I Said I'd Write A Ballot, But I Never Got The Time -- ILM Artist Poll #18 -- DEPECHE MODE (voting thread)

my "But Not Tonight" is "Somebody"

Somebody is just a teensy bit too schmaltzy for me. That said, I still love it a lot.

(ps - it is great for the purpose you used it for tho iirc)

"But Not Tonight" really is kinda the last 'light' Depeche song I can think of, IE something that captures the breezier feeling of their earliest singles. Nothing else after that is anywhere near as giddy, for lack of a better term.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, April 23, 2012 6:32 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When I heard 'Lilian' from Playing The Angel for the first time, it came across as poppy in a way that Depeche hadn't been for years. I always thought it could have gone on one of Depeche's earlier albums. It's certainly not as 'light' as 'But Not Tonight', though, with it's 'pain and misery' lyric and everything.

I really don't know what to do with Enjoy The Silence. I love it so dearly, it's one of the rare elite tracks I'd've'd no hesitation at calling best-tune-ever at some point in life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Q-wq_YRlM

This is just about my favourite clip ever. Dave is having such a good time! I once bought a white vest purely so I could strut about at the top of our stairs, emulating his stagecraft here. Also, I'd forgotten until tonight but when I was in charge of a society at University I designed its official letterhead round a screengrab of Dave-as-Canute from the video.

And yet ... I don't think it'd be my listen of choice today, so it wouldn't be my no.1. In which case giving it a minor placing feels so wrong. I may have to exclude it entirely and hope others pick up the slack.

surprisingly, "Enjoy The Silence" and "Personal Jesus" are not candidates for my ballot (neither are "People Are People" or "Blasphemous Rumours")

however, "The Things You Said", "World Full Of Nothing", "Shine" and "Stories of Old" are

It's not my place to tell you how to arrange your ballot, but that logic is bonkers.

eh, not really; the only one of those Big Four I would really consider is "Personal Jesus", which I'm kind of tired of

the other four, OTOH, are all personal favorites that were instant loves from the first time I heard them that I played just as often as the Big Four, only I haven't gotten tired of them

Sorry, I was referring to ismael's post.

that famous ten-minute mix of "Never Let Me Down" will make my ballot -- a better car song than "Route 66."

Sorry, I was referring to ismael's post.

oh lol

in that case: OTM, vote for your favorites IMO

ha, fair enough - bonkers logic is the lifeblood of these things imo

btw PAIN
WILL YOU RETURN IT
I WON'T SAY IT AGAIN

Dan waht? You are excluding some stone cold classics.

you're talking about a band with something like 75+ stone-cold classics!

I mean not that they'll need your vote but still.

right now I have 19 songs on my ballot:

9 from the 80s
4 from the 90s
6 from the 00s

A Broken Frame and Ultra are the only albums completely unrepresented

as long as "Pimpf" is on your ballot all's right with the world

oh dear

dammit I have to leave for work but "World Full Of Nothing" just started

er rehearsal rather

9 from the 80s
8 from the 90s
3 from the 00s

I keep forgetting Violator is 90s, not 80s; those totals seemed ridiculously unbalanced 'til I checked

... can't we just vote for 40?

Lol two of my fab DM songs are on a broken frame.

It has the best sleeve

I really only like "Shouldn't Have Done That" and "The Sun & The Rainfall" off that album but at least one of them really should be on my ballot

'Satellite' is such a beautiful little track

Satellite' is such a beautiful little track

― Ismael Klata, Monday, April 23, 2012 9:30 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Meh. It's down there as easily one of my least favourite tracks from A Broken Frame, and one of my least favourite Depeche Mode tracks full stop!

I really only like "Shouldn't Have Done That" and "The Sun & The Rainfall" off that album but at least one of them really should be on my ballot

― I need new, hip khakis (DJP), Monday, April 23, 2012 9:27 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Alan Wilder wanted Depeche Mode to do 'The Sun & The Rainfall' on the Devotional tour, but the others wouldn't go for it. I would have loved to have heard what the band would have done with the track at that point in time. One of my favourites.

My ballot goes something like:

13 from the 80s
6 from the 90s
1 from the 00s

Okay, that was long enough. Sent.

been listening/compiling chronologically, ballot is at 19 and i've only made it up to music for the masses.

If it's "The Landscape Is Changing" then I don't get you.

;_;

"Lilian" is the only post-Violator song that has any chance of making it onto my (still unfinished -- this is hard) ballot. Kudos to the people who already got their ballots sent in!

"Stories of Old" is one of the definitive Depeche songs imo. I think about that synth melody all the time.

also it doesn't get more Martin Gore than that whole "take a look at all selected cases..." soliloquy

I remember in high school being obsessed with Violator and Black Celebration, and I found a copy of A Broken Frame at the library. It pissed me the fuck off! Like I don't think I've ever been so MAD at an album. Just thinking about "My Secret Garden" would make send me into the fit of one who had been sold a bill of goods. I finally got over it this year but I had like 13 years of hate for it.

I wanted more bombast!

I love A Broken Frame. It has their best instrumental!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GztQLHanQc

I remember in high school being obsessed with Violator and Black Celebration, and I found a copy of A Broken Frame at the library. It pissed me the fuck off! Like I don't think I've ever been so MAD at an album. Just thinking about "My Secret Garden" would make send me into the fit of one who had been sold a bill of goods. I finally got over it this year but I had like 13 years of hate for it.

I wanted more bombast!

Everything about this post is OTM. I think I first heard A Broken Frame around 1988 and I stopped hating it around 2004.

full disclosure: after Violator the first thing I heard by Depeche Mode was a cassette of Catching Up With Depeche Mode (lol) and I ended up liking it/listening to it way more than Violator so I've always been more drawn to that earlier era. I may go down in history as the only person who will rep in earnest for "Flexible."

Nope, I love Flexible.

When I was younger my parents were friends with another German couple who had a daughter a couple years older than me who I thought was the coolest girl I'd ever known. She would feather my bangs (this was the 80s on Long Island) and tell me about boys. Her favorite band was Depeche Mode and her room was plastered in posters of the gang. She made me a mix tape once that had Flexible on it and I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever heard.

She would feather my bangs (this was the 80s on Long Island) and tell me about boys.

That's a great sentence.

my favourite DM songs really stick out in my mind as being miles better than the rest, so a good half of my ballot is going to write itself.

Can we all agree that no one should vote for "It's Called A Heart"?

There's something beating here inside my body and it's called a shart

I like "It's Called A Heart"! I don't think it's going to make my ballot, though.

optional ballot of worst dm songs would have been interesting - "it's called a heart" wouldn't have been on mine. "get right with me" would have.

listening to SoF&D hot on the heels of Violator is interesting. Some great songs but seem to be utterly lacking in the details, the technical and emotional flourishes that lift Violator to the next level.

"I Feel You" doesn't suffer from any of those problems, though

My #1 is on SOFAD.

As is mine