Depeche Mode Albums Poll (post-'Songs of Faith & Devotion')

voted playing the angel

Ultra. Tim Simenon's production still sounds great, and both Gore and Gahan are in fine vocal form on the album (this in spite of the fact that the recording of the album was Gahan's lowest ever period in the struggle with addictions, and getting those vocal performances out of him undoubtedly took a great deal of work and an extreme amount of "comp'ing"). Also contains 'Home', which I'd take over any track from any album that came after it.

ranked:

Playing the Angel
Exciter
Sounds of the Universe
Ultra

jury's still out on Delta Machine, it's too new for me to fairly judge it

It's a close call between Ultra and Sounds of The Universe. I don't really rate the other three albums that much apart from the odd song. Will probably vote for Ultra as it contains Home which is just a perfect song.

Home is great, but so are Freelove, Precious, In Chains and Alone, to just pick one off each album

Anyone who thinks "Freelove" is great can't really be trusted.

Freelove is great and one of the few songs on Exciter that I can actually remember. That's probably the weakest of the five albums for me.

EXCITER BITCHES

Also I saw them live after the release of that so

ignoring Delta Machine for the moment

Playing the Angel
Ultra
Exciter
Sounds of the Universe

It's been a long time since I listened to "Ultra" all the way through, I always found it a bit same-y and about 15 minutes too long but there are some amazing peaks on there and goddammit why won't they play more of those songs live.

Playing the Angel for me. Only real other contender would have been Ultra.
I'd like to say that using SOFD as a cut off release (although there is definitely a before and after that album in DM history) is a bit odd. Most of their later albums walk all over SOFD

Ultra narrowly over Playing the Angel, then Exciter, then I remember hating Sounds of the Universe.

Haven't listened to Delta Machine yet.

Most of their later albums walk all over SOFD
No.

PTA is basically a shining beacon in a sea of shit imo.

Most of their later albums walk all over SOFD
No.

― gyac, Sunday, March 31, 2013 7:45 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ OTM ^^

Well I'd put PTA and Ultra above SOFD without hesitation and would prob also put Exciter up there even tho that would be a closer call

Funny how DM and Cure history mirror each other although DM has remained much more vital after SOFD than the Cure post-Wish

Ultra has great production and some great tracks - glad that Home gets a lot of love, but if you can bear the turgid 'spirit of love' chorus, Insight sounds amazing through headphones. Everything after Ultra sounds the same to me :/

"Insight" really is the great 'lost' track for me when it comes to a live performance. At least the Ultra singles got played on the 1998 tour.

Man that tour was weird. I was glad to see them back, and Dave alive at all, but it was almost like a cheap and cheerful cabaret, especially compared to the insane, amazing previous tour. Very fond memories of the Exciter tour so I vote Exciter in this poll!

'Ultra' then 'Exciter' for me.

Not a fan of the original but the flood mix of freelove is great so sod the haters.

Choosing ultra since that was my first encounter with DM. Love the four singles that came off it. Playing the Angel as my second choice.

Choosing ultra since that was my first encounter with DM

kids today ...

Hey hey it also has my favorite songs from the polled albums.

"Freelove" also has one of the strongest melodies of any Depeche Mode song since... probably "Strangelove"

Yeah as I said earlier in the thread Freelove is great. After Ultra it's probably my favourite single of theirs along with Precious.

I was just flicking through Ultra, they absolutely nailed the single choices from that album.

Freelove
free highs and free lows

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Didn't Freelove have a vastly different remix for the single version?

Voting Delta Machine because it far exceeded my expectations. Exciter's definitely the weakest.

No weakest would be Sounds of the Universe. Still not sold on Delta Machine byt willing to give it a few more tries

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

Seems about right

the tragedy of SOTU is that it contains some fantastically strong songs but the album as a whole never comes together

forever <3 "In Chains" though

^^^ I first read that as SOFAD instead of SOTU and was going to agree

Four years on, SOTU seems almost forgettable. Will anybody really care if they don't play any songs from it on the tour?

I really would love to hear "In Chains", "Wrong", "Hole To Feed" and "Corrupt"; I don't have a particular opinion about the rest of the album beyond sort of despising "Peace"

SOFAD gave us "I Feel You" and "Walking In My Shoes" so despite how much I hate "Condemnation" I will always think of it fondly

Well I loved and still love "Wrong" - which seemed a fantastic throwback to their Black Celebration sound but then a lot of the album seemed intent to show that DM could do sunny day organic pop.
I know I'm in the minority but besides "Wrong", the only song I would still keep on my iPod would be "Come Back" and "Miles Away"

oh "Come Back" is very very good

I do think many people underrate "Hole To Feed", I just love the rhythm section and the gloriously weird sound effects that pop up all over it

And, of course, that video.

did they do a video for "Peace"? "Wrong" and "Hole To Feed" were such home runs

They did and I seem to remember it being nowhere near as good, then again those WERE home runs and a half.

In retrospect one of the 'whuh?' videos of their career is the one for "Precious."

I may be on my own here, but one of my favourite tracks on Sounds Of The Universe is 'Perfect'...

"Perfect" is decent IMO but I rarely go to it

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of days listening solely to Depeche Mode's post-Songs of Faith and Devotion albums and a few thoughts...

Ultra keeps on sounding better and better to my ears as the years go by - excellent production from Tim Simenon and some beautiful vocals from both Martin and Dave, a very underrated collection of songs.

Exciter keeps on sounding worse and worse to my ears as the years go by - I managed to force my way through the record from beginning to end last night, and I'm very much convinced at this stage that it's the worst collection of songs Martin Gore has ever written - say what you like about A Broken Frame, but I'll take the highlights of that record over pretty much all of Exciter. 'Freelove' and 'Goodnight Lovers' sounded pretty good, though, and I enjoy the throbbing chorus on 'Shine'... and strangely, 'I Feel Loved' hit the spot for me when it's always been one of those tracks I've never really cared about. 'Dream On', 'When The Body Speaks' (zzZZzzZZzz), 'The Dead Of Night', 'Comatose', 'Breathe' and 'I Am You' can all fffffffuck right off, and the album probably has the least interesting interludes of any Depeche album. The worst album of their career.

Playing The Angel, on the other hand, is a very good record IMO... I've always disliked the hot mastering on this album, and my listen to the album last night didn't change my mind one jot on that. However, words can't express how seriously fucking good it was to hear this album directly after Exciter... the songs are definitely there and at the time it was probably their most energetic record in a long while. If the record was mastered at a reasonable level, and the Dave-written snoozer 'I Want It All' was removed from the album, it'd be close to perfect, I think. Why they opted to sequence that particular track in the middle of the record is one of the most confounding things about Playing The Angel for me; it meanders, the chorus isn't very strong and it creates a dip right in the middle of the album, when it should be keeping the momentum going built up by the first six tracks. 'Macro' into 'Nothing's Impossible' would have been much better, IMO.

Sounds Of The Universe was far better than I remembered it being and I think a lot of Depeche fans are a little too harsh on this record. The mastering is nowhere near as awful as that on Playing The Angel, and the sound design comes across to me as being a little more smoother and less "harsh" than on Playing The Angel. Sure, none of Dave's songs here are up to the standard of 'Suffer Well' or 'Nothing's Impossible' (I personally don't care if I never hear 'Come Back' or 'Miles Away/The Truth Is' ever again - although 'Hole To Feed' seems to have grown on me a hell of a lot), but while Martin hasn't come up with a "classic" on the level of 'Precious' or 'Home' this time around, a lot of the songs strike me as being good and/or competent: 'In Chains', 'Wrong', 'Fragile Tension', 'Little Soul', 'In Sympathy', 'Perfect', 'Jezebel' and 'Corrupt' don't blow me away, but I'd willingly listen to them again and enjoy them while I'm listening to them. I actually think that not only is the songwriting better on this album compared to Exciter, but the enjoyment level is a lot higher for me too.

Delta Machine, though... fuck! This record has grown on me quite a hell of a lot since it first came out, and listening to these records back-to-back, I feel that this is the best production of the Ben Hillier records. I think Dave turned in an excellent batch of songs this time around, particularly 'Secret To The End', and Martin's songs, on the whole, are pretty strong too. Sure, it's not the Depeche Mode of Violator or Music For The Masses, but what it is is a very good record by a veteran band and one of their stronger albums of their post-Songs of Faith and Devotion phase.