Heart Like Chernobyl

Origin
Dave Ball said that he wrote the music to “Heart Like Chernobyl” during the peak of 2020 quarantine lockdown and he had been alone for about 6 weeks, which made him “feeling a bit Joy Division” and recalling their track “Isolation.” Marc Almond later wrote lyrics about how people become desensitised by being bombarded by negative news, turning into “nuclear wasteland of feelings.” Almond also cited Chernobyl HBO series, premiered in 2019, as an inspiration, thus Chernobyl nuclear disaster is referenced in the title and trough the song.

Record and release
Like other songs on *Happiness Not Included, “Heart Like Chernobyl” was recorded during 2020 lockdown, with the duo working on it separately. Ball initially recorded music for the track digitally as usual demo in his home studio, in the kitchen (being later credited on album as Kitchen Sink Drama Studios). He wanted to refine the track further, but Almond asked him to leave it as is, refering to it as old school minimal electronics, and later recorded vocal track while not singing, “trying to do a bit of a Lou Reed vibe.”

“Heart Like Chernobyl” was the first released song from the album, but as taster for it and not as single. It was announced on July 30th, following the announce of the album. On 12th August 2021 (a day earlier than listed in initial announce) its lyric video was published on Soft Cell's official YouTube channel, followed by posts on social media pages and the track being available on streaming platforms. The album was released in May 2022.

Other versions
An extended mix of the song by Dave Ball was realessed on Bruises On All My Illusions CD single on 18 February, 2022.

Personnel

 * Written-By (music), synthesizer – David Ball
 * Written-By (lyrics), vocals – Marc Almond
 * Production, sound engineering, synthesizer, drum programming – Philip Larsen
 * Sound engineering – Barry Grint

Lyric video
The lyric video for “Heart Like Chernobyl” was created by Ewan McWilliam of Design Workshop in 2021. It consists of video footages of Pripyat city, Ukraine, where Chernobyl power plant is located, in a variety of color effects, corresponding to artworks of the album. It was published on band's official YouTube channel and social media pages on August 12th 2021.

Music video
The video for “Heart Like Chernobyl” was filmed on 18th August 2021, in Tate Britain Museum, London, UK. The set of the video is red lit part of installation Rupture No.1: Blowtorching The Bitten Peach by artist Heather Phillipson.

Finished video first appeared on Almond's official web site, on September 14th 2021. On 17th September it was published on Soft Cell's official YouTube channel.

Availability
“Heart Like Chernobyl” appears on following records.

Original version of the song is also available on streaming platforms.

Listen

 * Official uploads on YouTube

Trivia

 * “Heart Like Chernobyl” has determined front cover artworks of the album and some of the singles, including streaming platform ones, – a Ferris wheel in Pripyat.
 * On streaming platform artwork the song title imitates *Happiness Not Included album title, with asterisk replaced by radiation hazard symbol.
 * The samples at the beginning and the end of the song are further references to Chernobyl nuclear disaster: the first one is a recording of one of emergency calls to the fire department, and another is fragment of Mikhail Gorbachev's speech regarding the tragedy, with click sounds of Geiger counter.
 * Although reactor 5 is mentioned in the song, the explosion on Chernobyl nuclear power plant happened in reactor No. 4, while No. 5 was in construction and eventually not completed.