Friday 12 December 2008

Depeche Mode.




Reach out and touch faith
~ Personal Jesus.

I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humour
And when I die
I expect to find
Him laughing
~ Blasphemous Rumours.

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
~ Black Celebration.

The singular event which etched on my mind regarding this band was Dave Gahan, the lead singer, technically "died" for 2 minutes after OD. Well, luckily he did not and together with Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher (Alan Wilder left in 95) continued to release albums, compilations and remixes with their brand of lyrically dark themed songs using the basic background laid down by synthesisers based groovy musics. Have been listening to their songs since the days of "Everybody Counts" when they were still considered "teen idols", right up to the more industrial sounding "Ultra" back in the late 90s. Their most creative musical output would began from "Black Celebration", when they began to explore more thematically heavy subjects (not to mention dark) and atmospheric songs, right through to the widely acclaimed "Violator". Personal issues nearly tear apart the band (Gahan's drug addiction, Gore experienced seizures, Fletch sufferred some sort of mental illness and Wilder eventually left after the guitar heavy "Songs Of Faith And Devotion", which was very different from their previously released (more liked) albums. When "Ultra" came on, DM had sounded even more sophisticated, but still retaining their by now trademark dark lyrics. Within it contained perhaps one of my favourite DM song of all time, "It's No Good".

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