Martin Gore who is the primary songwriter for Depeche Mode turned 50 back in 2011. I note this as something of interest when you listen to this album. It is a very dark and subdued album. Lyrically it's one of the darkest albums I've heard in a while and they have matched those dark lyrics with a spare sound. All in all it makes for a not very upbeat album and so is not something you are going to be putting on for fun. In fact it can be a tough listen. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to get drawn into the album and so that has in some ways made it hard for me to determine how much I like or dislike the album. Of course taking a dark view of the world is not something strange for Depeche Mode, but I have never heard them embrace it to this degree.
In the end it works for what it is. My problem is it may work too well and so I hope to never find myself coming back to it. If I have I'll know that I have fallen into a dark place in my own life.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.
This doesn't sound anything like the odd Depeche Mode single that would turn up on college-party mix cassettes in the late 1980s parties at WKU.
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