![depeche mode album depeche mode album](https://i.discogs.com/naKOKsQbVRmioEIEGzzs4MJ2jpCuLcGUvlX2Gz_QJvg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEyOTE2/NDcxLTE1NDQ2OTc2/NzctNDQxOC5qcGVn.jpeg)
Elsewhere he’s behind the snaky acid and thwacking blues of ‘Miles Away/The Truth Is’ and fronting ‘Corrupt’, Gore’s slow-burning, romping bastard featuring the charming lines, ‘I could corrupt you/It would be easy/Watching you suffer/Girl, it would please me”. ‘Words can leave you broken inside,” he croaks on ‘Hole To Feed’.
![depeche mode album depeche mode album](https://blackdm.com/305-thickbox_default/depeche-mode-the-singles-81-85-cd.jpg)
As on ‘Playing The Angel’, Gahan has three songwriting credits but it’s not helping his state of mind. On the knobs for the one and only time is LFO’s Mark Bell, creating an album of texture and depth.Īfter a four-year break, Depeche Mode’s last album before this week’s ‘Delta Machine’ found them barely missing a beat, three decades into their career. Dave Gahan would get that next time around but here Gore’s in sole charge for the last time, presiding over the masterful, bluesy ‘Dream On’, steam-pump synth ballad ‘Comatose’ and the electro doo-wop of closer ‘Goodnight Lovers’.
![depeche mode album depeche mode album](https://images.genius.com/e16d4372b254ea5139c331a49775f041.1000x1000x1.png)
Depeche Mode had emerged from the grisly old 90s with a singer who’d ‘died” and come back wanting a slice of the songwriting action. It’s the end of the first phase, with the pivotal ‘Singles 81-85’ just around the corner.Ī quantum leap into the future now. Sitting in the middle is Martin Gore’s gorgeous ‘Somebody’, and general critical opinion. On the one hand you’ve got the ridiculous hits like ‘People Are People’ and the S&M festival of ‘Master And Servant’ on the other the twee ‘Stories Of Old’ and the bombastic void of ‘Something To Do’. Then it all goes cod reggae on ‘Satellite’ and everyone looks awkward. By the time we get to ‘Monument’, they’re inventing techno just like Derrick May always said. The only plausible reaction to opener ‘Leave In Silence’ is ‘Good Christ, what have we here?” as it throbs and whumps into DM’s new dark heart. It could’ve all gone tits-up when Vince Clarke left after their debut album, but Depeche Mode came out fighting. But for all the rubbish like ‘PipeLine’, ‘Shame’ and ‘More Than A Party’ (rock’n’roll Mode, anyone?), there’s an ‘Everything Counts’ to soothe the pain. Another alarming development was Martin Gore whipping out a guitar for ‘Love In Itself’ on Top Of The Pops. Something has to come last, and what better than the first time Depeche Mode tried Industrial? Inspired by Einstürzende Neubauten, they decided it all meant moving concrete slabs and hitting pots. Seems the time’s ripe for assessing the Basildon synth-pervs’ weighty back catalogue. Today (22 March) marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Depeche Mode’s eighth album ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’ and also the eve of the release of new – 13th – studio album ‘Delta Machine’, which on first listen sounds like another forbidding techno-industrial beast.