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“Let me take you on a trip/ Round the world and back/ And you won’t have to move/ Just sit still”
The phrase that opens this little masterpiece of electronic music, at the beginning of the nineties, manages to nicely summarize the intentions of Depeche Mode towards the listeners: to make people travel with closed eyes, with a pair of headphones, through their songs, without making them leave their room.
Violator was released in 1990, after its songs had passed through mixing rooms around the world (including Milan).
All the songs are written by Martin Gore.
Dave Gahan's voice is precise throughout the work, so dark, gloomy, although the true perfection for that particular timbre would be heard only three years later with Songs Of Faith And Devotion.
Sure, listening to the album today, comparing it with new electronic music, it all appears a bit faded, or perhaps a bit less suggestive, but you can feel that this album has a profound soul.
“Personal Jesus” with its very Roadhouse Blues riff still captivates and “Enjoy The Silence” features a minimalism in the lyrics that the DM almost never achieved again in the future.
Melodies and sounds strongly tied to the eighties, but also a great desire for innovation and a very dark rock conception, but, again, at the same time, tied to unbridled energy, fun, sweat (see many captivating live performances).
We are still far from worldwide success but also from Gahan’s near-death, Alan Wilder's departure, Martin Gore's unbridled desire to make a solo album and plunge into vertiginous anonymity.
Every song on this album (with the exception of Sweetest Perfection which seems like a Marilyn Manson ballad without too many effects) could have been a potential single, so beautiful are the sound ideas that support it.
A meticulously crafted sound, industrial noises in the background, psychedelic loops not too complicated, but it is especially on the level of lyrics and voice (and heart) that the album amazes.
Today many bands are inspired by DM, stealing here and there, but no one has yet taken up their legacy, probably because it’s not enough to copy the music: it’s a matter of soul and, in Martin Gore’s soul, there was quite a lot to bring out.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 World in My Eyes (04:22)
Let me take you on a trip
Arround the world and back
And you won't have to move
You just sit still
Now let your mind do the walking
Let my body do the talking
Let me show you the world in my eyes
I'll take you to the highest mountain
To the depths of the deepest sea
And we won't need a map, believe me
Now let my body do the moving
Let my hands do the soothing
Let me show you the world in my eyes
That's all there is
Nothing more than you can feel now
That's all there is
Let me put you on a ship
On a long, long trip
Your lips close to my lips
All the islands in the ocean
All the heavens in the motion
Let me show you the world in my eyes
That's all there is
Nothing more than you can touch now
That's all there is
Let me show you the world in my eyes
(repeat 6x)
03 Personal Jesus (04:52)
Reach out and touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who's there
Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer
Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who's there
Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer
I will deliver
You know I'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Reach out and touch faith
04 Halo (04:25)
You wear guilt
Like shackles on your feet
Like a halo in reverse
I can feel
The discomfort in your seat
And in your head it's worse
There's a pain
A famine in your heart
An aching to be free
Can't you see
All love's luxuries
Are here for you and me
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
Bring your chains
Your lips of tragedy
And fall into my arms
And when our worlds they fall apart
When the walls come tumbling in
Though we may deserve it
It will be worth it
06 Enjoy the Silence (06:12)
Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand
Oh my little girl
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
Enjoy the silence...
07 Policy of Truth (04:52)
You had something to hide
You should have hidden it, shouldn't you
Now you're not satisfied
With what you've being put through
It's just time to pay the price
For not listening to advice
And deciding in your youth
On the policy of truth
Things could be so different now
It used to be so civilized
You will always wonder how
It could have been if you'd only lied
It's too late to change events
It's time to face the consequence
For delivering the proof
To the policy of truth
Never again is what you swore, the time before
Never again is what you swore, the time before
Now you're standing there tongue tied
You'd better learn your lesson well
Hide what you have to hide
And tell what you have to tell
You'll see your problems multiplied
If you continually decide
To faithfully pursue
The policy of truth
Never again is what you swore, the time before
09 Clean (05:23)
Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen
Now that I'm clean
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean
I don't understand
What destiny's planned
I'm starting to grasp
What is in my own hands
I don't claim to know
Where my holiness goes
I just know that I like
What is starting to show
Sometimes
Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen
Now that I'm clean
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean
As years go by
All the feelings inside
Twist and they turn
As they ride with the tide
I don't advise
And I don't criticise
I just know what I like
With my own eyes
Sometimes
Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen
Now that I'm clean
Sometimes
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean
Sometimes
Now I'm clean
The cleanest I've been
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Other reviews
By Kobe-Bryant
Oh my God guys, what an emotion every time I hear this album!!!!
Violator came out in the distant 1990 and it represents one of the most beautiful albums by Depeche Mode.
By myork
Depeche Mode definitively managed to impose a new way of making music and made it their unmistakable trademark.
'Personal Jesus' conveys the warmth of rock’n’roll with the coldness of electronics, culminating in one of the absolute peaks in music concerning the use of synthesizers.
By Darius
'Violator' represents an important brick in the 'Palace of Music', a cohesive work, compact and rich, despite the scarcity of songs.
Depeche Mode can, I believe, be unanimously considered the pioneers of electronic music in the strictest sense.
