It's always been about the one after it, so many would claim. And yes Violator is the one with The Biggest of Big Hits and is truly wonderful. But this is the one I keep coming back to in recent times, probably due partially to the connection with 101, which is a great film and now a really grand DVD as well. That's not all of the reason why this is such an interesting album, though, not even close.
Depeche are one of those bands you can audibly hear getting more and more used to larger and larger places to play as they went throughout the eighties. Everything seemed to get scaled up more, like the echo and reverb was in place because they wanted to create what it would sound like to actually hear them in, if not the Rose Bowl every time, then some place cavernous. And Jesus fuck "Never Let Me Down Again" is SO RIDICULOUSLY HUGE. When those buried orchestral swells and weird wordless cries -- if they are that -- appear at the end, the whole thing becomes a tight loop/effect that is as much grandeur in sound as anything Phil Spector did at his most opulent. Not to mention the fact that the combination of Gahan and Gore singing is a secret weapon, then and now. Gore's proud of being a doo-wop fiend and loving the interplay of different voices and this is one of many points of evidence showing as to why that's a good thing.
So logically "The Things You Said" does a complete 180. Like many things on this album it makes no immediate sense but that's precisely where the logic of the ten songs works, that things connect/disconnect. From David Gahan delivering a soaring invocation to the joys (?) of drug use to Martin Gore's calm, quiet laceration of emotional brinksmanship. Another secret goddamn weapon every time, that beautifully moderated way he sings. Then there's the long opening whisper/sigh into the low, quietly relentless bassline, the star-twinkle melody after every line, a perfect bridge or near to it, the way it all builds up to get busier while still seeming so quiet and restrained, the last isolated overdubbed "They know me better than that..."
"Strangelove" is not the single version and that's a good thing, because I like the machine gear loop noise and that barely audible bell-like synth bit then BAM BAM BAM and it's suddenly bass and drums that in its brute simplicity could be, I dunno, Prince 1984 in Eastern Europe or something. Motown 1971 after the apocalypse when the robots took over. The guitar on this one is subtle compared to That Riff on "Never Let Me Down Again" but like on so many later songs it's this lovely shading hiding out amid the strident synth riff that's this unmissable nag nag nag. And the song's about circular codependency of extremism in 'love' or somesuch. I like how at the end there's a part where Gahan calls and responses and then suddenly where his voice 'should' be a sudden high synth bit squirrels across the mix.
"Sacred" starts with a drone that Thomas Köner would be proud of, maybe. Except then the steady beat comes in and apparently that would be a bad thing if one were Köner, but this is the fourth song in and goddamn if Martin Gore didn't come up with a catchy and memorable pop hook every freaking time! Depeche were HATED by so many contemporaneous electronic experimentalists and extremists in the eighties because they were, you know, too catchy, but that was the freaking point for everyone who came afterward and listened to Depeche first and realized two things: "Wow, these sounds are great and I want to hear more from people who work with things like this" and "I couldn't get these songs out of my head if I wanted to and I don't want to!" So there's sitar samples (I guess) and once again there's more than one rhythm going on and instead of this being just another conflation of sex, religion and death (not that there's anything wrong with that) you can dance to this sucker *and* the beats are sharper than anyone realizes. But again, reverb. It was psychedelia, then.
What the hell IS the loop on "Little 15"? Strings and music box or what? The lyrics appear to be the unconcerned-with-legalities equivalent of "Hey 19" but for me it's all about the first time that the string part appears in full, and then how that descending piano line (sign 45231 that Gore is a glam FREAK and still is) heralds this quiet second melody which THEN heralds the from-the-mountaintop drums and then this break that's suddenly pure EuroRomanticElegantGloom, like the train broke down in the Alps or the Carpathians and the Russian winter is about to take over the land and everyone is resigned to their fate. And of course by the end of the song everything's about as detailed as a Bomb Squad mix, not that most people would ever admit to that. And this is a ballad!
Sign of the times for my youth -- that a rattling hubcap in perfect stereo could serve as an opening hook. I don't know how many times I heard "Behind the Wheel" when I got that single but it was the first Depeche single I did ever get and I think I warped the vinyl after all the plays. Motorik-as-disco-as-techno-as-involved overlay of about three or four different synth melodies and loops and also this basic as hell guitar part which is ALL YOU NEED. It's like Gore loved playing anti-solos. Flamenco hand claps as martial beats, gear shifts as machines exhaling, more synth as semi-string-psych something, vocal snippet brutally cut into a loop. And one actual car part in stereo. "The Passenger" was about watching everything and thinking it looked good, but Iggy was still in control. This is about losing control and loving every goddamn minute of it, surrender to the other and the arrangement.
So at this point everything's been straightforward enough, but now all of a sudden while losing none of the pop at all everything fragments a bit. It all turns a bit strange even for a very strange album indeed. This is partially because on the seventh song Depeche Mode have just invented Timbaland. You know how the whole thing for a while with him there was "Wow, a breath as a rhythm and a sample on a pop song!" Here it is about a decade earlier, "I Want You Now" is about four or five different breaths and hums and gasps -- male and female -- interwoven around each other, around accordion again perhaps, vocals rising through the minimal synth line, sudden dramatic silences, a random unsettling burst of laughter, a siren loop, wordless keening overdubs. AND IT'S STILL A POP SONG DAMMIT.
Then without a break, the Russian radio broadcast kicks in and the dark evil heart of this album slowly but surely unfolds. Again, a pop song, it has a melody. You can sing it. But it's not a traditional pop song as such, it has no chorus, it's just one verse, one slow, spiralling downward, grinding, dark, monumental, dour, desperate crawl out of the pit because it's all over verse. Piano lines sneak around the vocals, quiet vocal counterpoints slide beneath David Gahan's singing and it's only with the final part that you realize that "To Have and To Hold" is pretty much saying that a relationship and/or marriage isn't about contented settlement as it about giving yourself an anchor and a way out of, y'know, hell or something. Except that's where the song slides to anyway. No, I can't imagine why the Deftones covered this song or why Nine Inch Nails really liked these guys or why Linkin Park would have cared, no not at all!
Which is why "Nothing," which is about as uneasy a song about the control of people via larger societal forces beyond anyone's grasp, not to mention the power of business and the absence of god, as anything by Devo, perhaps, is actually kinda soothing in comparison. Funk guitar bursts, dreamily lovely synth parts on the break, it's fairly upbeat, I like the 'oh-hoo-hoo' parts on the chorus, very good to dance to I've found, actually kinda bright and aspirational sounding towards the end. Except it's about being in an empty universe regardless.
So logically the way to end the album is to have a song based around a piano part that's attractive as well as a little ominous and to slowly and carefully add on barely audible bells and a stentorian three note/beat bass/drum/more piano 'begin the pagan fires for the blood ceremony!' rhythm and then high and slightly tortured sounding strings and a contrasting low/high/low/high vocal exercise and then MORE bells sounding like the chimes of doom and cymbal splashes and then Valkyries keening on high and then demented church organ loops and the sense that perhaps Gotterdammerung might actually be heralded by some dudes from Basildon and then there's an echoing stop. I love "Pimpf." I also like the final snippet of bottles and a door closing and feet walking over a bit of mournful strings once again caught in a loop that appears after a few seconds. Who needs a high tone only dogs can hear to end an album?
I need to resist including "Agent Orange" and the rest of the songs on the CD version as well because, well, they're CD bonus tracks and all that (even though "Agent Orange" is an instrumental that showcases both calm serenity and the ever so obsessive focus on all the different elements in the mix to make it the best ending to a romantic epic movie that was never used as such).
I can and do catch things in the arrangements that still surprise me every time -- like how on the second verse of "Never Let Me Down Again" there's a new rhythm pattern that subtly kicks in over the main one, a gently raspy overlay. Now I need to go back and listen to it again.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:19 (nineteen years ago) link
I've always been surprised that "Little 15" was a single. It's partly due to the subject matter -- although "A Question of Time" was also about lust/abuse toward underage girls -- but mainly because of the slow build, and lack of a verse/chorus/verse structure like their other singles.
The line "now all that she wants / is three little wishes" always gives me chills. At that moment, the song reaches its loudest and densest point, emotions are swirling along with the music, and I start to empathise with the girl's incredibly disturbing position. The hurriedness, the feeling that everything is moving very fast, the pressure to make a quick decision, "will she or won't she?" -- it's like a classier, less sexually upfront version of the equivalent moment in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". This was a single?
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:34 (nineteen years ago) link
this was the first depeche mode i'd ever heard. i had just started my first job, was 16, and was listening to a lot of portishead, massive attack, bjork, curve, morcheeba, whatever. a coworker asked what i listened to. 'oh, nothing that's on the radio, y'know.' i was an insular teenager, a little sore about my music taste, because noone else in the worlds seemed to understand it. she pressed, though, and i dropped names, and she recognized them. instant friendship. after a staff dinner in august(i started in may), she took me to the virgin megastore. 'you have to hear depeche mode. you'd really like it.' sure, i was into new music, though i was unsure. weren't depeche mode scary? really serious? i grew up in a pop-culture vacuum, so hadn't really been exposed to anything but the hype around ultra's release in 1997 and 'the love thieves' off of the La Femme Nikita soundtrack, which i really liked. moreso, i was worried about starting into a band with such a catalogue, given my completist tendencies, which were already in full display. Music for the Masses was on sale, $9.99, and it seemed as good an album to start with as any. i wasn't sure at first. it was certainly nothing i'd heard before, and it took some time to acclimatize to the relatively unpolished production sound. i don't think i was even a real convert by the time i moved on to more albums... Ultra, Violator, Singles 81/85, Songs of Faith and Devotion, etc. etc. and then i was gone.
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Rank the songs on "Music for the Masses"
The Things You SaidNever Let Me Down Again (an easy #1 if we're talking about live versions)Little 15Behind &Tuml;he Wheel Strangelove (would have been higher had I made this list in 1989)
I Want You NowPimpf NothingTo Have and To Hold Sacred There's a significant discontinuity in quality between the top half and the bottom half of that list. In my view, this does not apply to "Violator", which is one reason why I think it's a better album.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 13 January 2005 07:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 13 January 2005 08:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 13 January 2005 08:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stephen Stockwell (Stephen Stockwell), Thursday, 13 January 2005 09:22 (nineteen years ago) link
but the aggro mix of never let me down ... oh, supplicate before the jackbooted genius.
ned, that was wonderful: thank you. funny you should bring this up: i hadn't listened to music for the masses for years - maybe eight or nine - and then i picked up a copy for six francs when i was on holiday in france last september. i nearly posted something here about it, oddly: the sheer visceral fucking joy of hearing an album again after so long; something you used to love yet, for whatever reason, neglected. the only other time i've experienced that is when i heard bowie's low again after a five or six-year gap.
violator is and always will be my core depeche album, but that's only because i heard it first and it blew my tiny teenage mind. but - objectively - hasn't masses stood the test of time better? it still sounds like nothing else; or, rather, nothing else has ever quite managed to sound like it.
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link
Promises me I'm safe as housesAs long as I remember who's wearing the trousers
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 13 January 2005 15:43 (nineteen years ago) link
I agree that Never Let Me Down Again is probably their best single.
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link
I know what you mean. Great piece of writing there, Ned.
― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:28 (nineteen years ago) link
oh, and more praise for Ned
― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
This is one of those Great Mysteries.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 16:45 (nineteen years ago) link
Always wondered something: during the fade-out of "Never Let Me Down," Gore sings behind Gahan's repetion of the title. The lyrics sound something like....
See the stars are shining bright...
After that, I've never caught the end to the couplet. Any ideas?
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Simple-sounding, but when you consider the song's about being in a drug-induced high, somehow appropriate.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link
Agreed. More like a Pinkish-Grey Celebration.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link
Unexpected highlight joy of seeing them at Dodger Stadium in 1990 -- Martin Gore, solo with acoustic guitar, singing BC album track "Here is the House," never released as a single or anything...and the entirety of Dodger Stadium singing along word for word, as best as I could tell.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
I think I have a bootleg recording of this show ... if not that exact show, then another one on the "Violator" tour when he performed that song (which was very rarely).
One weird thing about "Black Celebration" is that the saddest song on it ("World Full of Nothing") isn't a very dark-sounding song at all.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
Track by track:StrangeloveThe Things You SaidLittle 15Never Let Me Down AgainNothingPimpfBehind the WheelTo Have and To HoldSacredI Want You Now
― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 13 January 2005 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Grell (Grell), Thursday, 13 January 2005 20:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link
Well thank ya Tim, yours is a fine one in turn. :-) Those bonus tracks are certainly grand and maybe I'll do an adjunct post on them. Did you snare all the recent remixes that came out with the box set and the singles?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:14 (nineteen years ago) link
Along with New Order, Depeche Mode left an INDELIBLE mark on my musical development - I've forgotten how many times I've referenced / cribbed / ripped them off wholesale over the years.(Oddly enough, I've never sampled either artist.) Even though my own work has become increasingly house- and techno- focused over the years, these guys are still relevant as fuck to me.
I don't have my vinyl copy of this anymore, so it's time to go get this and Black Celebration in one shot.
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Seriously, that was a plummy spew of love, and I don't say that lightly.
Still, I prefer Black Celebration--it has that goth Liza Minelli thing you just can't find enough of these days.
― igrey, Friday, 14 January 2005 05:02 (nineteen years ago) link
"pimpf" really is a pretty silly song, though.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 14 January 2005 05:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― Palomino (Palomino), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
I always thought Little 15 was about a mother and daughter, with the mother wanting to recapture her youth through her teenaged girl.
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link
er, francs euros, i meant. jesus, i'm a twat sometimes.
― grimly fiendish: noticing mistakes nine months after making them, Thursday, 13 October 2005 19:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 October 2005 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― KeefW (kmw), Thursday, 13 October 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link
PEEEEEMPF
HOOOOO
PEEEEEEEEEEPMF
HOOOOOOO
PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMPF
― HOOOO, Thursday, 13 October 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
really? how so? it sounds fine to me.
― piscesboy, Thursday, 13 October 2005 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 01:04 (eighteen years ago) link
ViolatorMusic For the MassesUltraBlack CelebrationSpeak and SpellSongs of Faith and DevotionSome Great RewardConstruction Time AgainExciterA Broken Frame
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 01:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 01:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 01:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― dar1a g (daria g), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
hey now, this may be true Ned, but if i'm remembering rightly this album was the first real use on DM records of any "guitar parts" full stop? and Martin was actually still learning to play i think, so it may have been basic as much from ability as intention. can't argue with the end result in any case though.
but, ah this just reminded me of some friends back in the day who always sang pimpf as "more..... beeer". brain surgeons, them.
― Kim (Kim), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:40 (eighteen years ago) link
Martin learned how to play guitar when he was ten or so. ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Monday, 24 October 2005 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link
By all accounts Martin composes most of his songs on acoustic or electric guitar, and he's well known for apparently always having a guitar with him or nearby, so it's not like he's afraid of the darn things. ;-) So in ways that's why I'm impressed with him as a guitarist -- he aims for the killer hook first and foremost, which in large part is why Depeche songs with guitar feature just that hook and nothing more, in that nothing more is needed. "Enjoy the Silence" is the almost paradigmatic example...
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 03:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Monday, 24 October 2005 12:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link
yes. absolutely.
I really really dislike those first two albums
i have a soft spot for "speak and spell", although i think the non-album tracks that were later included on the CD (ice machine, shout, the instrumental any second now) are better than anything on the album proper. but there's an oddly beguiling mix of innocence and homo-eroticism about the whole affair that makes it more than the sum of its parts.
and "puppets" is quite simply ace.
i have "a broken frame" on cassette and "some great reward" on badly scratched vinyl, so those are the two i listen to the least (ie haven't listened to in years). the fact i've never bothered to get them on any other format says a lot; that said, my tastes have changed hugely since my early mode-buying days (14 years ago, mostly) so i know i should revisit them. IIRC there was one song towards the end of "broken frame" with an absolutely killer melody; and, as i think i said somewhere else, "precious" reminds me of it slightly.
i still don't own "ultra" and haven't heard it in its entirety. my bad.
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:04 (eighteen years ago) link
You should totally give Some Great Reward another spin, especially for "Lie To Me", "If You Want" and "Stories Of Old".
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link
Strictly speaking I love all the Depeche albums YES THAT INCLUDES THE FIRST TWO but there are those that are clearly a cut above. Ultra is one, Playing the Angel is another.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link
Still, the good stuff on it is *fucking great* (the singles, THE BOTTOM LINE, Insight ...) so I love it despite its many flaws.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link
"Freestate" takes forever to get where it's going, but once it gets there, it's great. They could have chopped a minute or so out of "Home", as well.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:52 (eighteen years ago) link
That's the one vocal on the album which was recorded when he was still in his smack hell. It's edited together from about thirty takes!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link
I think the only one that annoys me even slightly is "Freestate" because I don't really like it when Gore's recent tendency to become positive 'n' preachy - but even then it's only because it feels like it prepares the way for "Freelove", and yeah, the last half is killer. "Barrell of a Gun" occasionally annoys me because it seems a bit try-hard, but then at other times I love the very same thing about it.
"Insight" is awesome, "Sister of Night" is probably better for that huge synth riff than for the singing, but best of all the album tracks is "The Bottom Line" for me.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:25 (eighteen years ago) link
No, you couldn't. "The Love Thieves" is the best track on the entire album.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 October 2005 21:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Kim (Kim), Monday, 24 October 2005 22:48 (eighteen years ago) link
I must agree with whoever posted that I've always loved 'Never Let Me Down Again'. It's just so fucking HUGE. Yes, it is, particularly the version on one of the live DVDs that I have - One Night in Paris? Been a while since I watched it. However, filler such as Pimpf dragges Music for the Masses down as an album, imho.
― John Hunter, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 06:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 July 2006 21:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― mark e (mark e), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Monday, 6 November 2006 06:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Monday, 6 November 2006 06:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― All The Furniture Is In The Garage (Bimble...), Monday, 6 November 2006 06:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― All The Furniture Is In The Garage (Bimble...), Monday, 6 November 2006 06:25 (seventeen years ago) link
I love you love me love
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 November 2006 07:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 1 March 2007 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 1 March 2007 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Does it really have anything to do with the "joys of drug use" though??
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 March 2007 18:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 1 March 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 4 March 2007 00:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 4 March 2007 00:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― gershy, Sunday, 4 March 2007 02:21 (seventeen years ago) link
Ultra is easily the best of their 90s albums IMO; it's much more cohesive than SOFAD and it isn't completely forgettable two weeks later the way that Exciter is.
funny how 7 years later I don't really like Ultra all that much and am really, really, really bullish on Exciter (which still isn't as good as Violator)
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 27 April 2012 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
also, "Never Let Me Down", "Strangelove" and "The Things You Said" all own hardcore
Especially in their various album mixes.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 27 April 2012 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
oh yeah, the single version of "Strangelove" is TERRIBLE and embarrassing tbh
I don't think there's a version of "Never Let Me Down Again" that I've heard that I've disliked, though
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 27 April 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
There is not one song on this album that I dislike.
― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Friday, 27 April 2012 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
I like the remix of "Behind the Wheel" that was on the single more than the album version (probably because I heard the single first)
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 27 April 2012 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
I had all of the remixes back in the day on a cassette tape, but I couldn't even tell you what they sounded like now.
― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Friday, 27 April 2012 19:10 (eleven years ago) link
I like this record but still prefer Violator even if I think about it for more than a few seconds the later album has as much filler.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 April 2012 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
violator is the ne plus ultra of zero filler albums!
― Touché Gödel (ledge), Friday, 27 April 2012 19:25 (eleven years ago) link
don't like "Blue Dress" or "Clean"
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 April 2012 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
well that's just crazy
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 27 April 2012 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
Great thread, yawl. What a magnificent op too. Love the love for Agent Orange, I keep going back to it. They have some very pretty instrumentals.
Ned, I hope you're going to vote in this one.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 27 April 2012 21:06 (eleven years ago) link
Alas, you'll have to make do without me.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 27 April 2012 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
booooooooooooooooooooo
― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Friday, 27 April 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
it would be politically and philosophically incorrect to know Ned's top 20 songs by any of his favorite bands. he gave us Ned's Nineties and anyone who dares connect the dots further from there is on their own.
― pizza pizza and cult jam (crüt), Friday, 27 April 2012 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
Our loss that any alliterative decades are a long ways off (unless he has a Scooby Doo-style change of heart in 28 years and brings us Raggett's Rirties).
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Friday, 27 April 2012 23:32 (eleven years ago) link
Now that would be a vision.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 27 April 2012 23:46 (eleven years ago) link
run rundred rirty eight best ralbums
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Friday, 27 April 2012 23:50 (eleven years ago) link
I always tend to prefer the album mixes of Depeche tracks over their single versions. For me, the single versions of 'Strangelove' and 'A Question Of Time' seem to lack the power that the album versions have. I suppose the Zephyr mix of 'In Your Room' is an interesting and different take on the song, but for me there is nothing more powerful than the 6-minute dark and atmospheric-as-fuck album version.
My favourite version of 'Never Let Me Down Again' is the one on 101 where they segue into the remix briefly for the middle section. I often find myself listening to it and wishing that they could have put that pulsing bass synth section into the album version.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
I've always found 'Blue Dress' and 'Clean' closes the Violator album perfectly. Granted, neither of them are as anthemic as many of the tracks that came before, but those songs are definitely in the right place on the tracklist. The way that 'Blue Dress' segues into 'Clean' via that interlude piece is one of the highlights of the album for me!
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 00:05 (eleven years ago) link
Love the video for the album mix of Strangelove. They look so fucking bored in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yurcWr84s5I&feature=related
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 01:28 (eleven years ago) link
Also I love that they're projecting this big heart shape on everything but stretched out it's like they're illuminated by a big nutsack.
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 01:29 (eleven years ago) link
Party time is here again!
https://c1.staticflickr.com/2/1560/24707332820_3da1b89669_n.jpg
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 May 2017 19:49 (six years ago) link
So, happily borrowing some wording from my first post up there (but it's mostly all new):
http://thequietus.com/articles/23166-depeche-mode-music-for-the-masses-review-anniversary
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 September 2017 13:12 (six years ago) link
Awesome piece, Ned.
I too was in Los Angeles at this time, too young to attend anything but old enouogh to have already be absolutely in love with music, and missing the Rose Bowl show was devestating to me at the time. Instead I sat on the backyard patio of my parent's house and listened to the KROQ broadcast of the event. I was bummed but I still felt part of something that was happening.
I don't know about other cities in the world in 1988 but it's hard to understate just how massive Depeche Mode were in Los Angeles at that time. It was Beatlemania when they'd show up somewhere. Even though I'd already become educated in and deeply affected by the entire New Order/Factory/Saville mythos by the time and was mostly consumed by that stuff, Depeche Mode still felt very much a part of everything that was important to me as I was becoming obsessed with music and this album is the sound of that time. In contrast, it took a long time for me to get into 'Violator' because of how minimal, angular, and cold most of it sounded to me in comparison.
― yesca, Monday, 11 September 2017 13:36 (six years ago) link
Yeah I definitely take the point on Violator's 'cooler' feel -- which may seem strange given "Personal Jesus" and its massive stomp, but I think that also serves the album pretty well in comparison. When I first heard it on the day of release, I remember thinking from the get-go how sharp it sounded at points.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 September 2017 16:11 (six years ago) link
I don't find Violator an angular or cold record at all. There was a bit of a trend of synthpop acts returning to analogue synths in the early '90s. Behaviour and Chorus being a couple of other examples of this.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 11 September 2017 16:19 (six years ago) link
Well, you're wrong. :-D (I am busy and can't get into this further right now.)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 11 September 2017 16:22 (six years ago) link
Heh! I agree that the record feels minimal by comparison... Black Celebration and Music for the Masses are quite layered records and there's quite a fair bit going on under the surface, whereas Violator is simpler - not that this is a bad thing.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 11 September 2017 17:36 (six years ago) link
whereas Violator is simpler - not that this is a bad thing.
This said, I still prefer the many layered and huge sounding approach of Masses over everything else.
― yesca, Tuesday, 12 September 2017 14:46 (six years ago) link
I don't agree with the characterization of Violator as "stripped down". It only really describes "Waiting for the Night" and mmmmmmmaybe "Blue Dress". The other 8 songs build and layer in much the same way the songs on Music for the Masses do.
― this iphone speaks many languages (DJP), Tuesday, 12 September 2017 15:02 (six years ago) link
The big difference for me is that Violator is a lot crisper, whereas the previous two albums (and some before) are very reverb-y. Violator is still quite layered though
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 12 September 2017 15:33 (six years ago) link
Violator is still quite layered in places but I think yesca is kinda OTM and that it is much less symphonic and a simpler record than the two albums before it.
Take something like 'Fly on the Windscreen - Final' for example, the mix on that is so dense and there's a lot going on that's buried in there, whereas something like 'World In My Eyes' gets by with a bass synth, percussion and a string synth that either provides the chords but just as often just provides these sustained single notes. Of course, there's things that pop up here and there as the track moves along - the backwards sound going into the chorus or the dink-dink dink-dink's in the chorus itself but bass synth, string synth and drum programming is the core of that track.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 12 September 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
Well this is cool -- first time Martin's sung "The Things You Said" in thirty years. In fact, quite literally the first time since the 101 show!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLM8BpG-AyY
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 18:52 (five years ago) link
The newly updated only-3-songs-from-the-new-album idea, is a winner. I got a glum text from a pretty big fan who was at the London show; “Half an hour in, nothing pre-Ultra..” so its good to see there’s been a bit of a shake up.
Great to hear The Things You Said again, easily in my Top 10.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 19:33 (five years ago) link
I think the 101 show is still the last time they did 'People are People', too... their biggest hit thst they don't play.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 19:40 (five years ago) link
*that
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link
And for a long time 101 was the last lap for Just Can’t Get Enough too but then they started doing it as an encore in the ‘98 ‘Singles’ tour era. That 101 show was really the end of .. something.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 19:56 (five years ago) link
Yeah, it's strange... like, 101 must have felt like the band were at their absolute peak at the time, but after Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion and all the success since then, in the rearview mirror that whole period feels weirdly transitional.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 20:04 (five years ago) link
As I muttered in my Quietus piece. :-)
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 20:15 (five years ago) link