It seemed in 1993 that just about every CD being released in the pop or rock market either was grunge, or was some panicked reaction to it, and Depeche Mode was hardly immune to this. Being one of the premier groups to emerge from the early 80s synth pop explosion, they were hardly probable suspects in the grunge feeding frenzy. But the fact is that, even before Nevermind, the largely guitar-and-drum-less quartet had nearly as much in common with the 70s arena rockers that inspired grungesters like Soundgarden, as they did with the chirpy synth-pop still being produced by Depeche alumnus Vince Clarke in Erasure. Maybe (probably) even more.

Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion is the band's big, grunge moment. A dark, deeply felt, sonically confrontational record that trades in themes of spiritual desolation, addiction, etc., etc., etc., perfectly in tune with the gloomy, heavy-footed Seattle mentality. No, they didn't suddenly hang dirty worn flannel shirts over their bodies or grow any scraggly facial hair - and no, you won't find a guest guitar solo by Jeff Ament, or indeed, any guitar solos at all - though guitars figure more heavily on the lead single "I Feel You" than they ever had before in the band's sound. But at the time of the album's release, it struck me as a distastefully opportunistic record. Worse, despite the amped-up sound, it felt redundant. (And its redundancy was only compounded by the release, shortly thereafter, of a live album featuring the entire track-list, in order, sounding exactly like the original CD, only with audience noises and intermittent grunts and shouts from lead singer Dave Gahan.)

To me, the record certainly counted on the proven devotion of Depeche Mode's fans because it seemed to offer so little that was genuinely new. Though I bought the album at the time of its release, it represented the moment that I stopped really caring about the band. And during my stint as a grad student in Savannah in 1997, when the going got tough, I sold my copy of Songs of Faith and Devotion for enough money to get myself a weiner at the hot dog stand. And I've never missed it. (I remember that hot dog vividly though. So delicious!) This, even as, like U2's Achtung Baby (another album whose appeal was - and remains - almost entirely lost on me) Songs of Faith and Devotion became one of the more celebrated albums of its time.

But with their ongoing reissue campaign of Depeche Mode's catalogue, Rhino Records have verily dared me not to reassess the album. The grunge moment it came out of, after all, is a distant memory. Their are people eligible to vote this year who won't remember a time when Nevermind wasn't a classic rock album. Maybe it's time to give Songs of Faith and Devotion a listen with more innocent ears.

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My second first impression of the record isn't so far off from my first. That is that Songs of Faith and Devotion is little more than a strident amplification of previous musical ideas that worked for the group. The shit-kicking cowboy boot stomp of "Personal Jesus", the echoey gothic choirs, the trademark swirl of sacred and profane imagery, the sense of confrontational self-pity, an underlying vibe of sadomasochism, images of betrayal, addiction and dark obession - these elements were all institutional to the Depeche Mode sound (and had been for a full decade) prior to the album's release. And they are all here again. Only louder and more unsubtle.

The band, at the time, were in the midst of an ugly self-destruction following the unprecedented success of their previous album Violator and its attendant tour. Dave Gahan, especially, had isolated himself from the band geographically, musically, and, with his burgeoning drug habit, chemically as well. In his liner notes to Rhino's deluxe edition, Mute label boss Daniel Miller succinctly describes the recording of this album as traumatic for everyone involved - "every sound on this record was a debate" - and you can hear that on the album. It's as stagnant and vicious and a cable news debate on some issue like abortion where neither side has made any strides in ages and neither can really expect to in the near future.

What surprises me then, is just how well much of the record - especially its four singles - holds up today. The album-opening "I Feel You" heightens the groove of "Personal Jesus" with a noisier guitar attack, and a heavier, more labored tempo. Like many of the songs here, it's ambiguous enough to be convincingly read as both a gigantic apocalyptic orgasm - this is the dawning of our love! - or as a desperate celebration of the fiery, false joys of smack. It also benefits, in these al-Qaeda obsessed times, from Gahan's lack of enunciation on the chorus. That, lyric-sheet be damned, it sounds like he's actually singing "this is the dawning of Allah" (following verses referencing Babylon and Kingdom Come) gives the song an unexpected and totally inadvertent topical edge. Can a fatwa be far behind?

"In Your Room" (which, significantly, would have opened Side Two of the cassette or LP) is literally and figuratively the flip side of "I Feel You", a brutal comedown of a song where that gigantic apocalyptic orgasm and/or the fiery, false joys of smack leave our hero paralyzed and powerless in the face of a mountainous orchestral swell of sound: in your favorite darkness, your favorite half-light, your favorite consciousness, your favorite slave. One has to wonder if Martin Gore (the group's primary songwriter) wasn't attempting some kind of subliminal intervention with Dave here - but the confessional, almost trance-like selflessness of Gahan's vocals suggest that, at least on an artistic level, he was getting the message, and buying into it wholly.

But it was the other two singles - "Condemnation" and the magnificent "Walking In My Shoes" - that became the albums biggest hits. The former sounded pretty but formulaic in 1993, and it still does today (admittedly, this is a minority opinion - Gahan often points to this as his finest hour as a vocalist), but "Walking in My Shoes" may well be the single best single of Depeche Mode's post-Violator career. Lyrically, the song begins as an admission of guilt that would seem to lead naturally into a plea for empathy; but as the verse transitions into the chorus over a series of suspenseful chord changes, the song switches from confession to dare to indictment in just a few lines:

now I'm not looking for absolution
forgiveness for the things I do
but before you come to any conclusions
try walking in my shoes
try walking in my shoes
you'll stumble in my footsteps

And on that last line, you can feel the smack being laid down by Gahan and with each successive chorus, he lays it down harder. If Martin Gore was attempting an intervention with "In Your Room", here he lets himself (and just about anyone else who might seek to benefit from Gahan's drug problems) be eviscerated by one of Gahan's steadiest, angriest performances. Of course, there is more than a hint of self-pity in this; but there's also more than a hint of truth to it as well.

While nothing here truly matches the strengths of this quartet of songs, the album does achieve a wholeness at least as satisfying as any of their previous albums; and songs like the understated (by Depeche Mode standards, that is) "Judas", "Rush" (another drug-hit-as-sexual-fantasy anthem) and the rocking "Get Right With Me" (complete with a bevy of back-up girls who sound as if they were kidnapped mid-session from Jim Steinman's studio) speak truth to both the band's shattered state, and their ongoing ability to craft pop songs in the present moment. These songs are as hard and dirty and metal as anything Seattle could deliver - but they retained a classicist approach to songwriting that makes them timeless, if not particularly strong or memorable.

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Which brings me back, with a few notable qualifications, to my original opinion of the album: ehh. Still, Rhino's re-packaging of this not-my-favorite Depeche Mode album (as with all of their Depeche Mode reissues) packs a lot of bang for the 25 bucks (give or take) you're likely to spend on it. Of all Rhino's recent refurbishments of 80s alterna-catalogues (including Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, R.E.M., Talking Heads, Jesus & Mary Chain, and most recently The Pretenders), their reissues of Depeche Mode set the highest standard - reproducing and adapting the original artwork to a beautifully designed double-digipak and slipcase. Each album comes with a bonus DVD, which typically includes the entire album in 5.1 Surround Sound, a half-hour (or so) documentary about the making of the album (and this one is a must-see for fans of rock n' roll disaster flicks), and in this case, a full album's worth of non-album tracks and maxi-single remixes, the latter being mostly extended atmospheric instrumental versions, although the winningly titled "Grungy Gonads" remix of "Walking in My Shoes" enhances the songs lurching chord changes with hip-hop turntable scratching. Very cool.

It would have been nice, of course, given how visually oriented Depeche Mode have always been, to have included the album's videos as well, but, given the bounty presented here, it feels sort of indecorous to quibble. Rhino's reissue of Songs of Faith and Devotion makes this ehh album a required and totally regret-less purchase. No way am I trading this for a hot dog!

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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:

"Songs of Faith and Devotion" by Depeche Mode
Mute/Sire/Reprise/Rhino Records
Originally released 1993
Reissue released 10/2/06

Produced by Flood
48 min.

SONGS: I Feel You - Walking in My Shoes - Condemnation - Mercy in You - Judas - In Your Room - Get Right With Me - Rush - One Caress - Higher Love

DVD: Short Film: Depeche Mode 1991-1994 "We Were Going to Live Together, Record Together..." / Album in 5.1 Stereo / Bonus Tracks: My Joy - Condemnation (Paris Mix) - Death's Door (Jazz Mix) - In Your Room (Zephyr Mix) - I Feel You (Life's Too Short Mix) - Walking in My Shoes (Grungy Gonads Mix) - My Joy (Slowside Mix) - In Your Room (Apex Mix)


Recommended: Yes