Random Thoughts on DM

Yes, I'm still listening to Depeche Mode. They don't let go very easily. I can go long periods without Eagles or Foreigner, or even Mozart, and Krauss' Ring was good for a couple of weeks before I had to get away from it for a while. DM isn't like that. There must be a psychic bond of some sort.

You get primed for watching artists' development over time -- at least, when you have a body of work to draw on for your observations. It's like it's keyed into your basic programming. Yes, they matured and deepened, but theses guys were always geniuses. I suppose that's sort of obvious, but how many geniuses actually know what they're doing? (Hint: not as many as you might think.) And maybe it's obvious from the standpoint of once a genius, always a genius, but who was expecting geniuses to begin with?

I mean, go back to Some Great Reward and the song "Lie To Me." Sly, acidic, and the music is as brilliant as the attitude -- and then it goes a couple steps beyond tribal.

A real talent has the ability to take standard-issue stuff and make it something exciting. In anyone else's hands, most of the things DM have done would be cliche. With DM, even when they're cliches, they're fresh cliches. Even when they're lifting 19th century string accompaniments (by way of 1940s Hollywood tearjerkers), they make it seem like it's their own idea.

One of the necessities in a really great rock musician is the willingness to go right over the top when necessary. Listen to "In Your Room" sometime. That's just the example that comes first to mind. They do it regularly, and I think those are among their most successful songs. Those are the ones that are naked in all the right ways.

David Gahan and Martin Gore always had grown-up voices. They got more grown-up, but they were never boy voices, they were always man voices. It makes a difference -- the songs weigh more.

If you listen closely to some of the things they're doing musically, you'll get totally freaked. Take the end of "Here Is The House," how rich it gets when they start throwing in the polyphony. Machaut would be proud. And they do things like that a lot.

I said to someone at some point that Black Celebration was the album where they really became Depeche Mode. Then I went back and refreshed my memory and realized that with every album they did, they became Depeche Mode all over again. In fact, I'm just listening to Speak and Spell. They were already Depeche Mode.

They've done some of the most beautiful ballads I've ever heard. They make me all sniffly. (Except for "One Caress," which I'm not crazy for. It's just OK.)

I don't know why 101 was so popular, except it's DM live. It's one of the worst live albums I've ever heard.

I'm still making up my mind about Playing the Angel. Songs of Faith and Devotion is still my favorite, I think. I like the way they hit you over the head with this wall of sound on "Walking In My Shoes" and "In Your Room."

The funny thing is, rock is not about subtlety, but they are pretty subtle. Except when they're not. Take "Halo," for example. I think it should be the anthem for everyone who despises the Dobson Gang -- except, of course, the Dobsons wouldn't get it. Too many layers of meaning.

Strangely enough, a lot of their songs are about the sacred, in some form. Of course, by normal standards, they're also totally blasphemous.