Vermin in Ermine

Taking on his solo career properly at long last with a new group of backing performers, the Willing Sinners, Marc Almond began steadily establishing his persona of part cabaret singer, part rock star, and part end-of-an-English-pier entertainer, all with an air of forbidden fruit not far off. At its best it’s an intoxicating mix and Vermin in Ermine has plenty of examples of it, from the shimmering 1960s pop spirit of songs like “You Have” and the peppy zest of “The Boy Who Came Back” to the far darker shadows of “Ugly Head” and “Tenderness is a Weakness.”