Depeche Mode: You had to be there?

[Gethlag]

Love Depeche, best album for me is SOFAD followed by Violator. Ultra is good but it marked the start of the boring-dark-ballads-no balls-Depeche that has no sonic novelty nor good instrumentation. There are still a few good songs here and there, especially on Playing the Angel, but the magic is just gone.

Dave has a solo album called Hourglass, which, IMHO, sounds more like DM than all the post-Ultra albums together, very nice soundscapes and catchy songs. Very similar to SOFAD in many ways.

Anyway, I love “sampler era” Depeche and mostly dislike “modular era” Depeche.

[DonovanDwyer]

Ya’ll trippin… everyone knows that Some Great Reward was the height of DM. Violator was some great songwriting as well, plus a ton of great tracks on their first several albums. I’m sure it really depends on when one was first exposed to their catalogue.

I also have an odd relationship with DM… my ex hooked up with Gahan once on tour, which was a bad association that took many years to get over. But, eventually, I did.

[dragonaut]

I heard People are People when I was 8 and became obsessed. I had never heard anything like that before. My dad took my friend and I to the Music for the Masses tour on my 11th birthday which was my first concert.

In the US we got the People are People and Catching up With compilations which I think are still both really solid and probably a better introduction than the early albums themselves. Plus they have some great tracks that weren’t on the albums.

I lost interest when Violator came out. In retrospect I think you have to admit that they were pretty unique. They’re not as minimalistic and simplistic as a lot of other synth pop of the time and lots of their early stuff is quite weird and creative. They started with the really fun poppy stuff like New Life, Photograph of You, Just Can’t Get Enough, and later ended up getting really depressing imo, but in between was my favorite like Everything Counts, Leave In Silence, or Shake the Disease.

Also met my first girlfriend in 7th grade because she saw my Music for the Masses shirt

[FromNaught]

I wasn’t there at the time but I love it. Although I don’t really listen to those peak albums, just the songs I connect with. The only album I put on is Speak and Spell, but maybe I just like being called a pretty boy.

[Hans_Olo]

@bangonadigi

Especially since it’s a band I feel like I “should” like.

The list of great, super impactful bands/acts that I‘m not feeling is endless. So what? I know DM are one of the most important bands of my adolescence, I know their music, but it doesn‘t connect deeply with me on an emotional level. I did’t experience anything with them the soundtrack that‘s dear to me today. I‘ve given up on the concept of trying to force myself to like a band just because they‘re culturally significant. E…g, Radiohead? Pass… Not to shit on them or anything, it‘s just that other stuff is more interesting to me.

[dobermate]

So, even if this band is the constant in my life, I do absolutely believe that you have a point about “having to be there” - I’m sure having grown up with them during their start to peak certainly wired me in a specific way.

[dobermate]

Absolutely - your guess is as good as mine to how the actual state of the band was

[dobermate]

Sorry to hear about your experience there, buddy!

[Sundaybeat]

I have been a DM fan a decade ago, today I rarely listen to their music, but I still love their live shows. I never miss one! The last one was MM’s tour and I have to say that it is surely one of the best live performances I attended. In the live situation they are very good still today.
My favorites: Music for the masses, Ultra, Playing the angel. Honorable mention to Sounds of the universe, because it is bad and weird, but I love it and I don’t know why.

[reeloy]

…wait a second…

we’re talking about the ONLY truu indie band of the planet, that’s able to sell out stadiums around the globe, since decades…

and when it comes to electronic music production struggles/challenges/achievements, THEY have seen it all…when they started out, there even was no midi…

[cyclyk]

I also have a strange relation with Depeche Mode, not a fan at all, not even loving all these 80s stuff but… the day I put a headphone to listen to Violator on a bloody tape copy, it marked me forever…
How genius is this album, just even on a production level. 1990? The perfect bridge between the 80s and what will come in the 90s. All those little elements in the background, this creepy creature under the stairs and all, beautiful! And every tracks have something particular…
And all is for sublimate those powerfull melodies which stay in your head forever. I always have fragments of Violator in my head.
Ultra is strong, Ultra is a piece of life at the time.

[Speedball]

@bangonadigi

… I keep returning to the back catalogue hoping to really click with their more iconic albums like Music for the Masses or Black Celebration. I just find their sound back then kind of thin… the pop songs aren’t catchy enough and the “innovative” stuff doesn’t feel particularly edgy or interesting to me today.

…

First, except their first two albums, i wouldn’t name their stuff synth pop.

Second, in approaching their back catalogue I would separate the album “experience” from the hits or catchy songs as you called it.

Listen to the whole albums with the production background , the used gear and the lyrics in mind. Then you will quickly realize what is/was so interesting about them. Briefly:

Speak&Spell (1981): Debut, Analog Synths, Drums:Arp 2600 and Korg KR55, Songwriting mainly Vince Clarke

A Broken Frame (1982): Analog Synths, PPG Wave, but Drums: Roland 808 & Simmons SDS-V, Vince left, Martin Gore took over Songwriting

Construction Time Again (1983): The Sampling Album (Synclavier II)

Some Great Reward (1984): The FM Album, DX7 + Synclavier II

Black Celebration (1986): Sampling all over the place, Emulator II, Synclavier II

Music for the Masses (1987): same

Violator (1990): Analog Synths like Arp 2600, Sampling again Emulator II, Akai S-1000

Songs of Faith&Devotion (1993): Analog Synths again, lots of them through guitar amps, Samples again, Live drums with many layers of sampled loops etc… obviously more guitars (I Feel You, Walking …(e-bow), Mercy…, Rush)

Ultra (1997): First time using DAW (Logic, E Magic)
Exciter (2001): VSTs, lots Digital Synths (Nord, Virus …)
Playing the Angel (2005): first album of the controversial Ben Hillier Trilogy
Sounds of the Universe (2009): Martin buying old drum machines over the internet like there’s no tomorrow
Delta Machine (2013): Introducing Modular Stuff
Spirit (2017), Momento Mori (2023)…

I think with a little background the sound of the older albums will make more sense to you. I quite like the fact that the albums have a certain sound and atmosphere. They are interesting, strange, demanding, exeptional. Imagine they used a Linndrum and Oberheims and a Minimoog all the time…

See following page if you care, lists almost every sample used, gear lists for every album, keys, bpms, comments on the songs etc. One of the best DM resources you can find:

List of Depeche Mode sample sources by album - Depeche Mode Live Wiki

Avoiding the thin sound I would recommend Non Album Versions of many of the Songs:

S&S:

• Photographic (Live in Hamburg 1984 Version)
• Ice Machine (Live Version 1984 on Blasphemous Rumors EP)

ABF: not sounding thin to me

CTA:

• Everything Counts (1988 Live Version from 101 Album, highly recommended)

SGR: not sounding thin to me

BC:

• Black Celebration (1988 101 Version, my all time DM favourite song and version)

• Black Celebraton (Black Tulip Mix, better Drums, less Reverb, more drive to it, if you can live with the down pitched verse, really cool mix)

• Stripped (101 Version, Devotional Version)

• A Question of Time (Single/Video Version, fat Drums, less Reverb, lot better version)

• Fly on the Windscreen (Devotional 1993, what a Baseline!)

• If you’re looking for DM catchy synthpop side, try the B-Side “But not tonight”. The Band didn’t like it, but I think it would have been a top ten single with some promotion behind it.

MFTM:

• Behind The Wheel (101 1988 and Devotional 1993 live versions)
• Strangelove (Single Version or Maxi Mix - very different from the live and album version, somehow faster, danceable, absolutely love this)
• Sacred, Nothing (101 Versions)

Violator: I wouldn´t want a single sound different on this absolutely masterpiece. Best album of all times. Check out following mixes for further listening:

• Enjoy the Silence (Hands & Feet Mix): brings extra Atmosphere using pads and highlights one of the best synth baselines ever.

• World in my eyes (Dub in my eyes): if you like your Kraftwerk and Electro

• Further Violator listening: Happiest Girl and Sea of Sin, give them a try!

[jm2c]

Nothing wrong with DM if you’re into that sort of synth pop. Personally, I don’t really listen to synth pop that much. It was something I grew up with, had AFX/AE et al stuff existed in the 80s, I’d never paid any attention to synth pop tbh

OTOH I do like me some YMO. There’s something special to their music which I still like, its quirky and a bit silly, not this emo stuff

[BrokenGadget]

TLDR: They had the melodies but were always a bit naff.

Longer version. We can thank America for Buchla and Moog and Germany for the inspiration behind synth pop. Sure, musique concrete was a thing in France and the UK had Joe Meek doing the early pop synth thing with Telstar, but Germany in the 70’s was the place for exciting electronic music – Harmonia, Cluster, Michael Bundt, Roedelius and of course Kraftwerk.

At the time these sounds were other worldly, and the music moved away from hackneyed blues and rock traditions.

Depeche Mode emerged in the artistically liberal period that followed punk, replete in their acrylic ski jumpers with some catchy pop songs. Back then the only other synth heavy pop act was Gary Newman, but as Depeche mode came on the scene other pop acts like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were also coming out. Kraftwerk in particular had moved from their early extended pieces to shorter modern pop songs about prosaic things like pocket calculators, autobahns and computer love, simultaneously yearning, beautiful, romantic and ironic.

On the other hand Depeche Mode offered our own personal Jesus and wondered why ‘people are people, so how can it be that you and I get along so awfully?’

They weren’t uncomfortable with embracing some rock swagger and tropes which seemed to go down well in the States. I think what attracted people were their catchy songs, then it was ‘hey, mom, these synths are the sounds of the future.’

It’s difficult for a band to move from pop to credible – in the UK John Peel, the most progressive DJ of the time didn’t bother with Depeche Mode and I can see why. Depeche Mode moved to an industrial-lite look and sound, but Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Department had far more compelling visions with grit and passion compared to Depeche Mode’s anaemic sounds of a PPG Wave and early samplers .

Soon enough the same technology was being used by Stock-Aitken and Waterman to churn out bubblegum hi-energy pop nuggets that almost made Depeche Mode look credible.

So against this background Depeche Mode have garnered credibility over the years. There is no doubting that they had the melodies, but there were other people being far more adventurous with sound – Japan and their extraordinary Tin Drum album; Cabaret Voltaire with their synth , tape loops and cut up techniques; early Human League; Severed Heads and their bonkers tape collages and bubbling away in the background disco was morphing into something new and Kraftwerk was being re-worked into electro and hip-hop.

[Tchu]

All I can say is Depeche Mode has been a big part of my Teenage years Soundtrack. Parties, sex, bus ride, metro ride, … DM was always there. My friends and I were always excited to listen to their new Albums. Great era for Alternative music.

When you are a teenager, Somebody has a truthful meaning.

[Azzarole]

@Hans_Olo

The list of great, super impactful bands/acts that I‘m not feeling is endless. So what

Exactly! I love the general sound of the 80s and am hugely influenced by that. I still don’t connect to most of the albums released during that period. I almost always love the sound, but am rarely captivated by the songs and especially whole albums.

I don’t know why exactly that is. I often feel like people back then where still discovering many things and did them for the first time, so people couldn’t get enough () of it and songs could be quite repetitive and long. I didn’t grow up during the time and these sounds have already been around for a long time, so I‘m not that impressed as I would probably have been during the 80s.

There are notable exceptions for me like OMD, Kraftwerk, Tears for Fears or the larger than life pop hits of The Cure. Blue Monday and Enjoy the Silence. But I just stopped caring that I don’t fall in love with much of the catalogue, I can still appreciate these artists, their music and learn something from it.

[bangonadigi]

@BrokenGadget

Severed Heads and their bonkers tape collages

Great counterexample to how I feel about DM. “Petrol” is a song I can play on repeat for days and I feel if it was released today it would still sound innovative and bizarre, in a good way.

[bangonadigi]

Thanks for this write up! I will give it a go. I think you put your finger on it when you used the word “demanding” …

[sellanraa]

Another component that I think gets lost in all the conversations about synthesis and sampling when analyzing their music is their pretty bold key changes and melodies for music that became so huge. In that regard, Radiohead seems like the only comparison.

Within a mainstream pop paradigm, I think it’s an angle worth considering. If you don’t get it or like Depeche Mode, that’s also obviously fine too, but I feel like this angle is often overlooked.

[KingDuppy]

I don’t really think you “had to be there,” given that I seem to only be 1 or 2 years older than the OP and I’m a big DM fan. (Though when I was a teen I thought KMFDM were much better than DM… kids are dumb.)

That said, a fair amount of their pre-1990 stuff does sound dated to me, which can be a barrier. Also I was pretty much raised by MTV so that may have played a role.

My suggestion to the OP, if they want to “get” Depeche Mode is to focus on Violator:

-Put aside an hour when you won’t be disturbed. The coherence of the album is a big part of its strength and power.

-Listen to Violator.
Ideally at the loudest volume your ears, roomates, neighbors etc. will allow. Then a bit louder.

-The stereo field is important. Headphones are good. Putting your head directly between the speakers is better.

In my opinion, regardless of how you feel about the melodies or lyrics, Violator is a masterpiece of sound design, composition and production. Every little bit feels intentional and crucial to the whole.

It has singles and bangers, yes, but it really is an “album” and to me is best enjoyed as a single unbroken piece of music. Listening to Violator as an album is what really made the band’s whole catalog click with me.