Album Review- Marc Almond and Chris Braide

 I have spent a great deal of time recently talking about Marc Almond so I probably don’t need to recap.

Still, one of the more interesting developments has been his recent partnership with Chris Braide. As esoteric as some of his work is, Marc has always kept an ear to pop radio.

So Braide doesn’t seem like an obvious match. He’s most famous for another collaboration- his work with Sia. Besides Almond, most of his other work is a who’s who of radio stars- Halsey, Lana del Rey, Britney, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, David Guetta, Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj and a multitude of movie and advertising work.

Braide is also an accomplished pianist and so Chaos and The Hits- credited to both- a January 2020 Royal Albert Hall concert stays pretty close to what you expect.

At 37 songs,it’s a wealth of Marc. Fans who haven’t heard the recent material get their chance to hear the Almond/Braide collaborations (which feature heavy, obviously- Last year’s Chaos and a Dancing Star but also 15’s The Velvet Trail) alongside with the greatest hits and a few surprise detours (Sia’s “Unstoppable” and some deeper Almond cuts).

As big of a fan I am, I reckon that this really is for the fans. While I love his music and have the CD of a previous Royal Albert Hall concert, he released in 92 as 12 Years of Tears, I would surely advise potential new listeners to the studio records first, or at least that earlier disc which plays almost as a Greatest Hits.

But if you’re looking for a hook, this album offers two. First, Marc pays tribute to the other Marc with a quick (about four minutes total) sojourn covering T Rex’s Children of the Revolution and Dandy in the Underworld.

The second is someone who has also started to work with Almond and is as unlikely as Braide- Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.

Anderson adds flute to Almond’s most well
known songs as well as recent single Lords of Misrule and a cover of Tull’s Witches Promise.

This is a good document of where Almond has been in recent years. It does all the things live Records traditionally did- hypes the recent records and brings old fans up to speed, while providing an overview to more casual fans. So hardly essential but nothing wrong with that.