Soft Cell Share ‘Mini Noir’ Single ‘Bruises on My Illusions’ From First Album in 20 Years

Soft Cell have shared their new single “Bruises on My Illusions” from the synth-pop duo’s first album in 20 years, *Happiness Not Included.

Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball — the duo behind Eighties hits like “Tainted Love,” “Sex Dwarf,” and “Bedsitter” — will release their new LP on February 25th, 2022; Soft Cell last released Cruelty Without Beauty in 2002.

Almond said of the new track, “’Bruises on My Illusions’ is a mini film noir Soft Cell story about a disillusioned character with everything against him or her who still has hope for a better future, despite the odds. A darker ‘Bedsitter’. Dave’s ominous yet punchy defiant chords inspired the song.” 

Ball added, “One of our darker cinematic pop moments with a classic Marc Almond lyric.”

Both *Happiness Not Included and a 12-inch vinyl single of “Bruises on My Illusions” — featuring remixes of the song and the bonus track “Vapourise” — are available to preorder now. The LP itself tackles subjects like Almond’s disenchantment with the future and the media landscape, as well as the inevitability of death.

Despite playing their “last ever final show” in 2018 — at the time, their first concert in 15 years — Soft Cell will return to touring once more in 2022 with a handful of U.K. gigs that will *Happiness Not Included tracks alongside a full-album performance of their 1981 classic Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.