The Worlds Best Rock Albums We regularly feature every album that you might consider for your collection. From Black Sabbath to Metallica, and from Jethro Tull to Meatloaf, it's all here. The elusive rock album, the popular rock album and the ones that make it because they just should.
00:02:21.760I remember a while ago you said that you had voted on Facebook or something, that this was your favorite album?
00:02:28.760Oh, I did a Facebook post. This was back in the day, probably like 2010 or something.
00:02:35.460And yeah, I ranked the albums. I should go look back at that. My Facebook account was, of course, deleted. So it's lost to the world, all of those insights. Wisdom laden as they were.
00:03:18.920And maybe that's why it's so great. But this is just Depeche Mode, fully actualized, confident in themselves. They know what they're going for. Every track is great.
00:03:36.780You know, I like some more than others.
00:04:06.780A bit like, you know, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band or, you know, concept albums of that nature.
00:04:16.080And yeah, just the level of confidence that the band expresses to do this, I think is remarkable.
00:04:26.460Now, reading up on it, I watched this documentary series, which is on YouTube. I'm not even sure who made it, but it's quite good. And then I read some more Simon Spence, and that's an enjoyable book.
00:04:39.020If not a terribly interpretive book. It's kind of a, it talks about Basildon in a critical way, in a historical way, but it's, when it talks about the band, it's kind of a fan book.
00:04:51.420But anyway, one thing that I just didn't appreciate, you know, looking back on these albums, because I was, I guess, eight when this came out or thereabouts, is that the band actually was at a turning point or point of no return, maybe, or something like that.
00:05:16.240There was a question of, should it continue? And I think that question definitely was there with Broken Frame.
00:05:23.800As, as maybe, you know, imperfect and a little bit clunky as that album is, it was important for them to put that out. You know, Vince left, he just wanted to go do his own thing. He wanted to be in control. He kind of left his Basildon friends in the dust and started new bands.
00:05:43.520He's, he'll start two bands within the time of that, between that time and when Black Celebration was released. And they just had to do something. They had to prove that Martin Gore is a legitimate songwriter, that the band is still going, that they're going to be touring.
00:06:02.700So, right before this album came out, there was a release of singles, 1981 to 85. And it was titled Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the United States. That's how I remember it. I owned that album on CD, probably in the late 80s or early 90s. I wish I could maybe find it someplace in my grandpa or my parents' house or something. Who knows? It's probably in a, it's probably on eBay or something. I don't know.
00:06:30.280But, you know, they put out that singles collection, which had a few new songs. Shake the Disease was on there and others. And I can't believe it looking back. But at the time, there was a question of, are you going to even go on? You know, have you read what you can say? And this was an almost retrospective. You know, there, there are a lot of bands in the 80s who were like that. They might, they had some great hits, five years.
00:07:00.280Maybe they'll have a reunion every 10 years, you know, and play their golden oldies for their aging fan base. I mean, but the fact that they kept going and went forward, they went back to Berlin, back to Hansa Studios.
00:07:16.280They just, you know, this is something that clearly bothered Daniel Miller, who I think was a very, you know, highly sympathetic, even, even to the point of being a bit of a pushover as a producer, you know, just, just forgiving, accommodating, enthusiastic about the band.
00:07:35.840But he was like, I don't see a single on this, this, who, who is this for? Like, this is, it's not even that it was experimental, because, you know, sampling by 1986, using like found sounds, noise, etc.
00:07:53.980That, that, that was happening. And even the, you know, if anything, I think the idea of an electronic band was, was almost passe, if anything, it had been done.
00:08:07.200I mean, what was difficult about this album was just the blackness, everything was dark. And you, I mean, they were talking about fly on the windscreen as the first signal, single, and the major problem was that the first word is death.
00:08:27.600And that's, I mean, that encapsulates what this album is. And so, again, there needed to be a great deal of confidence. Maybe there was a sort of existential crisis. From what I've read about U2, they were having an existential crisis in the late 80s.
00:08:48.100They went to Hanza Studios, they went to Hanza Studios, and they produced Octoon Baby, which is, you know, one of the greatest albums of all time, quintessential album for them. But they didn't know if they were going to go on.
00:09:01.840Bono had a child, Edge got a divorce, the band wasn't getting along, etc. And, you know, out of that, that situation will break up a lot of bands. But if you keep going, you can produce something like this.
00:09:17.740So I just think the confidence to produce this just black on black album about death, surviving, etc., doing the kind of experimentation on every track, but then linking all of the tracks into one conceptual album.
00:09:35.160I mean, you can just sit down and listen to this in 45 minutes or an hour or so.
00:09:41.960I just, yeah, I mean, I think it's the quintessential Deveshe Mode album. I think it's probably their best album. And it's just an amazing achievement.
00:09:51.800It's so in my life, forgetting all I couldn't do today.
00:14:15.000Sometimes I question everything, and I'm the first to admit that if you catch me in a mood like this, I can be tiring, not embarrassing, but you must feel the same.
00:14:45.000It is a little slow, too. The tempos are kind of maybe too ballad heavy and a little bit too slow for me. And maybe that's why I wouldn't say it's their best album. I can just say that this is maybe top five for me.
00:15:05.580It's up there, certainly. But the range of emotions is just like a different range of sad emotions or negative emotions.
00:15:16.580And I guess you could say, well, yeah, that's what you expect in a Depeche Mode album. But it's just a little bit too death and dejection and self-loathing.
00:15:30.580And also, interestingly, maybe even pederasty. I dare I say, dare I go there.
00:25:18.380Let me see you stripped down to the far.
00:25:25.380Let me see you stripped down to the far.
00:25:46.280Do you mind if I read a little bit from an interview with their producer, Gareth Jones, when he was talking about sampling?
00:25:52.800Sure. He says, when we sampled, we made sure we didn't use anyone else's music, and that was adhered to even in this track, he's talking about Black Celebration, where we had the idea of sampling Sir Winston Churchill.
00:26:05.820We wanted to use his A Brief Period of Rejoicing quote on the title track, as we loved that idea of A Brief Moment of Rejoicing.
00:26:13.660We didn't use his voice, though. Instead, Daniel said the words, we processed his performance, and we used that instead.
00:26:20.380That's how determined we were to not use anyone else's work.
00:26:26.100It's definitely an album that's really seeking originality.
00:26:31.000Maybe even trying to be too original, which, I mean, Dave Gahn has also said in interviews that I was reading that he's like, I don't like anything I hear on the charts.
00:26:43.180And this was 1986. You know, I don't like anything I hear on the charts, and we're determined to, like, really just kind of, like, fuck everything up and really shake up, you know, music in general with this album.
00:26:59.360And I think that it certainly is. And, you know, I could say critically, maybe it's a step back, because this was supposed to be, like, the album that set them commercially to the next level.
00:27:13.020You had on Some Great Reward, you had People Are People and Master and Servant, which were relatively good songs, even in America, very relatively popular songs.
00:27:26.140And then there's nothing on this album that charts, and on the America, none of the singles that chart in America.
00:27:36.280And it goes, the album as a whole goes to number 90 on the U.S., like, Billboard year-end charts.
00:27:43.880So it was a disappointment, and I think Daniel Miller was kind of vindicated when he told Martin, I don't hear any singles.
00:27:52.420But he still allowed them to make the record, you know, which, to his credit.
00:27:58.160Yeah. But again, like, these songs inflect the 101 live album, which I definitely think we should talk about at some point soon.
00:28:09.280And these songs are still performed. I mean, I have heard A Question of Time performed live.
00:28:18.720Black Celebration was performed on their latest tour.
00:28:24.480Stripped was also performed. I've heard Stripped performed, I think, gosh, three or four times live just in the past, let's say, 15 years.
00:28:32.520Even here in this house gets performed, like, on occasion, A Question of Lust.
00:28:39.680I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, it's just like every fly on a windscreen as well.
00:33:04.460Yeah, what I would kind of describe it as like going from basically objectivity in the lyrics to subjectivity, ambiguity and sacrality in another way, I guess.
00:33:20.180And you kind of know, but you don't know fully what it's about.
00:33:25.960And I think with this album, this Black Celebration sort of paves the way for the rest for especially albums like Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion.
00:33:37.860I'd even put Ultra into that category as well.
00:33:41.080The only reason maybe I wouldn't include Music for the Mass is I feel like Music for the Mass is another detour lyrically.
00:33:48.400There still are dark themes like Little 15, but I just think this album relates more with Violator, Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra.
00:33:59.160But yeah, so I mean, with the song like Black Celebration, it is kind of I get this overall vibe from this song, but then throughout the rest of the album of like, basically, let's live for today.
00:34:14.480You know, our life sucks in this working class industrial town.
00:34:22.180I think they've gone beyond the industrial town thing.
00:34:25.540That was something that they kept repeating in even with songs written by Alan Wilder with Some Great Reward where, yeah, it's just like, you know, if you want to, let's go or, you know, you've got your black dress on kind of thing.
00:36:16.320I think it's more existential and and even a song that I think it's cool and interesting.
00:36:24.460But like new dress it's it's about media perception and almost like postmodern nihilism.
00:36:36.880You could say let me the lyrics to this are actually quite funny.
00:36:41.200Sex jibe husband murders his wife bomb blast victim fights for life girl 13 attacked with a knife princess die is wearing a new dress.
00:36:51.900So it's you know you're evoking pop culture you're evoking the myth of Diana probably at the height of her powers at this point in terms of being on the tabloids and television etc.
00:37:03.740And the fact that she never wore the fact that she never wore the same dress twice and you know jet airliner shot from the sky it it is you know you're you're playing with that kind of postmodern irony.
00:37:16.160Sex jibe husband murders wife bomb blast victim fights for life.