SOUNDTRACK: DEPECHE MODE-Black Celebration (1986).
Since the previous entry was all about The Smiths, I include Depeche Mode in this entry as the other big album that influenced my appreciation for college rock (or just British music, apparently).
My friend Garry, in addition to playing me The Smiths, also played me Black Celebration. At the time I either didn’t like or didn’t know about Depeche Mode. But I was really struck by this album.
DIGRESSION: It would only be years later that I would call them Daypatch Commode thanks to the Dead Milkmen! Incidentally, “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)” become something of a namechecking song to know go British bands back in college. “You’ll dance to anything by…Book of Love… The Smiths…Public Image Limited…”
The thing that most impressed me about Black Celebration was the way the tracks…not necessarily melded together…but that they had all kinds of effects and things that sort of linked them. It’s most noticeable on the first three tracks, or with the ticking clock that links “Stripped” to “Here in The House.” It’s a little thing that adds a nice continuity to the disc, and was something I hadn’t really heard before.
But even beyond that, the sounds were totally new to me. There’s all kinds of sound effects thrown in and experimentations that simply didn’t happen in the metal I enjoyed. And the keyboards weren’t Top 40ish, they weren’t sounds that I didn’t like, they were just new. There’s even moments that sound straight out of Phillip Glass. The tracks were certainly downers, and yet there was something angelic about them.
Or maybe angelic’s not the right word…pretentious comes to mind. There’s something so archly British about Dave Gahan’s singing voice on this disc…quite different from the heroin addict voice on Violater and later.
“Black Celebration” has, at one point a cool whirling sound effects that plays with stereo in a way you wouldn’t expect from this kind of band. And, as is Gore’s speciality, it is upbeat musically, yet clearly a downer lyrically. “Fly on the Windscreen-Final” has the obviously unhappy lyric of “Death is everywhere” and yet again, musically it remains somewhat upbeat.
Martin Gore also sings a lot on this disc, which helps to balance out the tone (even though at this stage he doesn’t sound radically different than Gahan). “A Question of Lust” is a delicate ballad, while “A Question of Time” shows the way of their more rocking songs later on. The disc also features the fantastic “Stripped,” which has been covered like half a dozen times. (Although DM’s is still the best version).
The disc also has a couple of short tracks (from under 2 minutes to just under 3 minutes). These tracks seem somewhat less fleshed out than the rest of the disc, which may be why the disc isn’t as popular as their other ones (I just learned). They act more like interstitials between songs rather than songs themselves.
Evidently the American release included “But Not Tonight” the one majorly upbeat track on the disc. I’m not sure why it was excluded elsewhere (although it really doesn’t fit thematically), but it does add a happy note to a dark disc.
I’ve enjoyed Depeche Mode ever since, and has been quite pleasantly surprised by the rocking tone they have taken in the last few years.
[READ: April 9, 2009] “The Color of Shadows”
There was some interesting synchronicity in reading this story when I did as we had just watched The Savages a few nights before. The Savages stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as siblings whose father is placed in a nursing home, and how they deal with the emotional strain this causes.
“The Color of Shadows” concerns a man named Paul who is in the unfortunate position of having to put his Aunt in a nursing home. And what made this story so good was that this main plot point was in no way the most moving part of the story. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 