Out now: 'Ten Crowns,' by Andy Bell of Erasure

The name of Andy Bell’s third solo album, Ten Crowns – like its cover art, featuring his head on a glistening gold coin – makes Andy laugh: "It sounds like a pub,” he jokes. But behind that title lies ten songs of pop inspired by the dancefloor and gospel, completed in the year he turned 60. The name also refers to the tarot, he says: “The ten crowns on the tree of life, which is a very powerful card to have. And I’d just got my crowns on my teeth done in Miami when I was trying to think about a title,” he adds.

The album release follows the singles 'Lies So Deep,' 'Heart's A Liar', with Debbie Harry, ‘Don’t Cha Know’, 'Dance For Mercy', and ‘Breaking Thru The Interstellar’.

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. 

Andy and Dave had previously collaborated on two Billboard Dance Club Songs 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 says. 

“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 an important 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."

Track listing:

Breaking Thru The Interstellar
Lies So Deep
Heart's A Liar feat. Debbie Harry
For Today
Dance For Mercy
Don’t Cha Know
Dawn Of Heaven's Gate
Godspell
Put Your Empathy On Ice
Thank You

Tour dates:

October 3 - Nashville, TN - Basement East

October 7 - Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theatre
October 10 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
October 11 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
October 14 - Durham, NC - Durham Performing Arts Center
October 17 - Washington DC - Lincoln Theatre
October 18 - Washington DC - Lincoln Theatre
October 21 - Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
October 23 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre
October 24 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre
October 25 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre
October 28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Roxian Theatre
October 29 - Bethlehem, PA - Wind Creek Event Center
November 4 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
November 5 - Columbus, OH - The Anthenaeum
November 7 - Chicago, IL - Metro
November 8 - Chicago, IL - Metro
November 13 - New Orleans, LA - Orpheum Theater
November 14 - San Antonio, TX - Aztec Theater
November 15 - Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
November 20 - Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall
November 21 - Park City, UT - The Marquis
November 28 - San Francisco, CA - Palace of Fine Arts
November 29 - San Francisco, CA - Palace of Fine Arts
December 2 - Portland, OR - Newmark Theatre
December 3 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue
December 4 - Seattle, WA - ShowBox at the Market
December 6 - Stateline, NV - Harrah's Lake Tahoe
December 9 - Phoenix, AZ - Van Buren
December 10 - San Diego, CA - Music Box
December 12 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theater
December 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theater

Tickets on sale now