Fantastic Star (RSD 23)

For Record Store Day 2023 Universal Music Catalogue are making Marc Almond’s stunning 1995 solo album ‘Fantastic Star’ available on vinyl for the first time ever. Newly mastered for 180 gm vinyl at Abbey Road Studios, the original CD album has been completely re-evaluated by Marc himself to bring fans this new ‘Artist’s Cut’ over this deluxe 2LP version.

Despite delivering some of the best-loved Marc Almond songs of the era – ‘Adored & Explored’, ‘The Idol’ and ‘Come In Sweet Assassin’ and ‘We Need Jealousy’, for example – ‘Fantastic Star’ had a long and sometimes troubled gestation with recording sessions spanning two record companies and four big-name producers –original Soft Cell / Bronski Beat producer Mike Thorne, the legendary Cure / Banshees / Beautiful South collaborator Mike Hedges, house pioneers The Beatmasters and The Human League / Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware all made sonic contributions.

The resulting album was a thrilling, sonically varied ride through all the genres Marc had already made his own – from grimy guitar-based rock ‘n roll to beautifully orchestrated ballads, and from cutting-edge electronica to out-and-out pop music.

For this long-overdue vinyl release Marc has revisited the original running order and looked again at some of the tracks from the sessions that didn’t make the album but later appeared as singles B-sides. Making his own cuts, Marc has removed two songs from the CD format – the long version of ‘The Idol’ in favour of the punchier single version as well as ‘Shining Brightly’ which he feels never really belonged on ‘Fantastic Star’. In their place the Neal-X co-write and live favourite to this day ‘The User’ gets a promotion to LP2 as do two gorgeous ‘Child Star’ B-sides which close the album in a more satisfactory way – ‘Christmas In Vegas’ and ‘My Guardian Angel’.

In a similar spirit Marc also selected his original choice of image for the album cover, selecting his favourite shot from 1995 sessions by legendary fashion photographer Zanna. ‘Fantastic Star – The Artist’s Cut’ comes with two fully annotated printed inner bags with lyrics and a new design by Philip Marshall.