Marc Almond: Tenement Symphony (6 CD + DVD Box Set - Imported)

First ever deluxe expanded edition of Marc Almond’s landmark seventh studio album.
Originally released in 1991, this collaboration with Trevor Horn yielded three Top 40 UK hits!
Exclusive to this boxed edition are four unique CDs adding to a total 76 audio tracks, 34 of them never previously having been commercially released. Plus a DVD that showcases all three promo videos and Marc Almond’s five contemporaneous BBC TV appearances.
The actual Trevor Horn produced ‘Tenement Symphony’ sequence opens CD1 as was his original intention, with the dramatic statement of the orchestral ‘Prelude’ as a precursor to the intoxicating energy of lead hit single, ‘Jacky’, as written by Jacques Brel.
‘Tenement Symphony’ was an attempt, at the time, to make the definitive Marc Almond album as masterminded by Warner Music UK’s then chairman Rob Dickins. The effect of the album was meant to be like looking through the windows of different rooms in a tenement building and hearing a bouquet of narrative songs about disparate characters residing therein. It saw the first post-breakup rekindling of the songwriting partnership with Soft Cell’s Dave Ball (with The Grid’s Richard Norris) on the three techno-torch tracks ‘Meet Me In My Dream’, ‘I’ve Never Seen Your Face’ and UK hit ‘My Hand Over My Heart’. It was an album that also featured three co-writes with Marc’s long-standing collaborator and arranger Billy McGee (Marc & The Mambas, The Willing Sinners) on the emotionally charged tracks ‘Vaudeville & Burlesque’, ‘Beautiful Brutal Thing’ and ‘Champagne’.
Complementing the 11 tracks of the original album on CD 1 are a collection of songs which were used as B-sides to the different formats of the album’s three hit singles, ‘Jacky’ (UK#17), ‘My Hand Over My Heart’ (UK#33) and ‘The Days Of Pearly Spencer’ (UK#4). Many of these ‘B-sides evidence such stellar songwriting quality that they could have easily created a double album back in the day to showcase all the contemporaneous contributing talents of Trevor Horn, The Grid, John Coxon and Billy McGee.
CD2 collates the officially released remixes, extended versions, lesser heard 7” version variants of the album’s singles and more! Tracks worth singling out are Marc’s joyous cover version of Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’, a previously unheard John Coxon 12” Mix of ‘My Hand Over My Heart’ and the 7” edit of the shelved 4th single from the album, ‘What Is Love?’
Further insights into the repertoire that made up the ‘Tenement Symphony’ album project are contained in the exclusive four CDs that follow the development of the album’s songs through the inclusion of early versions, demos, variant mixes, backing tracks and live renditions including multiple unheard remixes of unreleased singles ‘What Is Love?’ and ‘Beautiful Brutal Thing’ and the unissued Phil Harding and Ian Curnow Remix of ‘Jacky’. The package also contains a 32-page booklet full of lyrics, photos and listening notes and a fold out poster.