As you probably know, Dave Ball from Soft Cell and The Grid died at the age of 66 last year, in 2025. Dave and Soft Cell vocalist Marc Almond had been working on new material right before he passed away, and those songs are now getting a release. Apparently the album was finished two days before Dave’s passing.
This new album is called “Danceteria”, and the new single, out now, is also appropriately called “Danceteria”. Check out the video below.
There’s a lengthy press release accompanying the news, where Marc talks about the album. Some snippets below.
“Danceteria is a love letter to New York in the early ’80s. The time we spent in New York – where we recorded our first three albums – shaped us both as artists and people. To celebrate this period is a fitting farewell to Dave Ball and the final Soft Cell studio album.”
“There can be no more recordings of Soft Cell without Dave, it would not be possible. The sad reality is that Dave Ball was half of Soft Cell, and live work aside, I can’t write Soft Cell songs without him.”
“Soft Cell have always had a strong connection with New York, and my Soft Cell lyrics often look at America through British eyes. New York in the 1980s was a particularly creative place for me. It was a pivotal era in terms of changes in my personal life and changes in the city itself. New York shaped Soft Cell as it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It was dirty, dark and dangerous – a real Wild West – but it was also deeply inspiring and exciting. A lot of our original influences came from America anyway: New York punk, Devo, Suicide, Lou Reed, disco and 1960s soul. But New York was like nowhere else on earth. There were 24-hour nightclubs, music, art and underground theatre. It offered a cornucopia of energy and edge, and the lyrics on ‘Danceteria’ reflect that time of my life.”
Pre-orders are open now and you can get several different vinyl editions, CDs, cassettes, you name it. Bundles galore!