Imagine Depeche Mode circa 1981, singing its vapid synth-pop hit
“Just Can’t Get Enough,” sporting Flock of Seagulls quiffs, bondage
gear and full-on makeup. A robust 30-year career in the music business
hardly seemed in the cards. Unbelievably, Depeche Mode has done just
that, and with their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe,
they’ve made their most sonically inspired and creative effort since
1986’s Black Celebration.
Producer Ben Hillier, who helmed the boards for 2005’s critically
acclaimed Playing the Angel, continues to mine the band’s early
signature sound on Universe, albeit in a less ham-fisted style
than on Angel. Though sounding like a spin-the-knobs-synth,
Kraftwerk remix of 1990’s Depeche smash Violator, Sounds of
the Universe is much denser, as the disc’s title would suggest.
Using the adage “everything old is new again,” DM found daily
in-studio inspiration via vintage analog synthesizers found on eBay.
This curiosity spurred the kind of accidental genius that made songs
like Celebration‘s “Fly on the Windscreen” otherworldly
classics. Though it’d take three Universe tunes spliced together
(“Hole to Feed,” “In Sympathy” and “Peace”) to match the punch of
“Windscreen,” the overall effect is still satisfying.
As on Angel, vocalist David Gahan co-writes a few songs, but
otherwise channels bandmate Martin Gore’s tortured soul and inner
gospel-choir persona. In the Church of Gore, however, the confessionals
(“Wrong”) are more VH1 Behind the Music braggadocio than Sunday
penance, and spirituals about shackles and chains (“In Chains”) involve
servants willingly bound to their masters. Still chained, after all
these years.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.
