alex 82

I wanted to say, it's a record that can leave you speechless because it’s anything but the obvious continuation of previous works. It balances between experimentation, industrial, and vintage.
PS-Easycure, try listening to "nothing's impossible"! It seems close to the past sounds of Robert and his mates. I quite like the music, but I find the lyrics a bit weak, sometimes predictable. Here, the Gahan/Eigner/Philpott team has kind of dropped the ball and Hillier has put in a nice patch. Let me know what you think!

(yes, I have a guest list for the 19th) THE BOTTOM LINE: a record that can leave you speechless. Perhaps a bit exaggerated in production, but it boasts those two or three absolute gems that Gore never fails to deliver. There are indeed some remnants of Gore's DJ-set experiences in the 'house' clubs across half the continent. Still, the record works; it may not reach the level of the Magnificent 5 (86<97), but it’s much closer to them than it is to its predecessor. The DM are still inspired. 4 stars

One of my great regrets is the absence of the excellent b-side "free" in the European tracklist (yes, because the Japanese edition includes it). Moreover, the presence of this song would have made the number of lyrics to print in the booklet equal to 12, that is 3 per page, 4 pages, one extra photo (perhaps tacky and spot-on like the one of the Cadillac: it cracks me up! Watch out for the video of "a pain...", we'll see that car again in EXCELLENT company) and everyone would have been happy with a graphically impeccable work. Instead, in our versions, we find a somewhat sacrificed layout of 3-4-4, so much so that in the end, to save space, they had to stick the chorus of "Lillian" to the verse. And the lyrics of the closing song, "the darkest star", contain a final line that doesn't actually exist in the sung version. In conclusion, I expected more attention to detail. However, I ended up liking the artwork (ask Qzerty how I was talking about it last month!!!!!).

"The sinner in me": a great piece. The musical interlude will definitely blow our minds at FilaForum. If the chorus had been arranged with strings in a "macro" style (okay, let’s exaggerate: "home") the whole piece would have become something monumental. And now we come to the most "Music x Masses" of the entire album: "Lillian". Extremely fitting, not as trivial as it might seem (it depends on the interpretations), a melody that literally sticks in your head. I even manage not to mind the filtered voice (although it distorts a bit the 'high notes' - ahem... - of Gahan. However, be careful, I’m not saying he sings badly!). The only downside: the instrumental ending feels empty. I would have eliminated those annoying little "aaaaah's" and kept the synth backdrop present throughout the singing. A ROBUST reverb and a few other sounds already present would have made the piece even more exciting. If it’s going to be released as a single, I hope they notice.

I will focus instead on the CHOICE OF SOUNDS for the arrangements of the choruses of some pieces. "a pain that I'm used to" will be the next single, and I believe it will be offered in a slightly different version from the original: maybe removing the sirens and adding some rock-oriented interludes instead. Boosting the bass and the kick drum of the chorus with that guitar riff present in "precious" wouldn't be bad at all.

Perhaps we don't have the grand slam style of "enjoy the silence," but the overall quality of the tracks remains remarkable. I was positively surprised by the trio Gahan/Eigner/Philpott in the writing of "suffer well" and "I want it all," especially the final part of the latter. After that "sooooometimes" and the following arc, I might have expected a chorus that was, how should I put it, more grandiose, but it’s still a lovely nocturnal trip-hop track. Along with "precious," it is the most "dissonant" element of the album, which otherwise blends "some great reward" with "music x masses" and something from "exciter" (the best part, mind you). I won’t discuss the arrangement choice (in terms of note sequences and melodies) of the choruses, because if they were written that way, perhaps dissonant and broken exactly at the peak (see the gem "damaged people"), in my modest opinion, it was a CLEAR CHOICE and not a shortcoming from the artist.

The album is industrial, strong, with few melodious moments typical of DM: as noted by the anonymous one over there, they have rediscovered rhythm. As far as I'm concerned, the sound is rough and dirty, but that doesn’t prevent you from discovering, with a good (but truly good) pair of earbuds, details that were missed last time: see the additional synth bass in the last chorus of "a pain that I'm used to," the countless click sounds in the final part of "I want it all," or, if you want something a bit more curious, that scraping of a trowel in the silent interlude between "nothing's impossible" and "introspectre" !! Pay attention to it.

I WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON THE ALBUM. First of all, the previews of "precious" and "free" had led me to believe I was facing the heir to Violator/Devotional/Black Celebration, while in reality, on Friday the 14th, I was left astonished by the full listening experience. Compounded by a shitty weekend, I couldn’t fully absorb the album and I started to feel an irreversibly declining phase with Depeche Mode. In reality, once I got past the shock, I realized that I was facing a more than good work; there’s a sense of home without shamelessly copying from the (glorious) past. I will proceed in order:

ok ege, I got it (I found the rece).

Okay Ege, I got it.