sounds of the universe all in my area
what, you didn't think i was going to let a new depeche mode album drop without a massive review? ha!and, no box yet, it's delivered tomorrow, but you think i was going to wait until then? ha! i picked it up at best buy on the way home from school. my box comes tomorrow, so i'll give this one to my brother for his birthday tomorrow (and he has jury duty all day shitty coincidence).anyways, after one listen...
some interesting superlatives:
this is the WORST mixed depeche mode album. a couple track i seriously thought the main vocal tracks were left out and just the reverb sends were in. why the hell am i straining to hear the vocals? way to go, guys. relatedly, this album is utterly victimized by the loudness war: every track has had the dynamic range squeezed out of it. for glossy pop singles, this works. for an album that wants to have some nuance and have some alternating noisy/quiet passages, this is a horrible idea.
this is strangest-produced depeche mode album. some really, well, let's be generous and call them "interesting" choices were made. lots of tracks have old-sounding little beatboxes for drums. (i'll look forward to hearing these live with eigner so there's a real beat!) if a track had nothing in the way of melody (which a few do), a wall of noise was placed underneath, as if to distract (or augment) the lack of hummability.
this is the "hello, i'm martin gore, and i'll be your backup singer this evening" album. (it seems like) every track has martin all over the chorus as loud as (if not louder) than dave. that could just be the poor mixing, though, it's hard to tell. martin got jokes on this album, too: "there's something mystical in our genes", "my little soul will leave a footprint"...
this is the most redemptive depeche mode album. yes, it has more upbeat and hopeful lyrics than we're used to, but, more precisely, i was ready to fall asleep during "come back". "perfect" was a little better, but holy crap, the last three songs woke me up. but i'm getting ahead of myself...
track by track:
"in chains": i like the warbling/droney intro, though i don't see how it relates to the rest of the song. the song is (one assumes) going to be a great opener for the show. the strange production works more for this song than some of the others. love the xylophone buried in the background. great vocals from dave.
"hole to feed" is hole in the flow and energy of the album between "in chains" and "wrong". boring. another dave song i'll skip...actually that's what i thought after the first listen. on my second now and i like it more. if it gets cranked up a little live, it'll be decent. kinda doesn't rock as hard as it needs to, and after "in chains" and into "wrong" it makes a lot of sense for it to rock. really weak ending, though (kind of a recurring theme on the album).
"wrong": i love it, but i already knew that. fits nicely on the album. somehow it reminds me of "nothing"...
"fragile tension": almost a great song, doomed by some stupid production ideas. love the verses, but the chorus is awful. the guitar sounds really out of place here.
"little soul": kind of seems like more of a sketch for a song than a finished one. both this and "fragile tension" don't seem to end so much as they forget to keep going. kinda weak, but production is sorta interesting. an odd little tune. i keep thinking this would be the kind of song martin would normally sing. the little clanking break is evocative of "john the revelator" and "fools". guitar at the end works, but it needs more ending (again). knowing and loving thomas fehlmann, i can already see how he'd remix this and how well i expect it will come out. :)
"in sympathy": the first song on the album that makes me sit up and OOOOOH. it's really well-done, it's catchy, you could kinda dance to it, it's uplifting. great vocals from dave and martin. is this the one people said reminded them of cause & effect? i could almost see it, but DM have done it much more subtly... there's a high-pitched noise that squeaks around the background of the ends of the verses that reminds me to the intro of the different mix of "people are people". this will be GREAT live.
"peace": this is the song it's going to take the longest for my opinion to settle on. dave has never hit a note that high before! (which means that playing it live could be a challenge.) it kinda bugs me that the epic-sounding, slightly ominous synths work well with the somewhat cheesy lyrics and upbeat chorus. it shouldn't, but it does. damn them and their skill! ;) the high-pitched perc used like a hihat in the left channel is from the same drum machine as used for sven vth's "an accident in paradise" yep, glad i figured that out. :P it does sound like an erasure song, though. also lacks a real ending.
"come back": kinda sounds like the beatles. i hate the beatles. at first i thought it was the worst-sounding song on the album. now i kinda think it's like the flipside to "nothing's impossible". it is long and repetitive, though. these are pretty good lyrics for dave, too. or at least not terribly obvious.
"spacewalker": ahhh, i've always liked the goofy little instrumentals, and this one is in the right place on the album. it's like "stjarna" meets "the great outdoors".
"perfect": the lyrics don't seem to stick in my head. actually, on second listen, i like the "i didn't shoot, i didn't pull the trigger" part. from there until the end is the best part of the song. needs a little more energy and a solid ending for it to be a great song.
"miles away/the truth is": after i saw this was a dave song, i thought "great, it's the most awkward title in DM history, i bet he tried to get all clever with the lyrics". i was braced for the worst. instead, i got the second song on the album that made me sit up in my seat and say OOOOOH. well done, mr gahan. have a cookie. fuck, take the whole box. this is the best song you've ever written. the synth melody during the "you're miles away" part is fantastic. the nastiness of it and the mood of the song reminds me of "something to do".
"jezebel": thank you for not doing a shitty song in some super-melodramatic voice on this album, martin. lyrics are pretty good, too. i can see him doing this live and enjoying it and me enjoying it. reminds me of marc almond (good thing).
"corrupt": classic sleazy mode! well, it's no "we get wetter and wetter", but it's as sleazy as they get these days. i think this ends the album better than "the darkest star". is there a studio session of this track? i can see it working as a great full band stomper. hell, i can even hear a good nick cave cover of this.
this is the only DM album i didn't immediately get. i wrote most of this down after one listen, and added to it during my second listen. i gotta say, i feel much better about it now then i did when i first heard it. even the production kinda makes sense. i think it's a better album than PTA is, even though i'd say that PTA has some better songs. i also think it's a transitional album DM and hillier seem like they planned a trip on PTA and started travelling on this one. if we don't get to the destination on the next album, with hillier still in the car, i'm gonna be disappointed.
Originally published at this is.
some interesting superlatives:
this is the WORST mixed depeche mode album. a couple track i seriously thought the main vocal tracks were left out and just the reverb sends were in. why the hell am i straining to hear the vocals? way to go, guys. relatedly, this album is utterly victimized by the loudness war: every track has had the dynamic range squeezed out of it. for glossy pop singles, this works. for an album that wants to have some nuance and have some alternating noisy/quiet passages, this is a horrible idea.
this is strangest-produced depeche mode album. some really, well, let's be generous and call them "interesting" choices were made. lots of tracks have old-sounding little beatboxes for drums. (i'll look forward to hearing these live with eigner so there's a real beat!) if a track had nothing in the way of melody (which a few do), a wall of noise was placed underneath, as if to distract (or augment) the lack of hummability.
this is the "hello, i'm martin gore, and i'll be your backup singer this evening" album. (it seems like) every track has martin all over the chorus as loud as (if not louder) than dave. that could just be the poor mixing, though, it's hard to tell. martin got jokes on this album, too: "there's something mystical in our genes", "my little soul will leave a footprint"...
this is the most redemptive depeche mode album. yes, it has more upbeat and hopeful lyrics than we're used to, but, more precisely, i was ready to fall asleep during "come back". "perfect" was a little better, but holy crap, the last three songs woke me up. but i'm getting ahead of myself...
track by track:
"in chains": i like the warbling/droney intro, though i don't see how it relates to the rest of the song. the song is (one assumes) going to be a great opener for the show. the strange production works more for this song than some of the others. love the xylophone buried in the background. great vocals from dave.
"hole to feed" is hole in the flow and energy of the album between "in chains" and "wrong". boring. another dave song i'll skip...actually that's what i thought after the first listen. on my second now and i like it more. if it gets cranked up a little live, it'll be decent. kinda doesn't rock as hard as it needs to, and after "in chains" and into "wrong" it makes a lot of sense for it to rock. really weak ending, though (kind of a recurring theme on the album).
"wrong": i love it, but i already knew that. fits nicely on the album. somehow it reminds me of "nothing"...
"fragile tension": almost a great song, doomed by some stupid production ideas. love the verses, but the chorus is awful. the guitar sounds really out of place here.
"little soul": kind of seems like more of a sketch for a song than a finished one. both this and "fragile tension" don't seem to end so much as they forget to keep going. kinda weak, but production is sorta interesting. an odd little tune. i keep thinking this would be the kind of song martin would normally sing. the little clanking break is evocative of "john the revelator" and "fools". guitar at the end works, but it needs more ending (again). knowing and loving thomas fehlmann, i can already see how he'd remix this and how well i expect it will come out. :)
"in sympathy": the first song on the album that makes me sit up and OOOOOH. it's really well-done, it's catchy, you could kinda dance to it, it's uplifting. great vocals from dave and martin. is this the one people said reminded them of cause & effect? i could almost see it, but DM have done it much more subtly... there's a high-pitched noise that squeaks around the background of the ends of the verses that reminds me to the intro of the different mix of "people are people". this will be GREAT live.
"peace": this is the song it's going to take the longest for my opinion to settle on. dave has never hit a note that high before! (which means that playing it live could be a challenge.) it kinda bugs me that the epic-sounding, slightly ominous synths work well with the somewhat cheesy lyrics and upbeat chorus. it shouldn't, but it does. damn them and their skill! ;) the high-pitched perc used like a hihat in the left channel is from the same drum machine as used for sven vth's "an accident in paradise" yep, glad i figured that out. :P it does sound like an erasure song, though. also lacks a real ending.
"come back": kinda sounds like the beatles. i hate the beatles. at first i thought it was the worst-sounding song on the album. now i kinda think it's like the flipside to "nothing's impossible". it is long and repetitive, though. these are pretty good lyrics for dave, too. or at least not terribly obvious.
"spacewalker": ahhh, i've always liked the goofy little instrumentals, and this one is in the right place on the album. it's like "stjarna" meets "the great outdoors".
"perfect": the lyrics don't seem to stick in my head. actually, on second listen, i like the "i didn't shoot, i didn't pull the trigger" part. from there until the end is the best part of the song. needs a little more energy and a solid ending for it to be a great song.
"miles away/the truth is": after i saw this was a dave song, i thought "great, it's the most awkward title in DM history, i bet he tried to get all clever with the lyrics". i was braced for the worst. instead, i got the second song on the album that made me sit up in my seat and say OOOOOH. well done, mr gahan. have a cookie. fuck, take the whole box. this is the best song you've ever written. the synth melody during the "you're miles away" part is fantastic. the nastiness of it and the mood of the song reminds me of "something to do".
"jezebel": thank you for not doing a shitty song in some super-melodramatic voice on this album, martin. lyrics are pretty good, too. i can see him doing this live and enjoying it and me enjoying it. reminds me of marc almond (good thing).
"corrupt": classic sleazy mode! well, it's no "we get wetter and wetter", but it's as sleazy as they get these days. i think this ends the album better than "the darkest star". is there a studio session of this track? i can see it working as a great full band stomper. hell, i can even hear a good nick cave cover of this.
this is the only DM album i didn't immediately get. i wrote most of this down after one listen, and added to it during my second listen. i gotta say, i feel much better about it now then i did when i first heard it. even the production kinda makes sense. i think it's a better album than PTA is, even though i'd say that PTA has some better songs. i also think it's a transitional album DM and hillier seem like they planned a trip on PTA and started travelling on this one. if we don't get to the destination on the next album, with hillier still in the car, i'm gonna be disappointed.
Originally published at this is.