A PIONEER of electronic music - and in all likelihood Darwen’s only ever pop star - has released a critically acclaimed album this week.

Neil Arthur is the singer and songwriter for synth-pop favourites Blancmange, who between 1982 and 1985 had seven top 40 hits and two top 40 albums.

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Arthur and collaborator Stephen Luscombe were bona fide, if unlikely, pop stars. Their best known song was Living On The Ceiling, which reached number seven in the pop charts and led to the duo appearing on numerous television shows including Top of the Pops.

Now Arthur has released the group’s fifth album, Semi-Detached, the first without the involvement of Stephen Luscombe.

Arthur said that he had “moved on from some of the old ticks and mannerisms to create an edgy, pared-down and deeply personal record’.

The album has been released on the famous Cherry Red Records label and has been greeted favourably by many critics.

Classic Pop have hailed it the best new album of the month saying it ‘confirms Blancmange’s capacity to astonish’ while in a four star review Mojo magazine said the work contained ‘wonderful pop songs’.

Blancmange, along with Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Yazoo and OMD, made edgy but accessible synth-pop the popular sound of the early-to-mid-80s.

Arthur said that the album’s opening eight minute track The Fall was named after the band of the same name, whose singer Mark E Smith corresponded with Arthur.

“I went to see The Fall many times,” said Arthur.

“I sent Mark E Smith our first EP and we exchanged a few letters, his being ones of humorous encouragement.”

Blancmange where formed after Arthur, who is a huge Blackburn Rovers fan, left his home town of Darwen to go to art college in Harrow, North London.

The song Paddington was released as the first single off the album on March 9.

Arthur said the song celebrates London through a blur of fragmented images.