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07/24/09 Toronto Molson Amphitheater
Discography
07/25/09 Montreal Bell Centre 07/28/09 Washington, DC Nissan Pavillion 07/31/09 Boston Comcast Center 08/01/09 Atlantic City Borgata 08/03/09 NY Madison Square Garden 08/10/09 Seattle Key Arena 08/12/09 San Francisco Shoreline Amp 08/14/09 San Diego Cricket Wireless Amp 08/16/09 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl 08/17/09 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl 08/20/09 Santa Barbara Bowl 08/22/09 Las Vegas The Pearl 08/23/09 Phoenix US Air Arena 08/25/09 Salt Lake City E Center 08/27/09 Denver Red Rocks 08/29/09 Dallas Superpages.com Center 08/30/09 Houston Woodlands Pavillion 09/01/09 Atlanta Lakewood Amphith 09/04/09 Tampa Ford Amphitheater 09/05/09 Ft. Lauderdale Bank Atlantic Center
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It’s April 2009, and the boys from Basildon, Essex, England are back with their 12th studio release Sounds of the Universe. For many of the music masses out there, who are not products of the 80s like me or connoisseurs’ of the British music scene, Depeche Mode is the longest lasting, most influential and most successful band to have emerged from England in the last thirty years.
While many of their bigger contemporaries from across the Pond, came over and conquered America with military precision, using slick videos, and imagery that was being pumped into every home that had cable television courtesy of MTV. Wham! Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and U2 to name a few were some of the biggest names. Depeche Mode was never considered to be a part of their class and for many in the music press they were at the bottom of the totem pole. You didn’t see Depeche Mode at Live Aid or performing “Do They Know It’s Christmas” with all of Britain’s musical elite.
Depeche Mode were simmering just below the radar of the mainstream musical landscape, while touring constantly, building a fan base that has proven to be fiercely loyal and constantly honing their craft. This band moved from the light and fluffy electro pop, that was created with founding member Vince Clarke who penned Depeche Mode’s biggest early hit the unforgettable “Just Can’t Get Enough” to the arrival of the immensely talented Alan Wilder, who as Martin Gore, once said was “the one real musician in the band”. Depeche Mode reached their true heights while many of their peers were falling by the wayside into musical one hit wonderland.
In this writer’s opinion with Martin Gore taking over songwriting duties with the departure of Vince Clarke, it was Alan Wilders’ musical abilities that helped create the template for the sound that moved Depeche Mode away from the light and fluffy synth pop sound of their beginnings to the dark, sensual, provocative, sexual and more mature themes that allowed them to forge a new identity and separate themselves from the rest of the British pack. In a strange way I believe that being under the radar and underestimated has been nothing but good for this band.
Depeche Mode has survived the kind of turmoil that has destroyed other bands, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, nervous breakdowns, fights for control, recognition, ego, fame and money. In a career, that has unbelievably spanned 30 years, with total world wide record sales in excess of 100 million. With musical landscapes changing all the time they have continued to find ways to connect with their audience and remain fresh. Their career is astonishing giving where they started they have never compromised their musical principles and have always stayed true to themselves and their vision.
It’s no wonder, that Depeche Mode has influenced many of today’s popular recording artists due to their innovative recording techniques and their use of sampling from the very beginnings of their career. Sasha Frere-Jones in an accompanying interview for his piece in The New Yorker evaluating the impact of British musical acts in the United States claims that "probably the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode who is more and more significant as time passes.”
With this release, what Sasha claims is very evident and shows you why Depeche Mode remains a viable musical entity. From the opening drone of “In Chains” to the pulsing rhythms of “Peace” which happens to be my very favorite track you are taken on a musical journey that is wonderful to hear by the best in this genre of music.
I found myself restarting several tracks after they had finished to, think through what I had heard; and I heard something new every time, in every track. This took me back to when I had listened to the Black Celebration, Music for the Masses and the iconic Violator albums for the first time.
Working again with “Playing the Angel” producer Bruce Hillier who is part of the creative team 140dB the album contains 13 tracks. As with their previous release, vocalist Dave Gahan who is becoming ever more confident as a song writer has written three songs with the help of Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott: "Hole to Feed", "Come Back" and "Miles Away / The Truth Is". That is something that never happened in the previous ten album releases which were all penned by Martin Gore, this tells you how this band has continued to evolve, grow and learn from their past so they are able to continue to move forward. As with past releases Martin Gore takes lead vocals on the absolutely funky and hip hop influenced “Jezebel” and it wouldn’t be a Depeche Mode album without an instrumental the irresistibly groovy “Spacewalker”.
Martin Gore has described the album's sound as "yesterday's future". I can only imagine how this music will come across live, when the “Touring the Universe” world tour begins on May 6th in Luxembourg. If this is a taste of “yesterday’s future” and where this band is going, I can not wait to hear more and more.
04/22/2009 10:42:02 ♥ carl (
) ♥ depechemode.com ♥ myspace.com/depechemode
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