or shows. Miami Vice? Check. Band of the Hand? Check. Less Than Zero? You know it. SC really hit it out of the park and fit in, if not pioneered, perfectly with the early 80s synth rock and I could listen to the hits another few hundred times. Hits...tainted, sex dwarf, SHWG, where has our love gone

3 stars I first heard this album from a review exchange when I would write for epinions when I was 13. A 40-something Gen Xer gave me this album and I gave him the LA punk band X Los Angeles album. My take away then is not so far off from how it lands for me now. There is catchy stuff on here. In fact, I haven’t listened to the album in years but I still remembered almost all the songs, which is saying something. I wouldn’t say I love it or that I’d return to it out of my own interest but it is not a bad time.

It’s a lot better when it’s sleezy and the synth is all crunchy and gross, some of the slower songs sorta feel like all the other songs at the time. Sex Dwarf really is an insane name for a song that sounds that good.

Standout Songs: Tainted Love Bedsitter Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

woof... too much squelching and squealing for my taste. Tainted love is a banger but this is another example of a song that deserves to be on the list of best songs but the album has no place on the list of best albums

Los tres singles son geniales. No es un disco para oir entero (sonido limitado), pero aún así por el cariño que le tengo se merece un 4.

Habe es schon vor ein paar Wochen nach dem Todesfall gehört - ist für mich leider nur ein One Hit Wonder. Rest des Albums hat mich gar nicht abgeholt.

Puh, abgesehen von "Tainted Love" finde ich den Rest des Albums erstaunlich langweilig bis anstrengend.

An "Tainted Love" kommt hier nichts ran (ist ja auch ein Cover), aber ich war überrascht, wie cool die Songs hier teilweise sind. Manchmal etwas überfrachtet, aber dennoch ziemlich spannend. Die B-Seiten sind ganz in Ordnung aber größtenteils eher überflüssig.

Keine Ahnung warum, aber dass hat mich irgendwie richtig gecatched. Hat sehr viel Spaß gemacht!

Tainted Love ist natürlicb unbestritten, aber der Rest des Albums fühlt sich sehr anstrengend an.

Das Album ist ein Paradebeispiel dafür, wie sehr das Radio den Horizont einschränkt. Tainted Love repräsentiert dieses Album nämlich denkbar schlecht, den Grad an Experimentierfreude hatte ich nicht ansatzweise erwartet. Dementsprechend gut gefallen hat mir der Durchgang, es kratzt sogar an der 5, aber dafür waren dann doch zu viele Lückenfüller drin für meinen Geschmack.

Schönes 80s Feeling, Tainted Love ist über jeden Zweifel erhaben aber alles andere ist dann sehr gleichförmig leider

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'.

I knew the hits, but the rest of the album surprised. Solid 80's synth.

Fun!

Single hitter . Mostly fast forward to the end

Disappointing. Not unpleasant, just the same song over and over feeling ! Is voice is quite annoying after a while too. Tainted love and thats it !! 2.5

Pretty bad songs, vocals and lyrics... 1.5

sexy and weird

Fabulous dark fun

Pretty poo. Not my type of music

3 For Tainted Love

What the hell is this

Enjoyable album, iconic hit single.

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

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

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.

Tainted Love is a bop but the rest of the album was just okay. Not bad but nothing else really blew me away other than the album cover of two nerds coupled with the album title. A classic case of “One Single doesn’t make for a must listen album”

Tainted Love -classic. Rest of the album…meh

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

Tainted Love is a banger and I can see why this is on the list but that doesn't make it very good. 2/5.

It's not bad also not good either. Would have never gone outta my way to listen to this album, so glad I was forced to listen to it to have an opinion Besides knowing Tainted Love. Seedy Films and Bedsitter aren't bad tracks.

♫ Listening to "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell (Non Stop Erotic Cabaret (Deluxe Edition), 1981) ♫ ★★★★★

Famous tainted love, rest is quite dynamic

Such a vibe.

***An ok album, easy listening

Soft Cell is the electro-Devo with Marc Almond’s twisted world view expanding the pop dictionary to include a thorough examination of kink and sexuality as well as perception. Opener Frustration hints at what is to come “I am so ordinary…I’m so tired of hard luck stories…” and yet the album is filled with stories and most of them hard luck stories. Musically, it is hard to argue with the genius of the Tainted Love cover- Gloria Jones recorded in 1964 the original and it was a northern soul stomper but Soft Cell’s synth pop cover elevates it into the contemporary pop sphere. Seedy Films captures the nightlife of Blue City which is a euphemism for the drug filled dance clubs of the late 70s and early 80s where the nightlife was seedier, kinkier and definitely sleezy. Sex Dwarf and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye are also classics that surprisingly stand up after 40 years because they are catchy, interesting and because there is nothing really like Marc Almond other than perhaps Kevin Rowland of Dexy’s Midnight Runners who also mines similar territory. Actually this is a record that still belongs in this list. It was an album derivative of no other act and represents a complete work of disco inspired synth pop with lyrics you can sing along with (although singing a couple of these songs may get you some side eye). A fun, not too serious pop record, that somehow avoids all pretentiousness, is surely a worthy record to include in this list. 4/5

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.

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

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.

I'm done with the 80s at the moment

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

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.

1.3/5

meeeeeeeeeeeh. 2.50

Do you remember back in the day thatbyou used to buy an album based on the lead single and then, finally listening to the album, you realise it is all crap. That's how I felt listening to this. "Tempted love" is great ( but wait, isn't it a cover?) But the rest is quite 80's synthpop that I remember being annoying.

2/5

Okay. Good.

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

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

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?

Two hits. Pretty long. It was ok

The covers were great, the rest were not

Pretty good.

1980s edgy synth pop extraordinaire. The voices of soft cell are actually the voices of the whole decade for me. I knew tainted love and where did our love go? but it gets SO much weirder, in a really good way. I like the punchy repetitiveness. All in all, this got me in a funky mood and kept me interested!

Tainted Love almost brought this to a 2 but it's a cover so I am not letting the one good song on this save it from a 1. Also, Sex Dwarf, lol but what in the actual fuck

Some good songs.

Horny in an off-putting way. 2 stars because of Tainted Love, otherwise this would be a 1.

Cabe destacar que este álbum tiene un sonido bien representativo de la década de los 80s, en un buen sentido. Si te gusta esa sonoridad es un álbum disfrutable. Pero en mi experiencia, por una serie de razones este álbum me resultó insoportable. Por un lado la voz, tiene un timbre y forma de expresión muy común de la época, pero el problema es que es desgastante, todo el tiempo esa forma de expresión laxa termina cansando. Por otro lado, los temas son bailables, muy de club, pero en la escucha se vuelven demasiado repetitivos, además de que son muy largos. El álbum en su totalidad es demasiado largo. Sumado a que los temas son largos, parece que el álbum no se terminara nunca. Si se hubiesen seleccionado los mejores temas del álbum (temas como "Tainted Love" y "Where Did Our Love Go") la experiencia sería mucho mejor.

While it has Tainted Love and Where Did Our Love Go I continue to find myself ignoring the rest of the album. If this practice of listening to these albums has taught me anything its that I have way more musical knowledge then I thought but need to spend more time listening deeply.

Yeah this was written by some horny dudes alright. The beats and melody generally remind me of what I think a cheap strip club would be like. On this album you’ll enjoy brilliantly written lyrics such as: “I was born, one day I’ll die” and “sex dwarf (sex dwarf), mmmmm sex dwarf.” The post-nut clarity will go crazy

For noe absolutt dritt. værste jeg har hørt

2.5 stars rounded up thanks to Tainted Love. Rocky Horror Picture Show vibes.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - one great song does not make an album good. This version of Tainted Love is absolutely an 80s classic, but the rest of the album is pretty bad. But kudos to Soft Cell for having a song called Sex Dwarf. 2.5⭐️ (1.5⭐️ of which is for Tainted Love)

Despite having a good cover of Tainted Love, the whole album sounds very average to me. Nothing truly exciting. 3 stars.

Really surprised how fun I found this.

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

bye

It's alright, I did expect more from this!

So much better than i remembered

Only liked maybe two or three songs and really struggled with the rest

"Tainted Love" is 10/10 5 stars forever, but the rest of this album is bland and uninteresting. I suppose I had too high of hopes for an album with a song called "Sex Dwarf," which wasn't entirely terrible, surprisingly. There are some new wave albums on here where they have one absolutely outstanding song that seems to have led to some critics finding the whole album worthy, when that's not the case at all (looking at you, A-ha). If this list was 1001 songs you need to hear before you die, I'd put "Tainted Love" on there, but given how many glaring omissions there are on this list, this album has no business being on here.

FUN

Surprisingly cool

This had the one good song of tainted love but otherwise I couldn’t name a single song

Kind of fun not sure if I’m gonna be listening to this over and over but I do like the sounds of it where everything was so artificial sanding in the early 80s

Not much good besides Tainted Love.

A few great songs. Also sex dwarf

I have a tough time rating 80s synth stuff because it’s really not my style. Looking back at my previous scores for inspiration… Depeche Mode got 4. Decent. Enjoyed that more. Teardrop Explodes got 2. Pants. Enjoyed this more. I guess that makes this a 3?? That feels generous but I’m going with it and reserve the right to downgrade later.

I enjoyed this album quite a lot. I’m a huge sucker for 80’s synth pop and this was no exception. Will definitely add it to my regular rotation.

Good album, tained love is a great song, the rest of the album is out of left park. Sex dwarf is weird as hell. Some songs were weird, some songs were ok. I am feeling a 3star

This was pretty cool, somewhere between 3 and 4 for me