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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The post Erasure’s Andy Bell Collaborates with Blondie’s Debbie Harry on Solo Single “Heart’s A Liar” — Tour Dates Announced appeared first on Post-Punk.com.
