Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys have teamed up for a joint single, ‘Purple Zone’, which appears on the former’s new album ‘*Happiness Not Included‘.

It unites the synthpop stalwarts for a dazzling new song that will now appear on Soft Cell’s first album in 20 years, after fans responded well to its airing at recent live shows.

The song was originally intended to be remixed by Pet Shop Boys until it morphed into a full collaboration, which Soft Cell’s David Ball has labelled as “probably our finest pop moment since the early 1980s”.

“Working with the Pet Shop Boys was a pleasure, and this track is the perfect combination of us and them,” Soft Cell’s Marc Almond added, while Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with such an inspirational duo as Soft Cell on this gorgeous song.”

‘Purple Zone’ is released on CD and 12” formats as well as digitally (pre-order here). The CD also features Soft Cell’s take on the X-Ray Spex cult classic ‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’, and the Manhattan Clique remix of ‘Purple Zone’, while the 12” boasts a full selection of mixes by Pet Shop Boys.

It follows Soft Cell sharing ‘Bruises On All My Illusions’ and the album title track. ‘*Happiness Not Included’ is released on May 6 and pre-orders are available here.

Soft Cell’s last album was 2002’s ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’. The idea for their forthcoming fifth album, which they’ve worked on with the Grammy-winning Phillip Larsen, emerged from their final show at London’s O2 Arena in 2018 when Almond and Ball realised that they hadn’t seen each other “in about 15 years”.

Speaking about the direction of the new record, Almond said: “In this album I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others.”

He continued: “But in the album there is also a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters.”

Meanwhile, Pet Shop Boys will headline this year’s Bilbao BBK Live festival.