Depeche Mode -- Sounds of the Universe

My AMG review is up.

The sounds in the chorus of "Peace" remind me of Lindstrom/Prins Thomas' "Run"

Anyway, got the box set edition in the mail today and it is crazily gorgeous. Currently listening to the second disc with the extra session tracks and remixes -- "Light"'s a good little number, fits in line with something like "Martyr" and, stepping back a bit, "Sacred" (more on the lyrical front).

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-closure21-2009apr21,0,3970072.story

Hollywood Boulevard to close for Depeche Mode show

The band will tape a performance Thursday at 8 p.m. at Hollywood and Vine. The boulevard will be closed from 11 p.m. Wednesday until Friday at 6 a.m.

The demos disc is fascinating stuff for sure -- not just hearing Martin's lead on most of the songs but some of the elements not carried over. Like on "Judas," where there's a very Jamaican-style synth-horn part that appears.

nice review, ned.

I think I prefer your review to the album at the moment, Ned. However: this is a first listen and yes, you're right, I think it almost certainly will be a grower. (And I can't help but be disappointed given some of the breathlessness upthread -- including my own!)

Thank yer both. (Grimly -- it wouldn't be the first time that's happened; I *still* get people going "I wish I liked Exciter as much as you did with your review!")

Hahaha, brilliant (ad for the German market -- Martin speaks a couple of languages fluently IIRC):

okay "In Chains" starts very very well

"In Chains" continues very very well! awesome

"Hole To Feed" seems kind of silly; it may be partially because of the terrible headphones I'm listening to this through, though.

That one's a bit goofy but it won me over after a few listens.

The ending is more appealing than the beginning.

So my above stance on "Wrong" is quickly changing because I find myself humming it constantly; it's amazing what a great video can do for a song, huh?

(also the lyrics are badass)

lol so my first reaction upon hearing the opening to "Fragile Tension" was "wow someone has been overdosing on Ladytron CDs"

I can't believe how great Dave sounds these days.

"wow someone has been overdosing on Ladytron CDs"

Hahaha. Hey, they got 'em to open for the tour in Europe for a reason!

So as of "Little Soul", this album basically makes me think they're trying to recreate Exciter using the equipment they used for A Broken Frame.

"In Sympathy" has a really nice intro.

They are trying to slim down and re-Vincify on this album, it seems. There's a sense of lean spring to the music that's been missing for a while.

x-post -- Pretty much!

I mutter this in the review but there's definitely a sense of 'here's where we are now but using the tools we would have had back then,' which is essentially your point. And I like that because that adds initial notes of the unexpected -- in hearing the demos for this album on the box set it's also interesting to hear what did and didn't change much from the 'rough' versions to the final cut. I'll be watching the DVD stuff tonight to see what else can be gleaned.

There's a sense of lean spring to the music that's been missing for a while.

This can be especially heard in the three Dave-sung bonus tracks on the second disc that aren't remixes -- "Light," "Ghost" and "Oh Well."

"Peace" I didn't notice; I got distracted.

"Come Back" is gorgeous!

"Peace" you gotta get back to, total 1984-era bassline for them. And yeah, "Come Back" is one of my favorites, another wonderful Dave-written song.

It's funny I really don't hear the old school vibes so many of you are talking about. So far "Come Back" and "Miles Away" are the ones really kicking my ass. Love the kind of sun-hazed vibe of those two. Also I can't believe no-one has mentionned "Jezebel" whic is really goregous in a Lynch kind of way.

it's amazing what a great video can do for a song, huh?

Yes, Wrong didn't really connect with me until I watched the video. Actually, what I dug the most was the Youtube studio footage of Dave recording it into a handheld mic. Watching him give it his all was really inspiring.
I need to listen to the album another couple of times before deciding on where it sits in their canon. The advance press lead me to wonder if it was going to be Black Celebration Redux, but it most definitely is not.

"Jezebel" is one of those ones where the demo has just enough difference from the final version -- it's the same pace/lyrics/etc but Martin initially sang it with more clarity, where this sounds a little more drowned. The Lynch vibe is there (or more accurately Badalamenti) but I think this one might get a bit lost because it's such a Martin song, ie the softly lugubrious ballad like so many others. "The Sun and the Moon and the Stars" is more immediate to me, but its remix via the iTunes pass was even more so.

I really don't get that P4K review

all this talk of a broken frame is very exciting!

RRRONG!

i only just starting getting into the last depeche mode album, which was enough to make me reassess my "meh" reaction to the band overall. 'precious' is one of the dopest tracks in their catalog. definitely going to check out this one, 'wrong' sounds pretty good.

okay I'm listening today on better headphones and the difference is AMAZING; I should never listen to music on that other set of headphones ever again

"Peace" is kind of cool, you guys

I like how empty/sparse these songs are!

I hope this isn't bad form to mention here, but we (well, mainly I) put together a pretty cool feature for Rhapsody, including some exclusive quotes from remixers Michael Mayer, Rex the Dog, Roman Flügel and others. It's here: http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/04/justcantgetenoughdepechemode.html

...and that's my last self-promotion on the matter.

"I like how empty/sparse these songs are!"

yup, and the space makes the synths sing!

hey pshrbrn, the photos need captions so people can find out who the remixers are!

A great album, as expected. Haven't really dived that much into it yet, but it seems like another solid long player. Now I don't joined that "best since Violator" bunch yet, simply because 1. their previous album was absolutely marvellous and 2. There are at least four other Depeche albums that I would rank ahead of "Violator" anyway. But this is solid stuff, no doubt. I like the heavy use of analog synths, and that there seems to be fewer guitars than for a while.

Funny, I find this album very guitar heavy but in a mellow soft rock way as opposed to the RAWK thing they went for on SOTD

digging this - kind of bummed out on missing out on the demos disc but $70 was sort of a naw maybe later reaction for me

Having spent said amount for the box...it was worth it.

I need to also say again -- the Thin White Duke remix of "Wrong"? Quite possibly my song of the year at this point.

ach, thank you, tricky. that was... an oversight!

first thoughts:

-- it's "Exciter, Part II"
-- "Wrong" makes more sense in the context of the album, although at the time, it really stands out as the clear choice for the first single.
-- if Mark Bell had done a better job producing "Exciter" then it would have sounded more like "In Chains"

I agree with all of the above.

"In Chains" in particular is fiendishly great, I'm finding. The part of the Pitchfork review that talks about the front-loading of this album is pretty accurate.

The more I listen to this, the more it does actually sound like the sounds of the universe to me. It scares me to think how much money I would pay to go to a Cure/DM tour, especially after their most recent albums.

The more I listen to it the more I find that my initial thoughts of it being a 'quiet' album like Exciter are inaccurate -- there's a lot of big sounds throughout but since they're not all pitched at Playing the Angel-style RAWRGH levels they bubble up more. "Corrupt" in particular is really starting to sink in.

Been a massive debate on Depeche lists/sites about the wisdom of leaving "Ghost," "Light" and "Oh Well" off the album proper but I enjoy the fact that we have them to start with. If anything they're just the big 'what ifs' like "Happiest Girl" and "Sea of Sin" were for Violator.

The main DVD documentary about the making of the album has had a slew of clips appear on the official site for the past few months so it's not all a surprise but there are interesting moments -- Dave talking about wanting something different and interesting for the "Wrong" video (hey, he got what he wanted!), the extent to which Martin now seems more thoroughly involved in arranging his songs via all the old keyboards and equipment, what they wanted to aim for on this album vs. the last etc. Also turns out that the final version of "Wrong" took a long time to finally settle, they only wrapped up in late November on it -- based on the versions and clips that they play, all the changes were for the better (the middle eight was originally this melodramatic-even-for-them string/synth deal that would have killed the momentum stone dead).

Listened to this once through, it reminded me of Pretty Hate Machine. Am I mad?

Um, yes?

Just finished my first full listen and I'm liking it, quite a lot. Would like it even better if "Jezebel" had been left off though. I didn't think I ever needed to hear DM as a schmaltzy Vegas lounge act, but now I'm 100% sure of that.

Jezebel is fantastic!

Maybe I need to give it another listen, but I just couldn't help but wish the whole thing was an instrumental version of the last minute or so.

i went to the show last night and the new songs are sounding rough around the edges, but nice against the backdrop of the hits. it was cool to see them play a slightly unpolished set. the setlist was: wrong/personal jesus/walking in my shoes (with faux "fly on the windscreen" intro)/come back/peace/enjoy the silence/never let me down. PJ, ETS and NLMD all had bits of the remixes/extended versions added. crowd went predictably crazy for the last two.