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**evilC** · 12-03-2009, 15:39

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Cool - thanks for that, Furtho.

Hopefully, this will serve as a good intro to the later stuff that I don't have.

**hobbes** · 12-03-2009, 16:02

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Only one track off Violator?
If I did one of these it'd be mainly Violator with a few early tracks thrown in.

Feels like time for a top ten. In no particular order:-

Behind The Wheel
Everything Counts
New Life
John The Revelator
Something to Do
Stripped
New Dress
Halo
Policy of Truth
Clean
Sacred

**Taylor** · 12-03-2009, 16:06

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

When I was at school, someone brought in whichever DM album it is that contains the song that goes "Princess Di is wearing a new dress", and we all sat around with the lyric sheet for about half an hour pissing ourselves laughing. I haven't seen those lyrics for more than twenty years, but would even the DM fans here admit that they were... not the best?

**evilC** · 12-03-2009, 16:28

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Depeche Mode are another one of those bands that, logically speaking, I should like but instead have a bit of a 'blind spot' with. The lyrics certainly never helped endear them to me. "When I need a drug in me / That brings out the thug in me", from one song on 'Violator' is particularly bad. (Can't remember which one, now - always used to skip it when it came on, anyway!)

**hobbes** · 12-03-2009, 16:31

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Well of course, they were crap lyrics. horrible, over-earnest cod-political. There was a lot of it about at the time.

**hobbes** · 12-03-2009, 16:43

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

They don't do well for being written down, do they. But then again, fuck the lyrics. If the song works, it works.

Having said that, what's wrong with:-

"When I need a drug in me
And it brings out the thug in me
Feel something tugging me
Then I want the real thing not tokens"

It's about needing someone there who understands his addiction, which considering the state he got himself in, seems fair enough. (Sweetest Perfection, by the way.)

**Furtho** · 12-03-2009, 16:46

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Only one track off Violator?
If I did one of these it'd be mainly Violator with a few early tracks thrown in.

I think the singles from Violator are great and the other tracks not so consistent, although Clean did get a few moments' consideration. To be honest I wouldn't describe myself as a fan now - when they started trying to be a rock band in 1993 with Songs Of Faith & Devotion I really lost interest. Listening to these albums again lately has been a good opportunity to look back at things like Music For The Masses (which I used to love) and see how it stands up.

**Auntie Beryl** · 12-03-2009, 16:56

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I think Music For The Masses runs Violator close as their best album. Never Let Me Down Again is their best song.

**Mumpo** · 12-03-2009, 22:41

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

First of all - sterling work, Furtho, that's an excellent and agreeably eclectic selection. There's nothing there I wouldn't consider for a Depeche Mode mixtape of my own. OK, perhaps with the exception of The Things You Said, which I thought for a long time was the weak link in Music for the Masses, though now I can see beauty in its simplicity.

Hang on - I've just noticed that there's nothing from Ultra. You didn't think of sneaking It's No Good or Sister of Night on there?

I am absurdly excited at the propect of their new album, Sounds of the Universe, which is released in April. In fact, Depeche Mode are the only band I can think of whose impending albums still make me feel this way. The first single, Wrong, boasts a blackly humorous lyric that would, had it been written by Neil Tennant, have been lauded as a work of ironic pop genius. However, being Depeche Mode, the single seems to have been gaining little in the way of airplay.

When I was at school, someone brought in whichever DM album it is that contains the song that goes "Princess Di is wearing a new dress", and we all sat around with the lyric sheet for about half an hour pissing ourselves laughing. I haven't seen those lyrics for more than twenty years, but would even the DM fans here admit that they were... not the best?

New Dress is a bizarre song. Black Celebration, the album on which it features, is otherwise devoid of the endearingly naive politically motivated songs of which the band produced plenty for Construction Time Again three years previously. Yeah, I think that refrain, taken out of context, sounds clumsy; but the verses consist of some faux tabloid headlines that juxtapose it nicely ("Sex jibe husband murders wife/Bomb blast victim fights for life/Girl thirteen attacked with knife). Much worse is the convoluted "You cant change the world..." sequence that follows it.

The thing about many of Depeche Mode's 'awful' lyrics is that they're borne out of Martin Gore's over-eagerness to find rhymes ("hollow promises/Doubting Thomases" couplet from Judas is another excrutiating example) - an obsession which is shared to a similar extent only by Benny Andersson and Bj�rn Ulvaeus. "Glasgow/last show", anyone?

**Toby Gymshorts** · 12-03-2009, 22:46

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I came in to say I really like "Enjoy The Silence" but I think I might get lynched.

**Mumpo** · 12-03-2009, 22:52

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Why? It's an excellent track. Started off as a slow ballad, played by Martin Gore on the harmonium; stalwart Mode producer Daniel Miller heard it, recognised its pop potential, created an up-tempo backing track for it and what might have remained a nondescript album track became a classic.

**Toby Gymshorts** · 12-03-2009, 22:58

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Cool.

"Just Can't Get Enough"?

**Mumpo** · 12-03-2009, 23:04

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I love Dave's interjection on the live version released on the limited 12" of Love In Itself - seeing the crowd wondering why the rest of the band are playing on when the song should have finished, he whips them back into life by exhorting "Come on! It's the twelve-inch!"

**Mumpo** · 12-03-2009, 23:04

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Sigh. I could do this all night.

**Toby Gymshorts** · 12-03-2009, 23:07

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I couldn't. I must admit at this point an almost staggering ignorance when it comes to the music and musings of DM; despite the best efforts of my mate at secondary school who was desperately trying to wean me off thrash metal.

Sorry, Adam.

**amp** · 13-03-2009, 00:33

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I really like 101 if I'm in the mood. It's one of the few live albums that I know of that actually adds something to the songs. When Dave shouts "Good Evening Pasadena!" it always makes me laugh in a kinda Spinal Tap way too.

I only really know the hits and Black Celebration & Violator well. Nothing in the original list that instantly chimes with me so I'm having a listen now.

Nobody has mentioned the version of In Your Room from the Singles Compilation yet. That's one of my favourites. Others - Never Let Me Down Again despite the cringe worthy "Promises me I'm as safe as houses, as long as I remember who's wearing the trousers", Behind the Wheel, Black Celebration, Somebody (101 version)

Re lyrics. I'm not sure I can explain this but lyrically they're one of those bands like Radiohead...most of the lyrics kind of wash over you in the sense that you don't really engage with them however there's a feeling they impart. You pick up on certain 'feeling' from them that can affect you if you're a delicate teenage girl or a decrepit 37 year old man

**linus** · 13-03-2009, 07:53

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

It's funny we haven't had a long thread about Depeche Mode on this board. They were the greatest among the big acts from the UK in the 80s, or at least on par with the handful of other giants like the Smiths. They were also definitely bigger and more appreciated on the Continent, at least with the right musical segment (as opposed to huge acts like Dire Straits that were terrible.)

Part of it might be they have image issues, unlike say New Order or the Talking Heads, which carry more gravitas despite being weaker acts. DM have fallen out of favor. They're dismissed on the basis of their lyrics, while people now carry high praise for Italo disco, a genre where the lyrics are far less sophisticated. In some ways DM was actually way ahead of the curve, like their concern for the environment which was a driving force in their 2nd and 3rd albums.

Personally, I don't like 90% of their later catalogue, perhaps because at that point I had moved on to different genres and sounds, but the quality of their output did drop enormously, following a pattern that was very common with plenty of other 80s groups like Tears For Fears, OMD or Simple Minds.

Speak&Spell is my clear favorite. "Photographic" is perhaps the one song that has aged the best in their entire catalogue. "New Life", "Dreaming of Me", "Any Second Now" are superb.

**Furtho** · 13-03-2009, 08:28

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

New Life is indeed an absolutely superb track. The incredible leap in production values from Dreaming Of Me to New Life and Just Can't Get Enough basically invented synthpop as far as I'm concerned.

Hang on - I've just noticed that there's nothing from Ultra. You didn't think of sneaking It's No Good or Sister of Night on there?

It's No Good is a single and hence discounted. I really don't rate any of the non-singles on that album; as I say, this whole "we're a dirty rock band really" thing is not something that appeals to me, so most of the stuff after Songs Of Faith... is uncharted territory. Have just finished reading Jonathan Miller's Stripped biog and, apart from Alan Wilder taking himself massively seriously, the thing that strikes me (and disappoints me) is quite how much Dave Gahan wants to be a traditional rock star.

I am absurdly excited at the propect of their new album, Sounds of the Universe, which is released in April. In fact, Depeche Mode are the only band I can think of whose impending albums still make me feel this way. The first single, Wrong, boasts a blackly humorous lyric that would, had it been written by Neil Tennant, have been lauded as a work of ironic pop genius.

Any chance of a care and share, Mumpo?

**Lucy Waterman** · 13-03-2009, 11:32

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

No mention of Leave In Silence? That's an insanely good song.

**Lucy Waterman** · 13-03-2009, 11:33

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Fuck me, it's not even on the most recent Best Of. Fools.

**Furtho** · 13-03-2009, 11:36

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

Uh, it's an album-tracks-only compilation.

**MsD** · 13-03-2009, 11:52

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I started listening to DM again last year due to this album of DM covers. Some of them are poor and some work very well, but hearing them covered by different artists shows up their strengths as songs. In every case I prefer the original, I just wasn't always listening at the time.

Various for the Masses

**linus** · 13-03-2009, 13:37

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

"Leave in Silence" is great Lucy, one of a number of tracks on A Broken Frame that are really good like "The Sun and the Rainfall" and "See You". I think their best one after Speak and Spell though might be "Everything Counts".

**matt j** · 13-03-2009, 13:48

Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

I'm really enjoying this. So, thanks.

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Depeche Mode OTF Mixtape

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