You said I’d always be in your heart
Your heart’s a liar liar liar…
Andy Bell, best known as one half of Erasure, rose to fame after answering a Melody Maker ad placed by Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo). Their partnership became one of the UK’s most beloved. Alongside Erasure, Bell has built a varied solo career, including two albums and theatrical offshoots as Torsten The Bareback Saint. He has also collaborated with Jake Shears, Claudia Brücken, Boy George, and others.
Now Andy Bell unveils his striking new single and video for Heart’s A Liar, the latest to be taken from his forthcoming solo album, Ten Crowns, set for release May 2nd via Bell’s own label, Crown Recordings. The album coincides with a UK tour, followed by a run of European shows, with North American dates announced today.
The song began as a track by English-Italian singer-songwriter Luciana, reimagined by Andy Bell as a tale of two lovers locked in a cycle of mutual undoing. For this yearning, wistful rework, Bell calls on his ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, whose voice threads effortlessly through the song’s bittersweet core. Together, they turn romantic ruin into something strangely radiant.
“To have Debbie Harry singing with me – you know, I still can’t quite believe it,” Bell gushes. “Debbie gives it this gravitas and this coquettishness, but she’s still very in command. And she recorded her vocals in the studio on Gay Pride, which I thought when I heard it, oh, trust her!”
Andy Bell and Debbie Harry summon heartbreak with theatrical precision and pathos, bringing to mind the Pet Shop Boys collaborations with Dusty Springfield and Liza Minnelli, with a splash of the Grand Guignol grandiosity of Sunset Boulevard. The video situates Bell in a dimly lit, overstuffed bedroom, heavy with velvet, memory, and the lingering perfume of vanished affection. It is faded grandeur made flesh. Bell moves through the corridors of a crumbling estate, each footstep a quiet reckoning, each lyric a sharpened shard of loss. His voice, clear and unflinching, carries the weight of love’s leftovers: graceful yet gutted and bruised. Harry’s vocal presence hovers like a spectre, lending the duet a double edge. This is no soft lament; it is an excavation of Baroque sorrow. A ballroom stripped bare. Bell leans into the drama with defiant vulnerability.
Watch the video for Heart’s A Liar below:
Produced in Nashville and inspired by both the dancefloor and gospel tradition, Ten Crowns marks a radiant chapter in Andy Bell’s career, reaffirming his place as one of pop’s most expressive voices.
Though best known for four decades of synth-pop splendour with Vince Clarke as Erasure (with a new album in the works), Bell also embraced fresh creative ground with Grammy-winning producer and longtime friend Dave Audé. Having already topped the US dance charts with Aftermath (Here We Go) and True Original, the pair continued writing, almost as an experiment, until Audé relocated to Nashville. The shift in setting sparked a gospel-tinged twist, rooted in Bell’s childhood memories of choirs and cathedral school. Ten Crowns is electric, euphoric, and urgent, chasing meaning as life speeds forward.
“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,” says Bell. “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 will be released on on vinyl (white, oxblood, and picture disc), CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette, and digitally, May 2nd via Crown Recordings. Pre-order here.
See Andy Bell live:
- May 1 – York (UK) – Barbican
- May 2 – Birmingham (UK) – Symphony Hall
- May 3 – Manchester (UK) – Bridgewater Hall
- May 6 – Glasgow (UK) – Royal Concert Hall
- May 7 – Aberdeen (UK) – Music Hall
- May 8 – Gateshead (UK) – Glasshouse
- May 11 – Bournemouth (UK) – Pavilion
- May 12 – Guildford (UK) – G-Live
- May 13 – Bath (UK) – Forum
- May 16 – London (UK) – Shepherd’s Bush Empire
- May 17 – Llandrindod Wells (UK) – The Albert Hall
- May 18 – Liverpool (UK) – Philharmonic
- May 19 – Cambridge (UK) – Corn Exchange
- June 12 – Frankfurt (DE) – Batschkapp
- June 13 – Hamburg (DE) – Markthalle
- June 15 – Berlin (DE) – Columbia Theater
- June 16 – Koln (DE) – Gloria
- June 18 – Leipzig (DE) – Anker
- June 19 – Bremen (DE) – Modernes
- June 21 – Holstebro (DK) – Summer Souns Festival
- August 3 – Brighton (UK) – Pride On The Park – Icons Slot
- August 5 – Dublin (IE) – Vicar St
- 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 for North American dates on sale Friday 4/25 at 10am local time.
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