The song appears on Bell’s upcoming solo album
Andy Bell has unveiled his striking new single and video, “Heart’s A Liar” featuring Debbie Harry. The track is the latest to be taken from his forthcoming solo album, Ten Crowns, set for release on May 2nd on vinyl (white, oxblood and picture disc available), CD (standard and 2 CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings. The album coincides with a UK tour, followed by a run of European dates, with newly announced North American dates.
Bell welcomes his ultimate pop heroine – one he sang about on a track back in 2010 – Debbie Harry for the yearningly wistful “Heart’s A Liar.”
“To have Debbie Harry singing with me – you know, I still can’t quite believe it,” Bell writes.
The song is Andy’s rewrite of a track by English-Italian singer-songwriter and regular Dave Audé collaborator, Luciana, which Andy imagines being about two lovers being no good for each other.
“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!”
The video casts Bell in a dimly lit, ornate bedroom – grappling with loss, surrounded by the faded grandeur of a once-vibrant love. As he moves through the hallowed halls of a lavish estate, his voice cuts through with piercing clarity, “You said I’d always be in your heart / Your heart’s a liar liar liar…” Draped in faux fur, clutching old photographs, Bell delivers a vivid portrait of love’s remains – elegant, fractured, and unforgettable.
The album coincides with a tour – full details below – beginning on May 1st in York, continuing through to Cambridge on May 19th, with a London show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on May 16th. Support for the UK dates has just been announced: in York, Birmingham and Manchester, Dave Audé (who produced and co-wrote the album) will open with a DJ set and for the rest of the dates, Hifi Sean & David McAlmont support.
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 as Bell threw himself into writing with close friend Dave Audé, the Grammy award-winning producer, remixer and DJ. Their work together is euphoric, and to top the celebrations, they invited Andy’s ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, to join Andy on vocals for “Hearts A Liar.”
Andy and Dave had previously collaborated on two US dance chart No. 1 singles 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.”
Ten Crowns marks a magisterial moment in Andy Bell’s 40-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!”
