 Depeche Mode Few bands with as dark an image as Depeche Mode have such a strong sense of melody … it's a great strength for the band but also the source for some of their more awkward moments. It's hard to come off cool when you're singing about big, deep existential shit, but your melodies are totally sing-songable. At least they never tried to fit 20 five-syllable words into every line, a la Alanis Morrissette or Elvis Costello. Singles 81-85 documents the band's early career (essentially replacing the earlier collection Catching Up With Depeche Mode with a couple differences in the track listings), and it is the type of disc that will cause a lot of people to reassess their opinion of Depeche Mode, especially when considered in tandem with the companion two-disc set Singles 86-98. Listening to these songs, which provide a chronological portrait of the band, I was surprised to be reminded of the Beatles – not in terms of the music so much as career trajectory. The first few singles, featuring Vince Clarke's super-poppy songwriting before his tenure in Yaz and Erasure, immediately reminded me of the contrast between the Beatles' very early singles and their late work … totally different, yet not without continuity (the opposite of this would be The Cure, which hopped from style to style before settling on their classic sound). At base, Depeche Mode is a pretty sappy band, though with the awesome menace of some of the mid-80s singles you'd hardly notice. "People Are People," with its message of tolerance, is embarrassingly naïve, although it sounds very cool. There is always something of a contrast between what they're saying and how they're saying it – and even between the meldodic structure (very conventional) and the production values (very unconventional). Depeche Mode crafted a distinct sound that can't really be compared to any other bands … and people don't even agree on what they sound like. Some think they're eternally wimpy, others deeply tap into the undercurrent of anger and sadness beneath the façade of, uh, anger and sadness. One interesting thing about this CD is that the songs don't really sound like the era from which they come – they are definitely 80s, but you don't really associate "Dreaming of Me" or "Just Can't Get Enough" with 1981 the same way you so, say, "Up Where We Belong" or "Sailing." Right? Well, anyway, this band is only now getting the props it deserves, because they've made damn good and damn weird pop for more than twenty years now. The early stuff is great (I'm a huge Erasure fan, so pardon my preference for the undisguised pop): "Dreaming of Me," "New Life," "Just Can't Get Enough." Even if you're one of those Depeche Mode fans who hates the first album because it's so "happy," it's hard to deny the infectious genius of Vince Clarke when he's in "single" mode. For Clarke fans, these are essential tracks, pointing directly toward Yaz and Erasure in an unbroken line. With all the harmonies and major chords, these are the "Please Please Me's" and "She Loves You's" of Depeche Mode's career. After Clarke left the band, they continued on, bringing Martin Gore's songwriting to the forefront and slowly crafting their brand of creepy synth anti-pop pop. Beneath the dense sheen of synths, there's always a lot of traditional melody going on, but it's easy to get sucked into the pure sound of a Depeche Mode record without really seeing what's going on. It's easy to hear the music without hearing the words, or the melody apart from the augmentation, or the beat over the song itself. The songs are a lot more clever and intelligent than people give them credit for. "See You," for example, starts really dark, but the chorus is almost straight out of the Mills Brothers (that's a compliment). The blend of vocal harmonies and threatening synth lines is some sort of genius, and they've been working a variation of it ever since. Some of the tracks are lesser ("The Meaning of Love," "Leave in Silence," "Get the Balance Right") as the band was finding its way, but there's not a track on here that isn't good listening. The disc hits its stride with "Everything Counts," possibly their best single ever, or at least way up there. After that the hits keep rolling out: "Love in Itself," "People Are People," "Master and Servant," "Blasphemous Rumours,' "Somebody," "Shake the Disease," "It's Called a Heart." Of course any DM fan will need no introduction to these. When I was in junior high these songs were a dividing line between who was becoming "cool" and "independent" and who was only going to follow the crowd. I myself, as usual, got into the singles, but never crossed over into getting any DM albums until Music For the Masses. So this is an ideal release for me, rekindling all sorts of memories that may or may not have actually happened. Who needs truth anyway, that's why there's the Internet. Right? The 84-85 songs will polarize people … they are just as easy to hate as to love (you kind of need a specific sense of humor to appreciate "Master and Servant," for instance). But mostly this CD is a great introduction to the band for anyone who has sort of hovered around them curiously but never knew where to jump in. Lots of the lyrics drive me crazy (I can barely stand listening to "Somebody" because the lyrics are so preening, though the melody is so pretty it's impossible to turn it off), but lots of others are damn crafty ("I think that God has a sick sense of humor/and when I die I expect to find him laughing"). Surprisingly, the band has a sense of humor about itself, and has included press quotes about the songs from back in the day, not all of them flattering: "The last single was trying and now this is insipid." "What do you expect from a bunch of lame dickheads?" The whole package bespeaks a much greater weight than the band is usually given credit for. They're damn good songwriters, inventive producers, and now, it is revealed, lame dickheads. Remixes of "Photographic" and "Just Can't Get Enough" are added for bonus fun, leading the way to Singles 86-98, also highly recommended. Next up for Depeche Mode: Singles 99-15, now available on import through TimeTravel Records.
Review by Liam the Decent |