Listen to this track by Tainted Love men and synth-pop vectors Soft Cell. It’s “Bedsitter”, a single as taken from 1981’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. This song was a part of a set of songs that explored landscapes of anonymous club liasons, drugs, and all around seediness that reflected the environments responsible for them; New York, where the record was made, and London, the city in which Soft Cell were based at the time.

Even if the times and places in which this song was made were influential on how the music came out, then so was the mood and emotional states of singer and lyricist Marc Almond. This is not a happy tune, with fun times out at the clubs on Saturday finding the song’s narrator at home alone on Sunday morning. Is that any kind of place for a pop star? Well, therein lies the genius of this song. It’s not about the pop star; it’s about the audience.

Besides the scenes and themes of indulgence of course, we get a whole point of view that sheds light on, or perhaps casts shadows on, the mindset of a whole subset of music fan listening to the radio, or watching Top of The Pops in 1981. Read more