Aww, I guess that’s no more records, though I’m heartened to hear of the one next year. I would have hated Happiness not included be their final release: it’s not a bad album, it just doesn’t feel great (in the dictionary sense). Given that they went 17 years both between their third and fourth one and their fourth and fifth one, it’s lucky indeed that Ball died a mere eight years after their fifth.

Nobody can replace him in Soft Cell. He’s the less prolific, though; I’m pretty sure all he put out were the five (soon to be six) Soft Cell albums (and an EP), unless he had a solo career beyond just a couple of albums I didn’t know about, like Martin Rev. If Soft Cell were to disband forever because one-half of the group died, I’d rather it be Ball than Almond. Marc Almond has a long solo career and this just means more albums, hopefully more frequent than the Soft Cell ones.