Featuring the actual Trevor Horn produced Tenement Symphony sequence restored 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 and The Mambas, The Willing Sinners) on the emotionally charged tracks ‘Vaudeville and Burlesque’, ‘Beautiful Brutal Thing’ and ‘Champagne’.