Erasure star Andy Bell has shared a brand new track today, ‘Dance For Mercy’, the latest to be taken from his forthcoming solo album, Ten Crowns – set for release on May 2nd on vinyl (white, oxblood and picture disc available), CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings. The album coincides with a UK tour, followed by a run of European dates, with North American dates to be announced soon.
Talking about the track, Andy explains, “Sometimes I wonder how many lives (God, or whatever you wanna call it) has given me: from heart attacks, to HIV, to being run over as a kid, nearly drowning in the sea and smashing over the handlebars of my bicycle into a brick wall! I have no idea why any of us are here, so it’s best just to have a bloody good dance!”
The new track follows the BBC Radio 2 playlisted single, ‘Don’t Cha Know’, and ‘Breaking Thru The Interstellar’, spectacular introductions to Ten Crowns – 10 tracks of dazzling, joyous pop, produced and polished in Nashville, inspired by the dancefloor and gospel – marking a majestic moment in his career.
No stranger to collaboration – his four decades of writing and recording with Vince Clarke as Erasure are still going strong and the duo recently began work on a new album together – Bell threw himself into writing with close friend Dave Audé, the Grammy award-winning producer, remixer and DJ. Their work together is euphoric, and to top the celebrations, they invited Andy’s ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, to join Andy on vocals for ‘Hearts A Liar’.
Andy and Dave had previously collaborated on two US dance chart number ones together: 2014’s ‘Aftermath (Here We Go)’ and 2016’s ‘True Original’, and after those dance tracks, the pair “just kind of carried on writing as an exercise”, Andy explains, “and after that, Dave moved his family to Nashville because LA was so expensive, and so our writing took this kind of gospel-tinged Nashville twist.”
He describes how in Nashville there’s a church on every corner (“it reminded me of singing in choirs and cathedral school as a child, where the spirit of the church is imbued in the music”). Not that Ten Crowns is a sombre, spiritual set. It’s propulsive, electronic, passionate, driven by the need to encounter new emotions and experiences as life races on. “I mean, I’ve got everything I could possibly wish for, you know, I really have, but that’s not to say I’m always fulfilled,” Andy adds. “This album’s about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, embracing life – and about taking that feeling on even when you’re fighting demons in the world, like homophobia, and fighting demons in yourself. It’s about being celebratory and uplifting.”
Ten Crowns marks a magisterial moment in Andy Bell’s forty-year career. His joy about what that holds, and where it can go, clearly excites him. “It’s my third (sort of) solo record [following 2005’s Electric Blue and 2010’s Non-Stop] and in Erasure, our third album was our most successful out of all that we’ve done, so I’m taking that spirit with me!”
Traveling into new dimensions and possibilities with gospel in the heart and dancing in the soul clearly suits him. Ten Crowns is Andy Bell imperial, gleaming, ready for his coronation.
