Jan 25, 2019 Discover releases, reviews, credits, songs, and more about Depeche Mode - Exciter at Discogs. Complete your Depeche Mode collection.
Today (22 March) marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Depeche Mode’s eighth album ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’ and also the eve of the release of new – 13th – studio album ‘Delta Machine’, which on first listen sounds like another forbidding techno-industrial beast. Seems the time’s ripe for assessing the Basildon synth-pervs’ weighty back catalogue.
12. ‘Construction Time Again’ (1983)
Something has to come last, and what better than the first time Depeche Mode tried Industrial? Inspired by Einstürzende Neubauten, they decided it all meant moving concrete slabs and hitting pots. Another alarming development was Martin Gore whipping out a guitar for ‘Love In Itself’ on Top Of The Pops. But for all the rubbish like ‘PipeLine’, ‘Shame’ and ‘More Than A Party’ (rock’n’roll Mode, anyone?), there’s an ‘Everything Counts’ to soothe the pain. Call it ‘transitional”.
Something has to come last, and what better than the first time Depeche Mode tried Industrial? Inspired by Einstürzende Neubauten, they decided it all meant moving concrete slabs and hitting pots. Another alarming development was Martin Gore whipping out a guitar for ‘Love In Itself’ on Top Of The Pops. But for all the rubbish like ‘PipeLine’, ‘Shame’ and ‘More Than A Party’ (rock’n’roll Mode, anyone?), there’s an ‘Everything Counts’ to soothe the pain. Call it ‘transitional”.
11. ‘A Broken Frame’ (1982)
It could’ve all gone tits-up when Vince Clarke left after their debut album, but Depeche Mode came out fighting. The only plausible reaction to opener ‘Leave In Silence’ is ‘Good Christ, what have we here?” as it throbs and whumps into DM’s new dark heart. By the time we get to ‘Monument’, they’re inventing techno just like Derrick May always said. Then it all goes cod reggae on ‘Satellite’ and everyone looks awkward.
It could’ve all gone tits-up when Vince Clarke left after their debut album, but Depeche Mode came out fighting. The only plausible reaction to opener ‘Leave In Silence’ is ‘Good Christ, what have we here?” as it throbs and whumps into DM’s new dark heart. By the time we get to ‘Monument’, they’re inventing techno just like Derrick May always said. Then it all goes cod reggae on ‘Satellite’ and everyone looks awkward.
10. ‘Some Great Reward’ (1984)
On the one hand you’ve got the ridiculous hits like ‘People Are People’ and the S&M festival of ‘Master And Servant’; on the other the twee ‘Stories Of Old’ and the bombastic void of ‘Something To Do’. Sitting in the middle is Martin Gore’s gorgeous ‘Somebody’, and general critical opinion. We’ll stay on the fence here. It’s the end of the first phase, with the pivotal ‘Singles 81-85’ just around the corner.
On the one hand you’ve got the ridiculous hits like ‘People Are People’ and the S&M festival of ‘Master And Servant’; on the other the twee ‘Stories Of Old’ and the bombastic void of ‘Something To Do’. Sitting in the middle is Martin Gore’s gorgeous ‘Somebody’, and general critical opinion. We’ll stay on the fence here. It’s the end of the first phase, with the pivotal ‘Singles 81-85’ just around the corner.
9. ‘Exciter’ (2001)
A quantum leap into the future now. Depeche Mode had emerged from the grisly old 90s with a singer who’d ‘died” and come back wanting a slice of the songwriting action. Dave Gahan would get that next time around but here Gore’s in sole charge for the last time, presiding over the masterful, bluesy ‘Dream On’, steam-pump synth ballad ‘Comatose’ and the electro doo-wop of closer ‘Goodnight Lovers’. On the knobs for the one and only time is LFO’s Mark Bell, creating an album of texture and depth.
A quantum leap into the future now. Depeche Mode had emerged from the grisly old 90s with a singer who’d ‘died” and come back wanting a slice of the songwriting action. Dave Gahan would get that next time around but here Gore’s in sole charge for the last time, presiding over the masterful, bluesy ‘Dream On’, steam-pump synth ballad ‘Comatose’ and the electro doo-wop of closer ‘Goodnight Lovers’. On the knobs for the one and only time is LFO’s Mark Bell, creating an album of texture and depth.
8. ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ (2009)
After a four-year break, Depeche Mode’s last album before this week’s ‘Delta Machine’ found them barely missing a beat, three decades into their career. As on ‘Playing The Angel’, Gahan has three songwriting credits but it’s not helping his state of mind. ‘Words can leave you broken inside,” he croaks on ‘Hole To Feed’. Elsewhere he’s behind the snaky acid and thwacking blues of ‘Miles Away/The Truth Is’ and fronting ‘Corrupt’, Gore’s slow-burning, romping bastard featuring the charming lines, ‘I could corrupt you/It would be easy/Watching you suffer/Girl, it would please me”. No one’s mellowing around here.
After a four-year break, Depeche Mode’s last album before this week’s ‘Delta Machine’ found them barely missing a beat, three decades into their career. As on ‘Playing The Angel’, Gahan has three songwriting credits but it’s not helping his state of mind. ‘Words can leave you broken inside,” he croaks on ‘Hole To Feed’. Elsewhere he’s behind the snaky acid and thwacking blues of ‘Miles Away/The Truth Is’ and fronting ‘Corrupt’, Gore’s slow-burning, romping bastard featuring the charming lines, ‘I could corrupt you/It would be easy/Watching you suffer/Girl, it would please me”. No one’s mellowing around here.
7. ‘Speak & Spell’ (1981)
Back to the start. Now DM are these grizzled old gits with guitars to rough up their trademark synths and songs that wallow in filth and misery, it’s easy to forget there was a time when they barely needed a razor blade between them and they had that bloke from Erasure at the back. ‘Speak & Spell”s a glorious synth-pop debut though, from the ‘Kraftwerk on poppers” ‘I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead’ to ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, a record that’ll still fill floors decades after Gahan’s final death.
Back to the start. Now DM are these grizzled old gits with guitars to rough up their trademark synths and songs that wallow in filth and misery, it’s easy to forget there was a time when they barely needed a razor blade between them and they had that bloke from Erasure at the back. ‘Speak & Spell”s a glorious synth-pop debut though, from the ‘Kraftwerk on poppers” ‘I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead’ to ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, a record that’ll still fill floors decades after Gahan’s final death.
6. ‘Playing The Angel’ (2005)
The best of this century’s Mode output so far (too early for a broad assessment of ‘Delta Machine’), ‘Playing The Angel’ was the first helmed by some-time Blur and U2 producer Ben Hillier and the first to feature a smattering of Gahan songs. No matter who’s penning them, the tracks advance like terror machines across jagged industrial deadzones, blasting vicious preacherism on ‘John The Revelator’ and outrageous twisted sirens of guitar on ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’. Then ‘Precious’ is all smooth and propulsive – so many strings to their bow right now.
The best of this century’s Mode output so far (too early for a broad assessment of ‘Delta Machine’), ‘Playing The Angel’ was the first helmed by some-time Blur and U2 producer Ben Hillier and the first to feature a smattering of Gahan songs. No matter who’s penning them, the tracks advance like terror machines across jagged industrial deadzones, blasting vicious preacherism on ‘John The Revelator’ and outrageous twisted sirens of guitar on ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’. Then ‘Precious’ is all smooth and propulsive – so many strings to their bow right now.
5. ‘Ultra’ (1997)
Gore wrote the songs but ‘Ultra’ is all ‘Dave Gahan: ‘My Drugs Hell'”. Or, ‘Here’s what happened when we met Trent Reznor”. To be honest, DM had given Nine Inch Nails enough inspiration so it’s natural they should reach a similar point, and the ‘Mode get there with their unparalleled pop chops intact – see the distorted, propulsive ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ and the muscular ‘It’s No Good’. The uncharacteristic pedal-steel-warmed ‘The Bottom Line’ takes the biscuit though.
Gore wrote the songs but ‘Ultra’ is all ‘Dave Gahan: ‘My Drugs Hell'”. Or, ‘Here’s what happened when we met Trent Reznor”. To be honest, DM had given Nine Inch Nails enough inspiration so it’s natural they should reach a similar point, and the ‘Mode get there with their unparalleled pop chops intact – see the distorted, propulsive ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ and the muscular ‘It’s No Good’. The uncharacteristic pedal-steel-warmed ‘The Bottom Line’ takes the biscuit though.
4. ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’ (1993)
Where Basildon Man turned Baritone Jesus. Utterly off his gourd, Gahan became the bedraggled rock dude, mustering all the righteousness at his disposal to growl over the obscene riffs of ‘I Feel You’, break down before his Lord on the mighty gospel of ‘Condemnation’ and poke about for a morsel of redemption on ‘Higher Love’. ‘Judas’ is a bit Monarch Of The Glen, mind.
Where Basildon Man turned Baritone Jesus. Utterly off his gourd, Gahan became the bedraggled rock dude, mustering all the righteousness at his disposal to growl over the obscene riffs of ‘I Feel You’, break down before his Lord on the mighty gospel of ‘Condemnation’ and poke about for a morsel of redemption on ‘Higher Love’. ‘Judas’ is a bit Monarch Of The Glen, mind.
3. ‘Music For The Masses’ (1987)
‘Music For The Masses’ is so good, ‘Behind The Wheel’ can start off like Tiffany’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and Depeche Mode lose none of their black-garbed punch. Other highlights include live perennial – and monstrous career highpoint – ‘Never Let me Down Again’, perverted electro throwback ‘Strangelove’ and the Satanically miserable ‘Pimpf’, as the band take their first baby steps towards their greatest triumph.
‘Music For The Masses’ is so good, ‘Behind The Wheel’ can start off like Tiffany’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and Depeche Mode lose none of their black-garbed punch. Other highlights include live perennial – and monstrous career highpoint – ‘Never Let me Down Again’, perverted electro throwback ‘Strangelove’ and the Satanically miserable ‘Pimpf’, as the band take their first baby steps towards their greatest triumph.
2. ‘Black Celebration’ (1986)
But before that, an equally important notch on the Mode trajectory. Coming directly after the story-so-far of ‘Singles 81-85’, ‘Black Celebration’ sounded like relief, as if the teen-pop era (however twisted it was getting) was over and now they could get down to the serious business of singing, ‘You’re only 15 and you look good/I’ll take you under my wing/Somebody should”. Ohhhhkaaay. Dodgy lyrics aside, the album excels through the bleak title track, Gore’s atmospheric ‘A Question Of Lust’, that dubious live favourite ‘A Question Of Time’, gloomy, needy anthem ‘Stripped’ and the terrific pop-noir of ‘Dressed In Black’. It’s a statement of intent that they continue to fulfil.
But before that, an equally important notch on the Mode trajectory. Coming directly after the story-so-far of ‘Singles 81-85’, ‘Black Celebration’ sounded like relief, as if the teen-pop era (however twisted it was getting) was over and now they could get down to the serious business of singing, ‘You’re only 15 and you look good/I’ll take you under my wing/Somebody should”. Ohhhhkaaay. Dodgy lyrics aside, the album excels through the bleak title track, Gore’s atmospheric ‘A Question Of Lust’, that dubious live favourite ‘A Question Of Time’, gloomy, needy anthem ‘Stripped’ and the terrific pop-noir of ‘Dressed In Black’. It’s a statement of intent that they continue to fulfil.
1. ‘Violator’ (1990)
After the awesome 1989 live album ‘101’ (not here because, well, it’s a live album), everyone knew Depeche Mode were a big deal. To the uninitiated, those plink-plonk Essex synth-boppers had just broken the States in almighty stadium style. It was a bit of a shock to the initiated too. After ‘Violator’, no one was surprised. Trailed the previous year by the twanging, musclebound ‘Personal Jesus’, it presented a ‘Mode as comfortable in their skin as they’d ever been – still capable of pop corkers like ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and ‘Policy Of Truth’, but honing their eerie, threatening ballads in ‘Halo’ and ‘Sweetest Perfection’. Like New Order with ‘Technique’ a year earlier, Depeche Mode had returned better than ever to show the upstarts how it’s done.
After the awesome 1989 live album ‘101’ (not here because, well, it’s a live album), everyone knew Depeche Mode were a big deal. To the uninitiated, those plink-plonk Essex synth-boppers had just broken the States in almighty stadium style. It was a bit of a shock to the initiated too. After ‘Violator’, no one was surprised. Trailed the previous year by the twanging, musclebound ‘Personal Jesus’, it presented a ‘Mode as comfortable in their skin as they’d ever been – still capable of pop corkers like ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and ‘Policy Of Truth’, but honing their eerie, threatening ballads in ‘Halo’ and ‘Sweetest Perfection’. Like New Order with ‘Technique’ a year earlier, Depeche Mode had returned better than ever to show the upstarts how it’s done.
English electronic music band formed March 1980 in Basildon, Essex, and named after a popular French fashion magazine. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan (lead vocals, occasional songwriter since 2005), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andy Fletcher (keyboards), and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter from 1980 until 1981). Depeche Mode released their debut record in 1981, Speak & Spell, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Clarke left the band after the release of the album, leaving the band as a trio to record A Broken Frame, released the following year. Gore took over lead songwriting duties and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, occasional songwriter) officially joined the band to fill Clarke's spot, establishing a line up that would continue for the next thirteen years.
The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success. The subsequent album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the supporting Devotional Tour exacerbated tensions within the band to the point where Alan Wilder quit in 1995, leading to intense media and fan speculation that the band would split. Now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997, recorded at the height of Gahan's near-fatal drug abuse, Gore's alcoholism and seizures and Fletcher's depression. The release of Exciter confirmed Depeche Mode's willingness to remain together, the subsequent, and very successful, Exciter Tour being their first tour in support of an original album in eight years since the Devotional Tour, although the band had toured in 1998 to support The Singles 86–98 compilation album.
Depeche Mode have had fifty songs in the UK Singles Chart and thirteen top 10 albums in the UK charts, two of which debuted at No. 1. Depeche Mode have to this day sold over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the most commercially successful electronic bands and one of the world's best-selling music artists. Q magazine calls Depeche Mode 'the most popular electronic band the world has ever known' and included the band in the list of the '50 Bands That Changed the World!'. Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1's '100 Greatest Artists Of All Time'.
Current lineup:
Martin L. Gore: keyboards, guitar, vocals
Dave Gahan: lead vocals
Andrew Fletcher: keyboards
Former members:
Vince Clarke (1980-81): keyboards
Alan Wilder (1982-95): keyboards, drums
The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success. The subsequent album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the supporting Devotional Tour exacerbated tensions within the band to the point where Alan Wilder quit in 1995, leading to intense media and fan speculation that the band would split. Now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997, recorded at the height of Gahan's near-fatal drug abuse, Gore's alcoholism and seizures and Fletcher's depression. The release of Exciter confirmed Depeche Mode's willingness to remain together, the subsequent, and very successful, Exciter Tour being their first tour in support of an original album in eight years since the Devotional Tour, although the band had toured in 1998 to support The Singles 86–98 compilation album.
Depeche Mode have had fifty songs in the UK Singles Chart and thirteen top 10 albums in the UK charts, two of which debuted at No. 1. Depeche Mode have to this day sold over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the most commercially successful electronic bands and one of the world's best-selling music artists. Q magazine calls Depeche Mode 'the most popular electronic band the world has ever known' and included the band in the list of the '50 Bands That Changed the World!'. Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1's '100 Greatest Artists Of All Time'.
Current lineup:
Martin L. Gore: keyboards, guitar, vocals
Dave Gahan: lead vocals
Andrew Fletcher: keyboards
Former members:
Vince Clarke (1980-81): keyboards
Alan Wilder (1982-95): keyboards, drums