•
Rating: The collection I'm about to review, released in '85 and then reissued in '98, is not a gem of the Depeche universe, because the Fab Four of electronics became legends starting in '86 ("Black Celebration"), but it still deserves a full score, even if it's not among my favorite products. I give it a 5 because it's a "document" of the European Electro-pop era of the early '80s; collections like this are worth much more than an entire discography of Human League, Eurythmics, etc. The only drawback is that it's a collection of singles. And as well-known, singles are not always the most representative part of a band. Also because both "Speak & Spell" and "A Broken Frame", but especially "Some Great Reward" ('84) (and I also mention "Construction Time Again" for the kind car wrecker) contain gems that are not on collections like this, or like "Catching up with Depeche Mode" or "People are People" (released only in America). Therefore, I have always preferred more extensive collections, like unofficial ones, or even compilations made by myself, which provide you with a greater view of the universe of the four from Basildon.
But let's move on to the album. You listen to all the major hit singles of Depeche Mode in the early '80s (no small feat), remixed tracks that you might have heard in a more serious club in some amazing "night versions"... forget New Romantic! There's the first successful single "Just can't get enough", also present with the Schizo Mix, "Dreaming of me" and "New Life" which Mute boasts about every day of its history, although I'm not particularly crazy about them. There's "See you" (beautiful!), "The meaning of Love", "Leave in Silence" (a stunning proto-techno song, but with a horrendous video by Julien Temple), "Get the Balance Right", super cool, because if in '83 you played it at full volume, especially in the Combination version, girls and gay people would follow you! And then "Everything Counts" (you start to savor the Berlin industrial scene), the wonderful "Love in Itself" (few made songs like this in the '80s), but the last ones are the best, from "People are People", a song Americans love to madness, "Master and Servant", the sweet "Somebody", the only song sung by Martin that's present, the somber and sensational "Blasphemous Rumours", a masterpiece from '84. Then two unreleased tracks from 1985, "Shake the Disease" (May 1985), one of my favorite songs, with Dave Gahan and Martin Gore very inspired to turn melancholy into poetry, in search of a desperate desire for understanding (Understand me...), and the colder "It's Called a Heart" that never struck me but many like. At the end, you find a gem: the original 1980 version of the great and thrilling "Photographic", more lively than in "Speak & Spell", the one included instead in Mute's compilation "Some Bizzarre" (1980) which included DM, Softcell, Human League, New Order... (correct me if I'm wrong). It lasts 3:13.
They are all lively songs, except perhaps "Blasphemous Rumours" and "Shake the Disease", songs where the Synths make you as excited as a skinhead (I'm not taking a political stand, it's just an example that came to mind by chance). A collection that, as I've already said, ignores "Tora! Tora! Tora!", "Monument", "The Landscape is Changing", "The Sun and the Rainfall", "Lie to Me", "More than a Party"... but is nonetheless a must-have collection for Synthpop lovers. Thanks for your attention.
Loading comments slowly
