Ok... no more distraction and side trips! (Looking at you Honora... Ms. Yoga Pants... you are very...
very.. distracting.
)
Last summer Depeche Mode was on tour and the first week of September they were coming to town. I'd
really wanted to go but unfortunately they were playing the night before I had an insane three-day schedule coming up for something else so there was no way I could make it to a concert right before that. A friend of mine who
was going made sure to rub it in. :roll: We got into a discussion about how great Depeche Mode is and ended up talking about what their best work was.
She insisted that "Music For The Masses" was the best since it was the biggest step forward the band made and was point that people began to take DM as serious musicians, and not just another British synth-pop group. Fair point, but aside from
Strangelove and
Never Let Me Down Again what songs do you remember from that album? Honestly there are no
bad songs on the album, but some are just forgettable.
You know those evenings when you're just sitting around with friends... chatting, drinking, whatever and everyone ends up debating favorite this, that, or the other and then invariably you end up playing the "stranded on a desert island game" - as in: If you were stranded on a desert island, what 5 CDs/books/movies/etc would you want to have with you?
For me, "Violator" is
always on my list.
Always!
Musical tastes change over time, something new comes along, you discover something old... but Violator is always (to me, at least) the absolute pinnacle of Depeche Mode, 80s music, and among the best albums of all time.
You might disagree with me... but you'd be wrong. :mrgreen:
There isn't a weak moment on the entire CD. When I listen to music my iPod is usually set to "shuffle" as I like a varied mix (as evidenced by my posts in this thread) but Violator is one of those albums that I just hit Play from Track 1 and let the entire thing play through. I have a short musical attention span... this is one of the few CDs that I can listen to from start to finish... no shuffle, no skipping.
It starts off strong...
World In My Eyes hits you with synthesized beats from the very first note. The signature sounds of Depeche Mode, refined over a decade of making music.
Next up is the slower, but not necessarily softer
Sweetest Perfection. More drum machines, mixed with a little guitar and more distortion. Also, the kind of lyrics that leave you a little breathless when you close your eyes and associate the song to someone special.
The sweetest infection
Of body and mind
Sweetest injection
Of any kind
I stop and I stare too much
Afraid that I care too much
And I hardly dare to touch
For fear that the spell may be broken
Personal Jesus starts with a double tone that sounds like something you'd hear from a PA system in a public building, and then dives right in as one of the hardest hitting songs on the album! Probably one of their best known, most popular, and most covered songs!
Quickly following is
Halo, another dance beat with nothing held back, which is then starkly contrasted with
Waiting For the Night... as far from the last two tracks as a song could be. Soft, melodic, haunting, dark... vocally driven with the musical composition taking a backseat through almost the entire song.
Arguably Depeche Mode's greatest song,
Enjoy The Silence comes back to dance beats and drum machines under the keyboards and synthesizers. Basically, the defining song of the album and possibly a defining song of a decade of electronic music, at it's core still a love song... "all I ever wanted, all I ever need, is here in my arms".
Policy of Truth steps it up a notch for Depeche Mode, with some of the most aggressive (relatively speaking) vocals on the album. Loads of electric guitar distortion laces the entire song through to the final strained notes.
One of the softest songs on the album,
Blue Dress is one I absolutely love... a compliment to Sweetest Perfection, a song that takes you away if you just close your eyes and let your mind wander. A song about watching a gorgeous girl dress and realizing it's what makes your world turn!
Something so simple
Something so trivial
Makes me a happy man
Can't you understand
Say you believe
Just how easy
It is to please me
Because when you learn
You'll know what makes the world turn
The final act of Violator,
Clean is the crescendo... all ominous bass beats, heavy drums, and distorted guitars!
Like I said... from start to finish, a masterpiece. Defining a band, a genre, and a decade!
Sometimes you just need to relax...
... to relax
... torelax
... orelax
... orelsax
... oralsex
... oral sex
Sometimes you just need oral sex.