They've been making music for almost 30 years, and it's hard to believe that British synthpop band Depeche Mode are still with us.
They are one of the longest-lived, most successful and influential bands to have emerged from the New Wave era. They have had forty-five songs in the UK Singles Chart, as well as one U.S. and two UK number one albums.
According to EMI, Depeche Mode have sold over 75 million albums worldwide, as part of total worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million.
The band has announced plans for its Tour of the Universe, the group’s first-ever stadium tour in which they will perform in 28 cities across 21 countries throughout Europe and will commence on May 6, 2009 at the Rockhal in Luxembourg. Dates in North America and a return to South America for the first time since the Exotic Tour of 1994 are to follow.
Now their legions of manic depressive, Goth fans must be excited as the Essex threesome - Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher - release their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe, on 21st April.
The album thankfully returns to the dark, scratchy, and bass-driven sound of early albums, like 1986's Black Celebration and 1990's Violator. This new/old approach is due largely to Martin Gore's love for buying tons of vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and guitar pedals from eBay.
Unreleased Depeche Mode album preview!
Posted in The Volume by Sophie Harris on February 11th, 2009
So hands up: Who’s excited about the new Depeche Mode album? And obviously that’ll be hands up in a kind of sulky, yeah-whatever way. Well, the black-clad Brit trio returns with its 12th disc in April, and they obviously mean business: The album’s called Sounds of the Universe, and coincides with a round-the-world stadium tour called Tour of the Universe, for which the entire band will dress up as characters from Masters of the Universe (um, possibly).
Yeah! And the good news for ravenous DM fans is that we’ve heard it. Admittedly, it was at one of these weird listening events—always an awkward way to hear music. But, bottle of beer in hand, cell phone in a box along with everyone else’s confiscated cell phones, and ears tuned to the studio’s frankly amazing speakers, the album sounded…great.
Not that you’d know if you’d watched any of the in-studio footage on YouTube.
Had you seen this clip, it’d be fair to assume that the album’s first single would be a ringer for “Feel My Heat” from Boogie Nights.
Actually, DM’s “Wrong” is dark and thunderous, the closest thing on the album to the its Violator days. It even opens with Dave Gahan yelling, “Wrong!,” a screechy throwback to the “Reach out and touch faith!” of “Personal Jesus.”
Sadly, there are a handful of meh moments on the album. The opener, “In Chains,” drones in with some electro bagpipes (a good thing), but is lyrically limp (too many yearning-burning rhymes); and “Miles Away/The Truth Is” is simply okay, rather than remarkable.
But there are some real goodies here, too—not least thanks to gleaming production by Ben Hillier (Blur, Elbow). “Fragile” soars in on romantic electronic arpeggios and finds Gahan in dreamy mode. “Come Back” is all rough-edged and mean-sounding, a tale of fixated, obsessive love (the aural equivalent of Melanie Griffith’s huge “Antonio” tattoo perhaps?).
And the final track on Sounds of the Universe, “Corrupt,” is a knockout. Kicking in with stuttering staccato beats, it’s a deliciously convincing I’m-a-bad-man song. “I could corrupt you in a heartbeat,” sneers Gahan, and you wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the sweet young innocent he’s considering. Or maybe you would. Oh, you ex-goths.
All tracks written by Martin L. Gore unless otherwise stated.
They are one of the longest-lived, most successful and influential bands to have emerged from the New Wave era. They have had forty-five songs in the UK Singles Chart, as well as one U.S. and two UK number one albums.
According to EMI, Depeche Mode have sold over 75 million albums worldwide, as part of total worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million.
The band has announced plans for its Tour of the Universe, the group’s first-ever stadium tour in which they will perform in 28 cities across 21 countries throughout Europe and will commence on May 6, 2009 at the Rockhal in Luxembourg. Dates in North America and a return to South America for the first time since the Exotic Tour of 1994 are to follow.
Now their legions of manic depressive, Goth fans must be excited as the Essex threesome - Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher - release their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe, on 21st April.
The album thankfully returns to the dark, scratchy, and bass-driven sound of early albums, like 1986's Black Celebration and 1990's Violator. This new/old approach is due largely to Martin Gore's love for buying tons of vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and guitar pedals from eBay.
Unreleased Depeche Mode album preview!
Posted in The Volume by Sophie Harris on February 11th, 2009
So hands up: Who’s excited about the new Depeche Mode album? And obviously that’ll be hands up in a kind of sulky, yeah-whatever way. Well, the black-clad Brit trio returns with its 12th disc in April, and they obviously mean business: The album’s called Sounds of the Universe, and coincides with a round-the-world stadium tour called Tour of the Universe, for which the entire band will dress up as characters from Masters of the Universe (um, possibly).
Yeah! And the good news for ravenous DM fans is that we’ve heard it. Admittedly, it was at one of these weird listening events—always an awkward way to hear music. But, bottle of beer in hand, cell phone in a box along with everyone else’s confiscated cell phones, and ears tuned to the studio’s frankly amazing speakers, the album sounded…great.
Not that you’d know if you’d watched any of the in-studio footage on YouTube.
Had you seen this clip, it’d be fair to assume that the album’s first single would be a ringer for “Feel My Heat” from Boogie Nights.
Actually, DM’s “Wrong” is dark and thunderous, the closest thing on the album to the its Violator days. It even opens with Dave Gahan yelling, “Wrong!,” a screechy throwback to the “Reach out and touch faith!” of “Personal Jesus.”
Sadly, there are a handful of meh moments on the album. The opener, “In Chains,” drones in with some electro bagpipes (a good thing), but is lyrically limp (too many yearning-burning rhymes); and “Miles Away/The Truth Is” is simply okay, rather than remarkable.
But there are some real goodies here, too—not least thanks to gleaming production by Ben Hillier (Blur, Elbow). “Fragile” soars in on romantic electronic arpeggios and finds Gahan in dreamy mode. “Come Back” is all rough-edged and mean-sounding, a tale of fixated, obsessive love (the aural equivalent of Melanie Griffith’s huge “Antonio” tattoo perhaps?).
And the final track on Sounds of the Universe, “Corrupt,” is a knockout. Kicking in with stuttering staccato beats, it’s a deliciously convincing I’m-a-bad-man song. “I could corrupt you in a heartbeat,” sneers Gahan, and you wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the sweet young innocent he’s considering. Or maybe you would. Oh, you ex-goths.
All tracks written by Martin L. Gore unless otherwise stated.
- "In Chains"
- "Hole To Feed" (Dave Gahan, Christian Eigner, Andrew Phillpott)
- "Wrong" – 3:13
- "Fragile Tension"
- "Little Soul"
- "In Sympathy"
- "Peace"
- "Come Back" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott)
- "Spacewalker"
- "Perfect"
- "Miles Away/The Truth Is" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott)
- "Jezebel"
- "Corrupt"
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