― 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
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