Depeche Mode
Sounds Of The Unvierse

After four years of waiting, here is the twelfth studio album by the Depeche Mode: "Sounds of The Universe". Let me say that I have been a Depeche fan for more than ten years, since "Ultra" came out in '97, that I will go to see them in Milan in June, and that I consider them one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years. In short, I'm not a detractor of the band here to bother the fans, yet I'm about to write a negative review. I really hope that you who listened to it enjoyed it more than I did, if so, it would only mean that this album didn't strike a chord with me, but it remains a good work nonetheless.

It would bother me to admit that a band I've always loved and defended (even when everyone said they should have given up after Wilder's departure and that Exciter was a "bore") has come out with an album that is simply slightly more than unlistenable. I don't even want to propose a track-by-track, because honestly, they all sound the same to me, and I would say the same things for all the songs. Except for "Wrong", which was rightly chosen as the single, the others are all generally slow and melancholy... and boring.

Even "Exciter" was a "calm" album, but at least the pieces conveyed some emotion. Here, nothing. For heaven's sake, the songs are technically well-crafted, and the arrangements are almost never trivial. They sound modern despite, as mentioned in some interviews, DM have revived many typically '80s sounds. The sounds in general (even the voice) and the guitar in particular are almost always more acidic and distorted than in previous albums (Corrupt, Fragile tension, the same Wrong...), sometimes they are appreciated, sometimes they annoy, but at least there was attention to that, research. The point is that no song communicated something to me, there isn't a romantic track that makes me want to dedicate it to someone, there's no engaging piece like "A question of lust" or "I Feel Loved" to blast in the car, there's no introspective track that conveys a sweet melancholy like "The love thieves", no slightly sensual dance track like "Strangelove" or "World in my Eyes" that makes you want to dance or a "bad" one like Rush or "A Pain That I'm Used To".

To be honest, I couldn't even listen to the first two tracks all the way through; after just over halfway, I was already irritated, not understanding where they were heading. It's a bit like what sometimes happens at the cinema: you watch a movie thinking "well, so far it’s been disappointing, but now it’ll take off", but in reality, it never takes off, and after two hours, you leave feeling like you've wasted 7 euros. Even Dave's voice, too often distorted in my opinion, no longer conveys the sensations of the past; he always sings in the same (in my opinion) less exciting way, except perhaps in "Wrong" and "Corrupt", where he puts some healthy edginess into it, and in "Peace" (kudos also for the high note, I didn't expect that). As the listening continues, the situation doesn’t change much; each track tempts me to hit the forward button after just over a minute, hoping the next one will be more engaging. This had never happened to me with DM before; generally, I felt the albums were too short, not that they never ended! At this point, I would have preferred if they limited themselves to just doing live performances with their old hits, also because honestly, thinking that when I go to see them, songs like "Fragile Tension" (deadly boring, even with its trite lyrics, in my opinion) might come at the expense of "Behind The Wheel", "Black Celebration", "World in My Eyes" or "Walking in My Shoes" irritates me quite a bit.

Now I expect quite a few criticisms of this review, but for once, I'll be happy to receive them, it will mean that someone else won't have felt disappointed, if not betrayed, by one of their favorite bands.