TS: Depeche Mode vs. New Order vs. Pet Shop Boys

The real question is who's a better non-singer: Tennant or Sumner.

Depeche Mode: best albums
New Order: best singles
Pet Shop Boys: best lyrics

That problem is solved by buying Electronic albums. xpost

ooof.

New Order: best singles

Except Technique is the best album by any band in this discussion.

Tennant sings so much better than Sumner it isn't even funny.

True. I may love that first Electronic album more than any NO, and I wish there were most songs like "The Patience of a Saint" in the NO catalogue.

(xxxpost)

Tennant sings so much better than Sumner it isn't even funny.
-- HI DERE, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 4:09 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

OTM

Pet Shop Boys by a long way, their B-sides album is better than all but three of New Order's albums.

depeche doesn't even enter into this for me and even on the strength of singles, i think i'd go for PSB

Definitely vote for Pet Shop Boys, because out of these three they're the least rock, most pop, and most gay.

Most fun also.

I've liked some of the early more poppy Depeche Mode I've heard, but at some point they seemed to have turned into a goth band. And New Order obviously were a goth band already before becoming New Order.

...what's wrong with turning into a goth band, Tuomas?

;__________;

easiest poll ever! new order

yep.

i love DM and the PSBs, don't get me wrong. but really. come on.

Depeche Mode will probably get the fewest votes. Which is a shame because they are the best out of these three, really.

The worst, really. But still a damn fine outfit.

I'd rather the opposite. Depeche Mode are obviously the best, but Pet Shop Boys are also a damn fine outfit and nothing wrong about New Order either.

HI DERE OTM. Tuomas' comments make me a bit surprised that the PSB are the only one I would even say I like. (DM have some good moments.)

I really like "Always On My Mind," "Flamboyant," and "Suburbia." Is there an album worth checking out? (I don't care for the "Go West" cover.)

Try, in this order, Discography, Actually, Very, Alternative, Please, Behaviour, Introspective.

Hmm. Try Actually, based on those choices.

Ha, x-post! I would have said Discography first too but I figured, "Well, if he wants an actual album..."

The Actually singles sound good (except for "What Have I Done...," ha.)

"What Have I Done" sounds bad to you???

Behaviour, Introspective.

Soto, does this mean you prefer the former to the latter? Or is that just how you'd lay it out for a newbie?

Both! My first purchase as a newbie was Behaviour in early '91, and it's my favourite, but maybe not the first I'd burn for a newbie in 2007.

Introspective remains the worst PSB album, I'd even rank "Release" as better.

Regardless of my commentary about vocal prowess, I would rank these as:

Depeche Mode
PSB, New Order (tie)

My first purchase as a newbie was Behaviour in early '91, and it's my favourite,

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Behaviour is your fave PSB album...ever?

The absence and subsequent shittiness of New Order in the 90s-now makes them not much of a contender overall. Between DM and PSB, tough call. Allright it's Mode for their ability to be so utterly bleak.

pet shop boys are some bleak dudes too. i would rank it psb>new order>>>>>>>>>>depeche

I love New Order but I don't really consider them as great a pop band as DM or PSB. They're a better band overall than PSB, but they don't do pop as well as the Boys. Depeche Mode are miles above either. (nb I stop listening to all of them after about 1989.)

when u were 3?

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i get it

you should get 'very', dude

depeche mode's post-89 output is pretty great too!!! songs of faith and devotion! "precious"! etc

new order had good songs into '93 at least ("regret"), DM i pretty much cut off at violator (so '90), PSBs have had some intermittently good singles for the past decade-plus but "go west" is their last GREAT single and that was '93 also

you guys are missing out on some great DM songz

actually i'm probably talking out my ass about the PSBs there but i stand by the others

you guys are missing out on some great DM songz

That's for goddamn sure.

i don't like songs of faith and devotion very much, and the post-violator singles haven't done much for me either. what would you recommend max?

ok I lied - I've heard Violator and Playing the Angel (and NO's Republic & a few PSB tunes) but in general my perceptions of these bands are pre-1990

It's New Order. End thread. Move along, nothing to see here.

"Walking In My Shoes" turned me off of ever listening to Songs of Faith

ahhh curt1s maybe you were listening to a different song?? "WIMS" is one of my favorites!

You're missing out, Curtis...

i do enjoy several of the singles from 'ultra'

guys keep in mind I like the "bad" Depeche Mode songs like "It's Called A Heart"

so basically I have horrible taste

harlot, if you dont like the singles im not exactly sure what to recommend you--i <3 "i feel you," "walking in my shoes," "dream on," "precious".... i think songs of faith and devotion is great, not as good as violator... playing the angel is probably the next best after that. exciter and ultra both have their moments but rank lower.

Is pipecock 15-years-old?

Probably 45.

And very very lonely.

Sundar, you don't like New Order? wow... it's like i don't even know you!

i missed voting, but it would have been DM, NO, almost neck and neck for a while, but at the end, DM takes it easily when i think about which has affected me most. PSB distant 3rd. if the Cure had been in this poll also, they would have been riding right on NO's ass.

Just to annoy the goth even more, I venture that:

New Order > PSB > Human League > Depeche Mode

That's how I'd order those bands, FWIW.

I guess Erasure could have been another option, but they'd probably have come a distant fourth.

xpost bah pshaw. Human League don't have the career longevity.

we need a similar poll involving the cure.

xpost: which version of the human league?

NO > DM > dare-era human league > PSBs > human league post-dare

human league mk I >>> almost everything else in the world. new order being one of the exceptions, mind.

(i know, i know: we didn't break down NO or DM into versions either. but with the HL there's a spectacular and staggering divide, along the lines of JD/NO, so i think it's valid.)

(in fact: dare-era HL are more different to pre-dare HL than JD are to early NO.)

(i'll stop now.)

(A likely story!)

I love New Order, PSB, Depeche Mode, Human League, and Erasure and I don't care how you order them.

I thought we'd established that liking Depeche Mode is an American thing?

Or non-British at any rate

no, we hadn't. because it isn't.

that said: it is less "cool" to like DM in the UK than it is ... well, almost anywhere else. funny ... i was pondering this (no, really) in the gym this morning, listening to "playing the angel". i read somewhere, ages ago, that the reason for this was martin gore looking like such a knobber in his leather vest etc, but i can't believe this is the case.

hey ho. i've always loved 'em. in 1991 i had a massive poster of them (circa some great reward) on my bedroom wall. my friend shumon, probably the coolest man i've ever known, always thought they were cool. so i've been out and proud about them for years ;)

that said: it is less "cool" to like DM in the UK than it is ... well, almost anywhere else.

That's exactly what I mean. I think a lot of people in the UK thought they (Depeche Mode that is) were trying far too hard to come over all rawwwwwwwwwwwwwk 'n' roll with the leather trousers and the heroin and the whatnot when they stil considered them a nancyboy plinky-plonky synth band

A lot of people in the UK have cloth in their ears.

Depeche Mode were at their best as a nancyboy plinky-plonky synth band. Fantastic!

Nancyboy plinky-plonky synth bands have always been more popular in the UK than leather-trousering smacked-up pseudo-rockers

actually, you've cracked it: it's the KNOW YOUR PLACE mentality, innit?

A bit... also that wearing leather trousers and trying to be Jim Morrison was crap even when Jim Morrison did it

thing is, when i'd left school and was working for the DSS, i had hair, beard and leather trousers exactly like SOFAD-era dave gahan. i never got round to the tattoos, although i keep thinking about fixing that ;)

"Is pipecock 15-years-old?

-- JN$OT"

"Probably 45.

-- HI DERE"

if you average your two guesses, youd be pretty close.

"And very very lonely.

-- Ned Raggett"

it certainly depends on your definition of lonely. being married and having a kid and a cat could be lonely i guess, but not for me.

What's wrong with a nancyboy plinky-plonky synthband?

I mean, the same question should be applied to DM members themselves (AND Flood!!!!!!) in 1993 too, but, still....

NEW ORDER!!! Depeche Mode second, but only if you stop before late 80s.

I'm only about 1/3 of the way plowing through Depeche Mode's massive discography (currently jamming the one with "Blasphemous Rumours" on it), but I gotta say the haters in this thread are insane.

The correct answer to this thread is "all of 'em" ...

Poll remains correct.

Democracy workes in this case

Although if we're talking about the acts in terms of level of high quality over a sustained length of time, it's Pet Shop Boys, followed by Depeche Mode, followed by New Order.

i think i might have even voted for "Blue Monday" over PSB and DM. Or "Confusion" even. And I LOVE 80s PSB and DM.

Discography is never far from me. Wait, was it DJP who hates "Domino Dancing"? Why do I even remember that? Best song!

throw OMD onto this list and we might coax Turrican into making the longest post in ilx history

At this point, I am pretty sure my tombstone is going to read "He died as he lived; hating the fuck out of fucking 'Domino Dancing'."

Throw OMD and The Cure onto this list and the answer would still be "all of them"