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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Singles (Soft Cell album)

1986 compilation album by Soft Cell

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The Singles was the first compilation album to be released by Soft Cell. The album was issued on vinyl, cassette and CD in 1986 and features all their singles, from the albums Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing, The Art of Falling Apart and This Last Night in Sodom, with the exception of 'A Man Can Get Lost', 'Where Did Our Love Go?' & 'Barriers'. The CD booklet included a November 1986 essay by Tony Mitchell.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Singles (Soft Cell album)” is 1986 compilation album by Soft Cell. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Singles, Soft and Cell, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Singles, Soft and Cell is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1986 compilation album by Soft Cell” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1986.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Singles (Soft Cell album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Singles (Soft Cell album) primary sources, The Singles (Soft Cell album) archive and Singles research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Singles (Soft Cell album)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Singles (Soft Cell album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.