My Favorite Mode

Our internet is still very intermittent at home (due to flooded phone lines causing our DSL to act up), so my post about cape jackets will have to wait until the repairs to our lines happen later this week.  I’m on my little Nokia Booklet 3G with an LG wireless modem, and it doesn’t have any kind of photo editing program, so my ability to post a nifty pictorial is very limited.   What I will do is stay on my Depeche Mode/Alan Wilder high and post my all time favorite albums, songs, tours and rarities. 

Favorite album:  Some Great Reward

For all the reasons I’ve stated before, this is still by far my absolute favorite album.  This album solidified me as a fan, and provided  the soundtrack that justified all my reasons for feeling different at an age when conformity was forefront.  It also marked the first time I had seen the band live.

No other album juxtaposes the angst of personal religious struggle with sadomasochism like “Some Great Reward”.  The lyrics have some of the sexiest lines, and some of the most ironic.  The album also showcases the beginnings of how they started mastering their industrial yet fluid sound, which really was very metallic on “Construction Time Again” but became more organic with “Some Great Reward”.  I have an interview were they said that they would just walk around outside the studio recording sounds and manipulating them before running them through their synthesizers.

One of the songs that sort of hit me was the beautiful ballad “Somebody”.  The haunting acoustic piano with the street background noise only enhance the irony of the words.  The lyrics are quite sentimental and lovely, until the very end of the song:

But when I’m asleep
I want somebody
Who will put their arms around me
And kiss me tenderly
Though things like this
Make me sick
In a case like this
I’ll get away with it

As I got older, the words of all of their songs started to really take on new meanings, only because I really started to understand exactly what they meant (I was a very naive 14-year-old).  Here are my favorite lines from various songs:

It’s a lot like life
This play between the sheets
With you on top and me underneath
Forget all about equality
 Let’s play master and servant

So lie to me
But do it with sincerity
Make me listen
Just for a minute
Make me think
There’s some truth in it

I don’t want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God’s
Got a sick sense of humour
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing

Of course a line from “If You Want”, the only song on the album penned by Alan Wilder, became the quote that I would use time and time again:

Let tomorrow and today
Bring a life of ecstasy

Funny how that at the age of 14 this album became a defining musical moment in my life.  Was I really that complex at that time?  I’d like to think so.

Favorite Song:  World In My Eyes

I have many favorite songs from my favorite band, all of which would require its own top 20 list.  But when someone asks me to define what I think the “Depeche Mode” sound is, I don’t ask them to listen to “Enjoy the Silence” or “Personal Jesus”.  I don’t even ask them to listen to anything from “Some Great Reward” because that was just the beginning of their ever evolving sound.  I think the song that is quintessentially Depeche Mode is the song “World in my Eyes”.  Another very sultry song, it comes from their most popular album to date, “Violator”.  All of the songs on the album again juxtaposition religious overtones next to very sexual undertones.  The reason I think it’s the most “Depeche Mode” sounding song of their repertoire is because of the overall production, the rhythmic beat and the layering of sounds along with very seductive lyrics.  It’s upbeat yet dark, all at the same time.  Dave Gahan had truly honed his soothing voice by this album, so this song is just dripping with pure sensuality.  The best part is that you can dance to it.

As it is time that I tend to my son who is having trouble sleeping, I will tackle some of my other favorites in the next few posts.  Good night!

Next:  Favorite B Sides, Rarities, and tours