Depeche Mode - Song By Song/Album By Album Discussion Thread.

Headstar is great. The whole EP was really strong and to be honest I like this and Surrender more than OWILM.

4/5.

 

Headstar is a fantastic instrumental, and holds up quite well. It sounds like a mood track that would have been on the Orphan Black TV show.

More than a collection of sounds, the effects truly serve to create a moody atmosphere, build off each other and take the listener on a journey through the music.

 

I thought I was watching this thread, but somehow I missed these songs being posted.

Surrender

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing to admit or if it should be embarrassing to me, but I don't remember hearing this song before. I don't think I bought the single/EP.

While bits of the verse appear to be heading in the direction of an Exciter track, the very good if subtle chorus saves it. The vocal melody is nice, and the production is as good as the songs on Ultra. I do like Ultra a lot - I'm aware that opinions on it are mixed. But, to me both Ultra and this are good. I wonder if they offered Tim Simenon a place in the band. Given his experiences, I guess that had they done so, he would have said no.

I wish DM did more duets. IMHO duets were clearly a winner from Enjoy the Silence onwards. Why not more?

I'm going to give this a 3.8/5

Headstar

Again, I'm not convinced that I've heard this before though that bassline sounds familiar. Has it been used elsewhere. or is there a DM track with a similar bassline.

This is a very good, but I think not great instrumental. Certainly this EP provides value for money. I don't hear guitar here - they may be present, but hidden in the production. Very synthetic DM again.

Rating this on an instrumental scale, I'm going to give this:

4.3/5

 

Headstar - its OK but not something I need to hear again.

3/5

 

September 1998 saw the release of the 2xCD (and yes, almost every copy sold was a double CD) of Singles 86>98, the sequel to 1985's Singles 81-85 / Catching Up With Depeche Mode. The album sold 250,000 units in the US, and huge numbers elsewhere, featuring every single from Stripped to Only When I Lose Myself, alongside - at the end of CD2 - the French only Little 15 and the live version of Everything Counts. The CD has been heavily criticised by some for compressed mastering, and Alan reportedly is not overjoyed with the single mixes of Strangelove and Behind The Wheel, however, as an overview of the band during the period it's a fine introduction to the bands 'Imperial Phase'. Common interpretations have the release of a hits album as The Beginning Of The End, and its fair to say the bands commercial profile, sales, and currency moved them into the area of being seen as a legacy / heritage act from here on.

CD 1:
1. "Stripped" 3:51
2. "A Question of Lust" 4:31
3. "A Question of Time" 4:00
4. "Strangelove" 3:47
5. "Never Let Me Down Again" 4:22
6. "Behind the Wheel" 4:00
7. "Personal Jesus" 3:46
8. "Enjoy the Silence" 4:16
9. "Policy of Truth" 5:14
10. "World in My Eyes" 3:57
CD 2 :
1. "I Feel You" 4:35
2. "Walking in My Shoes" 5:02
3. "Condemnation" (Paris Mix) 3:23
4. "In Your Room" (Zephyr Mix) 4:50
5. "Barrel of a Gun" 5:26
6. "It's No Good" 5:59
7. "Home" 5:46
8. "Useless" (remix) 4:53
9. "Only When I Lose Myself" 4:41
10. "Little 15" 4:14
11. "Everything Counts" (live) 6:38

Initial US copies of the album came with a 3CD of four extra tracks :
1. "Rush" (Wild Planet Mix) 6:23
2. "Enjoy the Silence" (The Quad: Final Mix) 15:25
3. "World in My Eyes" (Safar Mix) 8:30
4. "Dangerous" (Hazchemix Edit)

The bands webmaster, Brat, apparently wanted a weightier and more expansive selection of B-sides and non-album tracks on CD3, but was outvoted by the band, who presumably had their eye on a (still not released 24 years later) B-sides box set.

Here's the EPK that also came on the Videos 86>98 DVD.



Talking of the cover art, Alan wrote :

Q: "What do you think of Intro's art for 'Singles 86>98' as opposed to their work for 'Unsound Methods'? Since I'm not asking you to critique DM per se, give us yer answer, c'mon! :->
A: "I thought it was of a generally high standard which I would have expected but as I've said before, they were never going to have the same feel as Anton's work, which for this historical release would have been much more appropriate. I'm not saying that his artwork would have been better but the continuity would have been there. Intro's 'token' rendition of some of the previous symbols (like the rose for example) looked a little ridiculous but some of the main photos look great. I actually prefer the main (red) image as used in the forthcoming re-packaging of 'Singles 81>85'."

He added : "Well, contractually, I have rights to be fully consulted about all aspects of recordings I was involved in, like which versions are used, artwork, label copy, promo items, marketing ideas etc. Sometimes it is a struggle though for a leaving member to be heard (out of sight, out of mind) and often it is assumed that because I left I either don't care or have given up all these rights. Not so."

Q:"I've just purchased 'Singles 86-98' and I wonder why the Shep Pettibone mix of 'Behind The Wheel' is on this CD? This mix is terrible! I understand that it is the 7" remix but there must have been some discussion about what tracks should or shouldn't make it, or do you just blindly put everything out? You said that you had been outvoted on 'In Your Room' (Butch Vig mix) but I think the album version of 'Behind The Wheel' or the edited Beatmasters mix would have been a much better choice. Surely, both you and us (fans) want the best to be on the CD?

A:"The compilation is really a historical piece which, in my opinion, correctly remains faithful to all the original 7" releases (as did 'Singles 81-85'). I personally feel this is the right way to go even though I do agree that this isn't necessarily the best version of 'Behind The Wheel'. The same also applies to a number of other tracks on the record, however, everybody has different opinions about their favourite versions and it would have been absolutely impossible for us all to agree. As you point out, I was outvoted on 'In Your Room' at the time of it's original release but since that was the decision, for this release, the correct version has been chosen."

Q:"What is your least favourite track on 'Singles 86-98' (from the times when you still were in DM) and why?"
A: "Probably 'Strangelove'. I don't like the 'Behind The Wheel' remix much either.

Overall, Singles 86>98 is a concise and concentrated delivery of the bands singles output for the period and a more than serviceable introduction to the curious of the band's history. 5/5

 

I picked the 98 Singles compilations pretty cheap. The sets do have some value as I don't own the Ultra/OWILM singles. And the 81-85 reissue included the original version of Photographic. This is not a set that I pop in and listen to as a whole, however. With DM, my playlists are setup as the albums themselves, the album b-sides and single versions all together, and the remixes for each album all together.

 

Ugh—the alerts failed me again.

Headstar is a good track. I was never quite sure where those b-sides came from, really. I suspected maybe they were Ultra leftovers, in which case they were surprisingly good compared to some of the tracks that made it on that album. This also has that airy synth chord which instantly evokes late-90’s electronica for me. It also sounds a lot like something used on the next album. It also almost seems like something meant to support a vocal—I wonder if there was ever any more to it.

Also, I can never remember which of these b-side tracks is which.

 

I never bought the 86-98 set when it came out. Instead, I bought the one album that this covered which I didn’t already have—Black Celebration—and the new single. I heard this set plenty, though, and eventually ripped my sister’s copy. I thought it was a really strong set, showing just how good DM’s singles had been even through Ultra. As often seems to be the case, DM and U2 appeared to be in sync, both releasing greatest hits sets in 1998, but I thought DM’s set was stronger, and their songs stood up better when separated from their original albums. (Whereas, if I wanted to hear Where the Streets Have No Name, I just want to put on the Joshua Tree.) Yeah, some of the mixes here are weaker, but I usually had the best one already, anyway, and it made for a good set even still.

Interesting that I never considered how Anton hadn’t done the art on this, but it’s a good point. Still, I’d say this is one of the last times a DM cover looked GOOD. (Considering Anton’s subsequent album art for the band, I’d say it’s high time to find someone else for the job. Let him handle the band photographs, and that’s it.) In this case, it seems to be nice visual nod back to Music for the Masses, showing technology for communication in odd places.

 

I've sat out on this thread throughout the "imperial phase" albums (mostly because I played myself out of "Depeche Mode mode" playing the early stuff to death in order to contribute here ) but I have to say I always liked this compilation. I liked the design of it (although never realized this wasn't Anton's work... it uses iconography in a similar way) and I loved that it was a double CD. In other words, as a Depeche Mode history, it didn't skimp. Alan is correct that it sticks to the mission, gathering up all the 7"s and using the mixes that were present on those, etc.

It was only later that I came to the conclusion that the sound on this and the contemporaneous 81<85 redux are both far too loud, rendering the tracks hard to listen to. It was an unusually early casualty of the loudness wars, as tracks weren't really even being sold digitally yet and the iPod era was still a few years off. It's funny, I'm more detail-oriented than I am audiophile, and so there are times when I agree with the SHMF opinions of things and times when I don't. But this is one of those where I join the screaming masses that the release was terribly mastered and really should be repaired and rereleased the way that New Order did for their own Singles album in 2016.

I have the 3-CD version and as much as I appreciated it at the time (the "ETS Quad:Final Mix" was not on the US CD single of ETS), it feels like a promo item, which it is. Those 4 mixes in particular have no cohesion together in any way, from what I can tell, and that makes it a bizarre release.

Lastly - I suppose I would have preferred "Little 15" and "Everything Counts (Live)" to be part of the chronological sequence rather than stuck on the end.

 

Keeping fresh on the material is quite difficult, I deliberately only listened to each album once or twice, and each relevant song once, before any particular entry, so I don't get burn out - alongside dipping into the relevant fanclub magazines and biographies at the time. I still listen to the live stuff loads though, and the remixes, and have a very positive overview of the Singles Tour (coming soon!).

I will be quite harsh on Exciter, mind you.

 

One Night in Paris was on Sky Arts last night. Yeesh...there's only so many jazz hands, gurns and chest beats you can handle.

Took my missus to her one only DM gig at Wembley arena on that tour, she said "never again eh Dear?"

 

Some pictures, I enjoy this 2 x CD. I find it brilliant to take in the car...

 

Following the release of The Singles 86>98, came the bands first (small scale) tour in five years : The Singles Tour 86>98 was a relatively swift, short four month tour that visited major cities in Europe and the USA, including many countries the band had never played in before (such as Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland). 66 shows in 57 cities over four months is a relatively small scale tour, being less than a half of the length of 1993-4's epic Devotional Tour. It's perhaps no coincidence that the first few shows of the tour were in countries that had never seen Depeche before, so the sense of This Line Up Compared To The Other Line Up wasn't really an issue for the first few shows and reduced the stress.

Nonetheless, this was also the first tour that saw the 5 man live version of Depeche that has remained stable for the past 24 years : Dave, Martin and Fletch, with Christian Eigner reprising his role on drums from the 1997 Ultra Parties and newcomer Peter Gordeno on keyboards, tech, and backing vocals. The stage set was designed by Anton Corbjin alongside some re-edited and specially made Anton films : the stage set was conceived to resemble a Vegas-style cabaret act tying in with the theme of a Greatest Hits tour.

OK, tech heads, here's a rundown of the bands rig on this tour :

Dave : vocals
Martin : 2 Knight guitars (Gretsch Anniversary copies), 1 Gretsch Tennessee Rose guitar, 2 Emax II sampler keyboards + 2 Akai S3000XL samplers via midi (off stage)
Fletch : 2 Emax II sampler keyboards + 2 Akai S3000XL samplers via midi (off stage) - [I think this is the same kit as 1993-4]
Peter Gordeno : Roland A90, Roland JP8000, Roland JD800, Roland JV1080, + 2 Akai S3000XL samplers via midi (off stage)
Christian Eigner : custom built Sonor drum kit
Jordan Bailey + Janet Cooke : backing vocals

The setlist was broadly the same across every show, with Sister Of Night and Behind The Wheel making occasional appearances towards the end of the tour.

average setlist :
[ Painkiller ]
01. A Question Of Time
02. World In My Eyes
03. Policy Of Truth
04. It's No Good
05. Never Let Me Down Again
06. Walking In My Shoes
07. Only When I Lose Myself
08. A Question Of Lust
09. Home
10. Condemnation
11. In Your Room
12. Useless
13. Enjoy The Silence
14. Personal Jesus
15. Barrel Of A Gun
_____
16. Somebody
17. Stripped
18. I Feel You
____
19. Just Can't Get Enough

 

No official recordings of this tour were released, however two shows were filmed and edited for MTV Broadcast : Live In Cologne was broadcast as a condensed 50 minute version on MTV.



As a side note, this is the first time I saw the band since 1990. I missed The Devotional Tour simply down to money. I thought the Singles Tour show was a unapologetic greatest hits presentation of the band, designed to confirm and remind people of the bands strengths and continued existence after a several year absence, as well as perform a relatively low-risk, short-duration tour to build up Gahan's stamina as a newly sober frontman for future touring, and to also be a Ultra-tour by default, with up to 6 new songs from Ultra and beyond in the set. I enjoyed the show greatly, but it was a bit nostalgic.

 

Here's the 1998 Corbjin tour film for Walking In My Shoes. Fletch, Dave and Martin dress up as Bowie, The Beatles, Elvis, Kraftwerk, Marc Bolan, Gary Glitter, The Clash and others. (Audio is from Devotional).

 

Here's a rare radio broadcast from this tour, KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, 12th December 1998.

 

Went to the Singles tour gig at Wembley arena. (3rd time I'd seen them after World Violation and Devotional at Crystal Palace and Wembley arena).

I remember it being pretty good, it was great to see Dave clean and reasonably healthy after his issues and he hadn't started the gurning, etc. Eigner played it pretty straight as well...which didn't last long.

 

Having seen them only on the Devotional/Exotic shows, this tour was proof that the band, miraculously, was still alive and performing after years of uncertainty. Just seeing Dave take the stage was an emotional hit—the crowd’s reaction was undoubtedly a recognition of how unlikely it was we’d see him perform again, more than just the usual excitement at the start of a show. He was also notably no longer sporting his “rock Jesus” look, looking a bit like he did before SOFAD, but having gone through some serious stuff.

The big news, of course, was the addition of Christian and Peter. At the time, I liked what they brought to the band’s live sound. 24 year later, I’m not sure I still feel the same way, though Peter may be the best musician to ever perform under the DM name.

All in all, I liked this show. (Really, I’m not sure they’ve done a show I didn’t like.) It did serve as a sort of Ultra tour, and was probably the most stripped down set I’ve seen them do. I could forgive a greatest hits set given everything they’d been through, and seeing them do Just Can’t Get Enough was a perfect way to wrap it up, and something they hadn’t touched the last tour. It really felt like a celebration.

 

I have quite strong views about the relative usefulness of Peter and Fletch and I think it's time to be quite upfront about them. Whilst I think Alan is probably the best musician to be a member of DM - by a significant margin - I'm not one of these people who endlessly hankers on for Alan to rejoin the band.

That said, we really have two Depeche Modes from here on. We have a trio - or duo, depending on your view - that records and releases new material. And we have the five piece version with Peter and Christian. This is mildly complicated by the fact that Christian does write with Dave, and those songs do appear on Depeche releases, even though I don't think Christian plays on any Depeche studio release.

From here on, Fletch becomes to all intents and purposes musically redundant and when I have seen Depeche live, the fact that they stop the show so we can all praise Fletch for playing two bars of the least complicated bass line ever written on a synthesiser at the end of "Just Can't Get Enough" is pretty tasteless to me. It's bad enough that Fletch is paid an undoubtedly enormous amount of money for barely playing anything, so drawing attention to the fact that he's playing the absurdly simple bassline of JCGE which most players could do drunk and asleep is almost insulting. I'm pretty sure I'm audible on more Depeche live albums than Fletch is. That sounds quite harsh, and I do love the band, but Fletch brings literally nothing to the band musically : he barely appears on the studio albums, hasn't written a single song in his life that he's credited for, and they never show him playing his instrument in any visible manner on any live release in the past thirty years.

Peter is a great musician : he can seemingly play anything standing on his hand whilst levitating, and seems very capable of putting his hand to any instrument there is. And he's got a great set of pipes. That said, he seems to not demonstrate much in the way of a strong personality on stage (or off), and I don't think he's played on any Depeche studio release or written anything that's appeared on any Depeche album. So Peter's role seems to be a very capable technician rather than a creative musician - I remember being horrified with his take on a live solo for Never Let Me Down Again on the 1998 tour which to me sounded like a synth version of some out-of-place Joe Satriani fretboard 'widdlywoo' guitar solo that didn't fit the song. Now, you might think I'm being harsh, but I don't think so : Gordeno's skills as a songwriter aren't in evidence on any Depeche records, and I'd like to think that if he could write a great song (or co-write it), Depeche would let it go an album as he's been part of the bands operation for 24 years now. Peter's vast abilities effectively carry Fletch's current lack of competence. No doubt Fletch was a key part of the early lineup and he did the work then, but that was a long time ago.

Here's a solo Gordeno vocal from 2012 and he does a more than fine job of it :

 

Wow, that's a great show.

Dave genuinely seems like a new man and doesn't resort to his usual stage persona in his expressions and moves. He's just really enjoying himself and in the moment. Martin's more animated too. I even saw Fletch play keyboards, this show has everything.

Really loved the versions of 'Enjoy The Silence' and 'Home' in particular.

I would certainly buy this on CD and DVD if it came out - highly unlikely, I know.

Thanks for posting, Mark.

 

The whole Fletch thing live is really strange. Lack of confidence? Can't be arsed? Not being able to bust out the "double handed window wash" or "hands in the air" dance move whenever he fancies?

 

As posted above, it's a real shame that the MTV gig only shows about 40 minutes of the show which is great.

Like loads of other stuff, it's just gathering dust somewhere.

 

A number of things to discuss here.

For The Singles, I somehow wish they had released a greatest hits after SoFaD to cap off the Alan years, which would leave more songs for a post-Alan best of. Particularly since in my opinion most of the best post-Alan songs are from Ultra, and Exciter was a big drop-off in quality. I don't typically buy Greatest Hits if I have all or almost all of the songs. And, I didn't buy this.

The version of I'm Not In Love sung by Peter is great. Both Christian and Peter are great musicians, and excellent additions to the DM family. I wish they could be given a spotlight live, perhaps just one song. But, DM is DM so I guess most would disagree. Given how much Alan did to organise DM live, I wonder who does that job now. I'm guessing that Peter and Christian do some of that heavy lifting, but that's just a wild guess.

I will weigh in on live recordings when I've had a bit more of a chance to listen. I didn't attend any of the tour dates. This was after I stopped going to huge concerts to focus in on smaller ones. I do buy DVDs, but don't have a DVD from this tour as there wasn't one.

I see that Peter Gordeno was part of the British Rock Symphony tour. 'I'm Not In Love' is not on the album that I can find (British Rock Symphony ). I wonder if this song is from that tour.

So far I haven't been able to find any solo releases by him.

I found and greatly enjoy this track 'Modular Jam' by Christian.

 

I can't edit the above.

Thinking more about the singles and that in my opinion the albums before the singles album are of a better quality than those afterwards (on average), I wonder if it is embarrassing to say that I prefer 'Reload' by Junkie XL featuring Dave Gahan more than I do any song on either Delta Machine or Spirit. Though, I wish to point out that I like 'Reload' a lot and this isn't the diss of Delta Machine and Spirit that it might appear. And perhaps when we get to those albums I will re-evaluate them and songs on them.

The music isn't just a DM pastiche, but given that the music is electronic and Dave sings, there is an obvious comparison.



I wonder if Junkie XL produced a future DM album if it would come out great.

 

Don't know, I find this song quite average...