Ten Crowns is the third studio album by English singer Andy Bell.[2] It was released on 2 May 2025, by Crown Recordings, in CD, LP, cassette and digital formats.[4] On 12 December 2025, a limited-edition deluxe CD box set titled The Crown Jewels was released, comprising an expanded edition of the album, a disc of remixes by various artists, a disc of extended versions mixed by Dave Audé, and a disc of live recordings; the release was limited to 4,000 copies.[5][6]
Noted as a dance album with elements of Eurodisco and gospel music,[2][3]Ten Crowns is the first album by Bell in fifteen years, since Non-Stop.[2] Featuring ten songs with a total runtime of approximately thirty-six minutes, it was produced by Grammy-winning musician Dave Audé and recorded in a studio in Nashville.[2][3] The lead single of the album, "Don't Cha Know", was released on 18 February 2025.[7]
Ten Crowns received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on four reviews.[8]
Marcy Donelson of AllMusic remarked, "Often earnest, anguished, and euphoric, Ten Crowns delivers the catharsis while keeping it real."[2]MusicOMH gave the album a rating of three stars, stating "Yet while this never quite touches the highs that Erasure can produce, there's enough moments on Ten Crowns to convince that Bell and Aude make a good partnership for when Vince Clarke wants a rest."[3]Spill assigned the album a rating of four and a half out of five and described it as "a well produced, beautiful album" and "a brilliant accomplishment for Bell and Audé."[9] David Pollock of Record Collector rated the album three stars and stated, "Yet there are interesting things going on between the lyrical lines here, as love, sex, religious salvation and sin clash on "Dance for Mercy", "Dawn of Heaven's Gate" and the pop-orchestral "Thank You"."[4]The Quietus wrote, "Bell has made an album that gently expands the palette of what he's known for, but also allows him to shine as himself rather than as one half of pop's greatest odd couple."[10]
On 12 December 2025, Bell released a limited-edition deluxe CD box set titled The Crown Jewels, expanding upon Ten Crowns. The set was limited to 4,000 copies and includes four compact discs featuring an expanded version of the album, remixes by various artists, extended versions mixed by Dave Audé, and live recordings of material from the album, as well as a booklet containing additional photos and brand new sleeve notes.[5][6] A business-card size piece of card was included with the wording "ANDY BELL // THE CROWN JEWELS // You are the proud owner of limited edition number xxxx".
Box set contents
Disc
Title
Description
Disc one
Ten Crowns (expanded edition)
Expanded version of the original studio album, including additional tracks not present on the standard release.
Disc two
Remixes
Remix versions of album tracks by various artists.
Disc three
Extended versions
Extended and reworked versions of the original album, mixed by Dave Audé.
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