Somebody recently asked me what my favorite Depeche Mode album was. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of 101 at the time. This is definitely a strong contender for that title. I associate Depeche Mode with summertime, so it seemed appropriate to review this album for the Summer Solstice write-off.
I first was introduced to Depeche Mode in the summer of 1981. I was in England for the summer, and at the time Just Can’t Get Enough, a perky, popish, electronic song, was enormously popular. I was hooked the first time I heard it.
The following winter I saw Depeche Mode live for the first time, at The Ritz in New York City. I was in high school and already mastering my technique for weaseling my way into places I was not really allowed to go. I remember thinking “this is really good music”. My friends said they didn’t trust a band that used a tape player instead of a drummer, but I didn’t care. The music spoke to me and I knew I was witnessing something big.
Seven years later, I saw Depeche Mode again, this time at Jones Beach Theatre, as part of the 101 tour. I went with a bunch of friends. Well, the 1988 concert was amazing! I think I stayed on my feet dancing the entire time. I was young, in love, and incredibly happy to be at that concert with my best friend, the guy I was in love with, and my (then) boyfriend. I suppose you want an explanation? Well it’s a long story, a bizarre love triangle (isn’t that a New Order song?); just accept that it was one of those magical summer things.
So this is my summertime framework surrounding Depeche Mode. To an extent it even reflects the music: sometimes it is playful, sometimes kinky, sometimes intense, sometimes incredibly sad, but always well done. This album has an electrifying energy and it has excellent production values, an all too rare combination for live recordings. I think it also does a pretty good job of representing the flavor of Depeche Mode’s body of work up to that time.
However, this was the tour supporting their album Music For the Masses, so that record is heavily represented on this two CD set. The entire album was recorded at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 18, 1988.
I don’t recall anything sounding quite like Depeche Mode before Depeche Mode came out. They have had a powerful influence on the likes of Nine Inch Nails, The Chemical Brothers, Moby, and even Kid Rock (scary as that is). The music is heavy on the synthesizers and drum machine; most of the songs are very danceable although there are quite a few ballads and power ballads. Themes in the music range from classic love songs, to bondage and discipline, to religion, to mental illness.
The CD opens with the highly dramatic, if unsettling song, Pimpf before flowing into the danceable Behind the Wheel, which loses nothing in the translation from studio performance to live performance. From there you are brought into a set which takes you through the emotional highs and lows of Depeche Mode. As I listen to this I am absolutely struck by how sexual this music is. David Gahan, the lead singer, has a smooth voice just dripping with sex. On my favorite ballads, A Question of Lust and Stripped, he shows remarkable vocal range.
A lot of Depeche Mode’s songs are quite dark and depressing, especially lyrically. This is probably typified by the song Blasphemous Rumours, which tells the story of a girl who attempts to kill herself, but survives and learns to embrace life, only to die in a car accident two years later. The music on this song is mournful and is punctuated by the chorus:
I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's got a sick sense of humor
And when I die I expect to find Him laughing
The mood intensifies with the song Stripped, a dark power ballad, which begs for sincerity and intimacy. The music on this track is what makes the song; Martin L. Gore, the band’s songwriter, knows how to make music reach into your soul and give it a good tug.
Disc B starts off with the similarly intense power-ballad, Black Celebration. Now here is the kind of paradox I always enjoy in music. It can sound like a song of despair on the surface, but if you check out the lyrics it is actually a song filled with hope:
I look to you
How you carry on
When all hope is gone
Can't you see
Your optimistic eyes
Seem like paradise
To someone like
Me
I want to take you
In my arms
Forgetting all I couldn't do today
Nice.
This album is just full of wonderful music. One of my all time favorite songs, A Question of Lust, is nicely performed here. This is a beautiful love song that explores what keeps a relationship together. I like that the band decided to juxtapose this extremely sensitive song against another one of my favorite songs, Master and Servant, a kinky song about (what else) kinky sex. The interesting thing about this song -- as if kinky sex isn’t interesting enough -- is that Gore compares sexual domination to the struggles we all must face making our way in life:
Domination's the name of the game
In bed or in life
They're both just the same
Except in one you're fulfilled
At the end of the day
One other thing, just try to sit still to Just Can’t Get Enough -- I dare you! You can’t, can you? It has too infectious a beat; it is too happy a song! Ha! Just surrender to those impulses and get up and dance already. Go ahead, no one will laugh.
Song list:
Disc A:
1 Pimpf
2 Behind the Wheel
3 Strangelove
4 Sacred
5 Something to Do
6 Blasphemous Rumours
7 Stripped
8 Somebody
9 Things You Said
Disc B:
10 Black Celebration
11 Shake the Disease
12 Nothing
13 Pleasure, Little Treasure
14 People Are People
15 Question of Time
16 Never Let Me Down Again
17 Question of Lust
18 Master and Servant
19 Just Can't Get Enough
20 Everything Counts
This review is part of Bluehawq’s Summer Solstice Write-Off Competition. You can check out the other participants by copying and pasting this address into your browser:
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