#DEPECHE MODE SONGS UNIVERSE TV#

I used the wrong method / with the wrong technique'. I was in the wrong place / at the wrong time / for the wrong reasons / on the wrong night / of the wrong day / on the wrong week. I took the wrong road / that led to / the wrong tendencies. His slightly mad ravings elevate the scenario to the scale of black comedy: 'I was born in the wrong house / with the wrong sign / in the wrong ascendency. The first single is classic Mode with Gore casting Gahan in the role of corrupt preacher, like a character from Flannery O'Connor's southern gothic novel Wise Blood, railing against his almost apocalyptic bad luck. This is minimal acid blues and concerns the singer's addictive nature, and its minimalism is emphasized by the use of old equipment and a prominent, primitive rock guitar. He stops the other two from killing each other and acts as a necessary intermediary for Gore.

Gore remains the primary songwriter and Gahan is the front man and secondary song writer, while Fletch, perhaps more crucially is a facilitator. Andy Fletcher doesn't write the music or play any instruments) write according to their abilities and the group as a whole receives according to its needs. Instead of Gahan insisting on having a certain amount of space on the album before agreeing to even set foot in the studio now both parties (i.e. The construction of Playing The Angel was marred by jockeying for position between the singer and Martin Gore but this has given way to an almost Socialist division of labour. This is one of Dave Gahan's three contributions as a songwriter to the main album, worked on with his writing partners Christian Eigner (DM's regular drummer) and Andrew Phillpott. Dave Gahan's smooth croon is set off by the feverish efflorescence of Martin Gore's guitar. The actual track 'In Chains' is the kind of bluesy cyber spiritual that the band made their own between 'Personal Jesus' in 1989 and 'John The Revelator' in 2005. Instead this fanfare, reminiscent of the work of the Radiophonic Workshop, is more a warning to the listener which says: 'brace yourself, we have invested in a lot of vintage synthesizers, creaking drum machines and dusty sequencers, and we are not going to shy away from using them.' If anything this slightly disturbing intro is misleading because it ushers in what is arguably the 29-year-old band's most mellow and mature album to date. But this doesn't signify a 'stunning return to X', or 'their most uncompromising album since Y' or a 'hauntological take on Z'.

#DEPECHE MODE SONGS UNIVERSE TV#

For a few disorientating seconds this sounds spookily like the Anglia TV ident from the 70s, before building into THX proportions. It is joined by a burbling, clicking, analogue and insectile burr, which slowly becomes an orchestra of ancient and angry sounding synth tones.

One can imagine men of a certain age, with a penchant for black 501s, black leather jackets and white vests being asked to sit in a booth and raise one finger when they thing they can discern the sound. Depeche Mode's twelfth album opens with a tone of such a high frequency that maybe some of their older fans may at first struggle to make it out.

Depeche mode songs universe