Violator!

"Enjoy The Silence" is one of those rare Utterly Perfect Songs® and I had to vote for it, as much as I love about five other songs from this album.

I think I went with "Halo" last night but I want to change it to "Enjoy the Silence" now, argh.

"Enjoy The Silence' is awkward, bewildered romanticism on a par with some of the best New Order songs.

"Enjoy The Silence" is way better than anything ever made by New Order (not that I have anything against New Order either).

No, not better, I said "on a par with" ferchrissakes.

I'm going to wait for the final bump on this, I think. It's 'Clean' today, but will be something else tomorrow.

"enjoy the silence" is DM-do-NO and, while i love it, doesn't even come close to the great hewn-from-diamond NO moments.

somewhere i've got a massively lengthy mix of it on a cassette single, which is awe-inspiring.

"Enjoy The Silence" is one of those rare Utterly Perfect Songs®

my feelings exactly.

the sasha & digweed trance mix ain't bad.

Listening to "Enjoy the Silence" on Top 40 radio in the summer of '90 reminded me what "Like A Prayer" did to me the year before: it was filthy and utterly awesome.

I think part of the reason "A Broken Frame" gets slagged off so much is that it doesn't work as an album like their later releases. It's more a loose collection of songs. Construction Time Again avoids this by being more or less a concept album; after that they played around enough with song textures & transitions to be a true album band as well as a singles band. But the songs on "A Broken Frame" are fantastic.

I think this is exactly right.

BTW: "Waiting For The Night" is my vote but it was almost "Blue Dress" or "Policy of Truth". I'm guessing if one song doesn't get a vote, it will be "Sweetest Perfection".

A couple of years ago it would have been "Clean". Now I think I'll go with "Waiting for the Night". I fear that "World in my Eyes" will be overlooked, but it is an amazing opener.

I have to be predictable and vote for "Enjoy the Silence". You know, because it's one of my top two or three favourite songs ever.

"Sweetest Perfection" is definitely the ugly duckling here, but as the stopgap between two incredible singles, it works. They got the sequencing perfect with this one. Slot it anywhere else, and it hurts the album quite noticeably.

Sweetest Perfection is grebt! I used to think halo was a bit meh but really it's all good. No unfavourites on this album at all.

Policy of Truth doesn't get enough luv

^^^^^^^^ true

That reminds me I need to download NO's "Republic"...

wow. tough poll. was leaning towards 'clean' but in the end went with 'enjoy the silence' - it really IS one of those perfect songs.

and for those who haven't seen the new re-issue companion DVDs, the guys clearly didn't have a lot of love for 'a broken frame'. martin was quite frank about it being his least favourite DM album. however daniel miller was right - 'sun & the rainfall' is a killer track, neatly tucked away at the end of the album...

Sweetest Perfection is grebt!

It is, but I don't know a single person who wouldn't put at least one other song on the album ahead of it.

So many of the songs on A Broken Frame are really great in isolation (ESPECIALLY "The Sun and the Rainfall" and "Shouldn't Have Done That") but listening to that whole album at once really makes my skin crawl.

it's really only "a photograph of you" that upsets me about ABF. the rest of it -- all of it -- i love. yes, even "see you". and TS&TR is just blinding, yes.

agree with ledge: there's not a moment on this album that is less than wonderful. maybe i should have gone with "enjoy the silence" after all ... but it's bound to win, and i really do think "waiting for the night" is the pivotal track.

I wanted to vote "Enjoy the Silence," but couldn't bring myself to do it when half the arrangement is just a reworking of "Stripped."

As this has become almost as much a "Broken Frame" thread as a "Violator" one, just let me add that "Leave In Silence" and "Nothing To Fear" are both absolutely and totally ace!

NOT ENOUGH LOVE FOR "HALO."

There's that awesome moment when the string swoop right before doubletracked Gahan sings "It will be worth it" that's my favorite DM moment ever.

soooo. any other "Blue Dress" voters?

*crickets*

John Justen, if he sees this thread.

oh by the way: i don't think this has been linked yet. it's definitely worth a read for those who haven't seen it before. Ned's top 136 albums of the '90s. Violator placed second. It's one of my favorite Ned pieces in the entire 136, really does a good job with the album: http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~tewing/ned/n2.html

Sure, "Halo" is the hidden highlight on that album. It's an absolutely beautiful song, my favourite on the album, and it is often cited as one of the most influential electronic tracks ever.

Blue Dress would be my no.2 vote. The interlude after it is a little gem too; all those strange clicks and whirrs and animal noises bookending a simple organ and vocal harmony piece. Hard to tell but is it Gahan and Gore both singing?

(incidentally: stephen, i can't find that thread anywhere. perhaps it was on the sandbox or something. annoying. sorry.)

enjoy the silence is one of their best and creepiest love songs

Poll closes November 05?! Goddamn why you set these things to run so long.

on the other hand i was listening to "personal jesus" while high the other day and i had a vision of wearing an all-black suit and driving a really fast black motorboat at sunset and generally being bad-ass

TS: Mode vs Cash vs Manson versions.

Just kidding. Cash's is alright I guess. Manson's is the one I have to sing along to on Singstar (but then they brought one out with Enjoy the Silence!!!)

i was listening to "enjoy the silence" while wearing an all-black suit and driving a really fast black motorboat at sunset and generally being bad-ass the other day and had a vision of ... no, this hasn't worked. forget it.

grimly: thx for looking

Absolutely has to be "Policy of Truth".

Policy of Truth doesn't get enough luv

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, October 29, 2007 5:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

otm

even though there are so many great songs on this, i picked "policy of truth" because i think the lyrics are the height of gore's sleight of hand morality play and because of the guitar. i think i prefer the beatbox drums on the remix though.

Policy Of Truth.

Always did, always will.

Never again
Is what you swore
The time before

... Perfect.

Among other fine things about that song -- how it ends. Gore's concluding guitar parts are further evidence, as I muttered elsewhere, his ability at performing anti-solos.

Someone should start a Flood-as-producer poll. Certainly this album is the apex, despite considerable achievements. For all the deserved talk about the guitar on Violator, I've always admired how you can't distinguish between guitar and synths -- a tribute to the band and Flood. That's partly what made the three singles so unusual and extraordinary on Top 40 radio.

There was a period of time where I looked for Flood-produced albums, regardless of artist.

Haha yes, me too, or rather all the bands I liked seemed to be involved with him and Alan Wilder. What are these guys up to these days?

Flood's busy as sin. Alan Wilder does occasional Recoil stuff.

Seems like these two guys never really recovered from their early 90's glory days.

Wikipedia has more on Flood. I'm actually terribly amused by the fact he and Moulder worked on the Killer's last abomination of an album, because you just know Brandon Flowers was all "If only I could get them to work for me like they did for Depeche and NIN and the Smashing Pumpkins oh please oh please oh please..." I assume at some point Flood and Moulder exchanged looks of the 'well we can't polish a turd but here goes' variety.

Killers', obviously. Jerry Lee Lewis presumably does not need Flood.

although i for one would love to hear that ...

Who needs to hear the album, I just want to hear the studio chatter outtakes.

"I eat sunuvabitch limeys like you for BREAKFAST!"

oh god I need to buy so many of those albums (probably not The Killers tho)

Bascombe had a fantastic run from 85 to 87, in between ..Big Chair and MFTM he made It's Immaterial's Life's Hard And Then You Die. It's a brilliant record but they were pretty damn lucky getting him looking back, maybe he owed someone a favour.

Watching the documentary that came with the 25th anniversary reissues for the first time and I suspect that François Kevorkian has a lot to do with the sense of space on this album. Gore talks about him spending 2 days mixing a hi-hat. I was then reading about the 5.1 remasters and it mentioned that it had been complicated to separate some of the sounds used as FK had used multiple delays on “waiting for the night”

I’d always thought that Flood had been mainly responsible for the production, but it also sounds like FK’s mixing was integral to the process.

Off the back of that I had the CD on and my copy is skipping so I thought I’d google and see if it had been released digitally on some hi def format. I wouldn’t have objected to buying some 24 bit lossless file but it doesn’t look like Mute have released any.

OOF!(check out the music))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCgdWHwEnrg

Which is funny because if anything it's Roxy/Bryan Ferry who is a throughline in the actual documentary (very deft uses of "The 'In' Crowd" and "Manifesto")

Oh! I must watch that, the trailer looked fantastic.

thinking about how strange it is that this album has had a pretty limited influence on synthpop revival stuff of the last two decades, pretty everything seems to draw much more on earlier 80s synthpop?

like it's the sort of album a band could surely have a whole career ripping off but ... ?

Musically, I feel it had a huge influence on the sharper, more industrial side of things; a lot of the '80s stuff people reference is softer and mushier, and besides, this album isn't an '80s album, and the band has plenty of more traditional synthpop from which people can draw. I do, however, feel Depeche Mode has become a pretty prominent songwriting influence, so they're still in the DNA of a lot of backwards-looking stuff.

Oh my @ some of these poll results. Blue Dress robbed at gunpoint. Talk about the sweetest perfection.

Violator is so sophisticated and slick, it seems harder to "borrow" from than earlier, simpler synth pop.

Musically, I feel it had a huge influence on the sharper, more industrial side of things

oh yeah certainly, just that this album has such a distinct & perfect balance of things that i'm a little surprised there isn't more that's trying to capture the same sort of sound

Even Depeche Mode have struggled to recreate it!

It reminds me of how there aren’t many pet shop boys imitators taking on “behaviour”

Maybe it’s the songs that are difficult to recreate, though? Couple of tracks I don’t remember so well but iirc it’s wall-to-wall bangers.

Songs Of Faith.. was probably more influential than Violator (on NIN, Marilyn Manson, Garbage, etc?)

yeah its influence is way more obvious, though i've read that the influence goes both ways & they were into NIN when making it as well?

They were def. into NIN by then. "Rush" is the most obvious one. Of course "Pretty Hate Machine" was released in 1989, and also produced by Flood, just prior to "Violator," so chances are good they heard it pretty early and it might have made an impression. But then of course, "Pretty Hate Machine" clearly owes a lot to Depeche Mode.

Pretty Hate Machine is Depeche plus late 80s Ministry and that’s why it rules.

My god, it's full of samples

https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/List_of_Depeche_Mode_sample_sources_by_album/Violator

Hmm, at first I was surprised, but most of those samples are just kind of manipulated library sources, or otherwise just literally samples, in that a lot of the sounds weren't necessarily programmed or designed from scratch. Still pretty cool to learn, thanks! And yeah, some of the actual samples incorporated into this masterpiece are as inspired as they are invisible. Toni Halliday! Alan Moulder didn't engineer or mix "Violator," though, and I'm not sure they were a couple yet, so is that just a coincidence that she was (literally) in the mix?

It reminds me of how there aren’t many pet shop boys imitators taking on “behaviour”

true

xp yeah loads of emu library sounds but a few very interesting sources in amongst them - especially the uses of fleetwood mac, kraftwerk, and the bulgarian state female voice choir.

Very interesting to me too, a lot more samples of popular music than I expected