Tainted love kinda grows on ya, and every so often you just need to hear it again. So, if your vinyl copy is fading, or you don't want to play it on that old turntable, then it's good to have this. Oldies fans (I'm talking ancient oldies) will love Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart. It alone is worth buying the CD for! Gene Pitney belts out his vocals as if he was still making music like he did way back when!!
May 15, 2001 |  | A great album for a casual fan. |  |
It seems that most Marc Almond fans don't like this album very much, and I can understand that, but for me, Memorabilia: The Singles is perfect. The first half contains some of Soft Cell's best songs, and the second half of the album is Marc Almond's solo work. Many of the songs are remixes, but a casual fan won't care as they are very similar to the originals. Marc has a beautiful voice, definitely one of my favorites; unfortunately his lyrics are sometimes weak and he occasionally comes off as a bit too exuberant. Regardless, this is one of my favorite discs. Standout tracks include "Torch," "Tears Run Rings," and "Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart" (a duet with Gene Pitney). If you like "Tainted Love," you should give this a try!
November 14, 2000 | | Waiting for a REAL Marc Almond Greatest Hits.... | |
This collection is anything but complete (where are all the tracks from his solo albums from 1984 to 1987???), there are not all the Soft Cell hits, and most of the tracks are remixed versions, so I would recommend to buy the original albums instead. "I Feel Love" is a bad track, and I can't understand why there is a 12" mix of "Say Hello Wave Goodbye '91"... I would have preferred "Stories Of Johnny", "Love Letter", "Tenderness Is A Weakness", "Melancholy Rose", "Black Heart" (from the brilliant Marc And The Mambas release "Torment And Toreros") and "Only The Moment". Waiting for a real Greatest Hits collection, I'm not very satisfied with this one, althought it contains many strong tracks like "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart" with Gene Pitney and a very good remix of "Memorabilia" (much better than the original).
October 21, 2000Okay, so I have been listening to Marc Almond for nearly 16 years now and I have most of his LP's and singles. This CD has to be probably the worst out of the lot, but not for the singing- I actually liked the remix of Soul Inside (His vocals are much more distinct in this version)and Say Hello Wave Goodbye (sans the last note accidentally flatted).
What disappointed me so much was the fact that this CD skips over the 5 albums which I feel are the most important to his career. His 3 solo albums: Vermin In Ermine, Stories of Johnny, Mother Fist and her Five Daughters, and his two Mambas releases: Untitled and Torment and Toreros. I felt that having ignored these 5 albums put a big gap into the listeners understanding of where Marc has been and what he has been doing during the mid to late 80's.
If you like the first half of this CD I suggest you purchase the Soft Cell CD's are go from there; however, do not miss out on the 5 albums I listed above. If you only like the last half of the CD, skip the Soft Cell, and start with Vermin in Ermine and work cronologically. Trust me, it sounds NOTHING like Soft Cell, but at least you can hear where his original musings took him.
Regardless, it is a Marc Almond release, and although it has YET ANOTHER version of "Tainted Love" on it, it is a good jumping point for those who are not familiar with his solo releases. March 30, 2000
Marc Almond is a totally wonderful guy
December 29, 1999More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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