Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

I love "But Not Tonight" more than "A Question of Time."

DEATH IS EVERYWHEEEEERRRRRE THERE ARE FLIES ON THE WINDSCREEN, FOR A START.

Kings of silly lyrics in portentous tones. Come on.

Branwell OTM

REMINDING UUUUUUUSSSS. WE COULD BE TORN APAAAAAAART.

Nothing better than 80's goths telling you "we all die innit?" like this is some kind of SHOCK meaningful revelation!

it's a rationale for boning.

For me this is "Stripped" pretty easily

it's a rationale for boning.

lost my virginity to this record

Cosign above comments - I just listened to this the other day at the request of my 11 yr old, and the lyrics are just... embarrassing now.

terrible cover, but then even they admitted as much. weirdly i prefer *every* album from Some Great Reward to SOFAD over this one. the docu that accompanies the deluxe version is hillarious. went with Question Of Time although Phil Harding's mix is the mind-blower obvs.

What the hell is the cover supposed to be, anyway?

Here is the House for me.

The lyrics on side 2 (the boning side) are much better than those on side 1 ("New Dress" excepted).

I always liked the lyrics of "World Full of Nothing" -- a welcome break from MG's typical perviness.

"Stripped" may be best overall, but I love how eerie "It Doesn't Matter Two" is, probably my favourite DM deep cut.

You can't change the world, but can change the facts
and when you change the facts, you change points of view
if you change points of view, you may change a vote
and when you change a vote, you may change the world

*you

is "here is the house" and "world full of nothing" the same scenario told from different perspectives? the former from mg's character's 1st person pov and the latter omniscient? "i" say "i'll confide everything" but step back a level and you see that "nothing is true, she doesn't trust him."

i dunno, but the tension on this album seems to come from shifting perspective and mediated intent. he knows the gloom and doom is bullshit but he likes it that way; it's just pillow talk. the world is death und horror so let's bonk to relieve the pain; this isn't love but isn't it more precious for being ephemeral and reifying the real thing. it's embarrassing isn't it, this need, these lies?

This is my favorite album of theirs, or maybe just a hair behind Violator. I think there's only one or two skips the whole record.

Voted fly on the windscreen.

i like "but not tonight" as a closer. it's separate from the album proper but a nice overview. there's the callbacks: reminding us/ reminding me, just for one day/ just for a day, and also a resolution. i wanted to see you stripped down to the bone but it's i who needed that. it's the only song without an us or we or him and her. it's just i. and the moon and stars and rain, (black celebration) tonight. check yerself before yada yada yada. don't pull anyone else into yer drama. get away from this constant debauchery that i totally instigated.

like if you were djing a club you'd put this near the end of the set as a benediction: go out, into the night, and be ok with yerself as yerself. that's all you'll ever have, unless you scored, which is also cool. either way.

and the wind in my hair! if forgot the wind in the elemental litany.

aaaaaaaahhhhh oohhhhh, AAAAAAHHH OOOHHHHHHHH

that's the sound of the wind in my hair

uk version of the CD weirdly didn't have the 'extra tracks' listed on the artwork but they were on the actual CD itself, to wit

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=21426

But Not Tonight works great as a closer, glad I have that version. Was a big radio hit on Live 105 in the Bay Area in '86.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Black Celebration." why not?

man this album is incredible

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

terrible cover, but then even they admitted as much.

― piscesx, Sunday, July 27, 2014 3:28 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I can quite comfortably say that this is my least favourite '80s Depeche Mode album sleeve. It really pales in comparison compared to the likes of A Broken Frame, Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward, all of which boast fantastic sleeve artwork in my humble opinion.

Cosign above comments - I just listened to this the other day at the request of my 11 yr old, and the lyrics are just... embarrassing now.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, July 27, 2014 2:14 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just out of interest, which lyrics on this strike you as particularly embarrassing?

Glad to see the best three songs came out on top

Interesting results -- I thought that "Stripped" would run away with this, and didn't expect "Here Is the House" to be so high. It got more votes than "A Question of Time" and "A Question of Lust" combined! And no votes for "World Full of Nothing" makes me sad.

such a good album! listened to the whole thing for the first time this morning. the production holds up too. doesn't suffer from any dreaded 1986 production maladies.

what are the best remixes from this album? listening i kept thinking there could be some great freestyle mixes. i've HAD to have heard some of the 12-inches but i can't remember any at the moment.

(the last DM thing i bought new was the shake the disease 12-inch. which i played relentlessly. i don't know why i stopped with them. MTV did their best to keep me updated after that though.)

Remixes, let's see. If we're talking at the time, definitely a couple of stellar "Stripped" ones -- the "Highland Mix" and "Breathing in Fumes," both of which were essentially done by Gareth Jones with the band's involvement.

'Black Day', although that's more of a jam session than a remix.

Just out of interest, which lyrics on this strike you as particularly embarrassing?

Turrican, I missed this back in 2014. I should've said, "The lyrics make *me* feel embarrassed". And that's not even the right word, "embarrassed", more like "I remember being a college freshman and finding this incredibly meaningful to my life at the time and you couldn't pay me enough to go back to that state".

It is a good album, ultimately, but you know how some records just connect to a part of you that you'd rather not revisit, or make you shake your head at your naivete? That's this record for me, in a way that Tears For Fears or The Smiths or XTC's work from the same time, which I similarly adored, doesn't make me feel.

Oh, I completely understand... I can think of a few records that have the same kind of effect on me - I'm sure most of us, if not all of us on here has at least one record that has this effect.

I want a cover of but not tonight, that somg but flipped over, insistent in the same way but a different voice, maybe slower, less structured. not sure who by

Best remix IMO, legendary 80s take-album-tracks-and-make-them-hits remixer Phil Harding made this absolute diamond

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljM5u27no8s