A legendary synthpop act is preparing to say goodbye. Earlier today, Soft Cell revealed details of their sixth and final album, Danceteria. It arrives September 25, 2026.
The album is both a love letter to early ’80s New York and a tribute to Dave Ball, Soft Cell’s pioneering multi-instrumentalist and producer, who passed away on October 22, 2025. Dave and Soft Cell singer Marc Almond completed the album just two days before Dave’s death, making it one of his final bodies of work.
Soft Cell also released the album’s title track, along with a dazzling video created by collage artist Vicki Bennett. The video ends with a tribute card that reads “In loving memory of Dave Ball.”
Danceteria concludes nearly 50 years music
Danceteria marks the end of Soft Cell’s 47-year recording career, and Marc has confirmed there will be no future Soft Cell albums without Dave.
There can be no more recordings of Soft Cell without Dave. It would not be possible. The sad reality is that Dave Ball was half of Soft Cell, and live work aside, I can’t write Soft Cell songs without him.
That gives Danceteria a poignancy that hangs over the entire announcement. Soft Cell have always dealt in contrast: glamour and sleaze, pleasure and danger, romance and ruin. Now their final album serves as both a celebration and a goodbye.
SOFT CELL return to early ’80s New York
Danceteria takes its name from the legendary Manhattan nightclub where Marc and Dave partied after recording sessions for their seminal 1981 debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
The club became a creative playground for the two art school students from Leeds Polytechnic. It was a place of music, art, fashion, nightlife, queer community, and self-expression. It was also where Marc saw one of Madonna’s earliest performances, following a tip from Sire Records founder Seymour Stein. Coincidentally, Madonna is currently promoting her own upcoming album, Confessions II, which also contains a track called “Danceteria” about the New York institution.
That setting appears to shape the album’s entire concept. According to the announcement, Danceteria follows a day in early ’80s New York, moving from night to bleary daybreak and back into the club. Here’s how Marc describes the era:
New York in the 1980s was a particularly creative place for me. It was a pivotal era in terms of changes in my personal life and changes in the city itself. New York shaped Soft Cell, as it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. It was dirty, dark and dangerous—a real Wild West—but it was also deeply inspiring and exciting.
SOFT CELL release new “Danceteria” single
The title track, “Danceteria,” is the first proper single from the album. It previously appeared as an extended mix on limited white 12-inch vinyl for Record Store Day 2026, along with a classic house rework by music producers Mark Moore and Dan Donovan.
The song is a joyous, upbeat burst of vintage disco-pop. That means it sits a little outside the realm of melancholic synthpop I usually write about, but its bright, glittering energy feels true to the album’s concept.
There’s also a futuristic sheen to the production, especially in the vocal pitch-shifting of the titular phrase. Its verses have a Neil Tennant-like talk-rap cadence, while the chorus turns the phrase “higher than high” into a drug-laced double entendre. At one point, Marc delivers an autobiographical line about the infamous Madonna performance.
Earlier this year, Soft Cell released the album closer, “Out Come the Freaks,” a cover of the 1981 mutant disco classic by Was (Not Was). The track features guest vocals from Nona Hendryx, the iconic singer of Labelle.
Danceteria follows *Happiness Not Included
When Danceteria arrives in September, it will be Soft Cell’s sixth studio album. It follows their 2022 comeback album, *Happiness Not Included, which marked their first new studio album in 20 years.
That album found Marc and Dave sounding surprisingly vital, with songs that explored consumerism, social collapse, political exhaustion, and the strange promise of modern life. *Happiness Not Included also contained a track called “Purple Zone,” recorded with another legendary name in synthpop, the Pet Shop Boys.
Speaking of synthpop legends, Soft Cell is currently touring North American as part of the Generations Tour with The Human League and Alison Moyet. The Generations Tour concludes July 2 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I’ll be at the June 30 stop in Vienna, Virginia, where it will be my first time seeing all three acts.
For the Soft Cell set, co-producer and touring keyboardist Philip Larsen is standing in for Dave, as he did on their previous U.S. tour. Larsen has worked closely with Soft Cell in the studio and onstage, helping carry Dave’s music into the live setting.
SOFT CELL Danceteria tracklisting
- Elusive
- Danceteria
- The Space Inside
- Times Square
- Two Of A Kind
- The Rainbow Room
- In Heaven (When I Dance With You)
- Decadence Is Hard Work
- Crackland
- What Is Your Morality
- Losing Yourself
- After Hours
- Wave To America
- Out Come The Freaks
