Andy Bell - Torsten the Beautiful Libertine

2016 release, the sixth solo album from Erasure's Andy Bell. Torsten, The Beautiful Libertine is the follow up to 2014's groundbreaking and critically acclaimed album and Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Torsten, The Bareback Saint. On the album, Andy assumes the character of Torsten who is described as a "polysexual semi-immortal". Torsten has had, over time, many lovers and friends whom ultimately he has outlived. That he himself survives is a bittersweet truth, but it is with an increasingly melancholic emotional distance from people. The album is a wonderfully evocative exposition of the mind, mirth and mania of an 'everyman' who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. The songs effortlessly combine pop and theatricality in their lush arrangements and Andy's voice has never been so dramatically expressive.