Black, Bleak and Enlightening

I was one of the first to buy this album from 'Our Price' on its day of release when I was 17. Since that day I have listened to it more than any other album. The DM sound to my mind is really a personal thing and is best done in a bedroom in solitude - I can think of probably a total of 3 DM tracks that would be okay to play at someone's wedding, but none of those are from this album!



With the previous album Black Celebration, this album represents a further maturing of the Depeche Mode sound and it stands the test of time by sounding highly credible today.



One of the key things that sets the basildon quartet apart from their competition back in the day (1987) is the fact that you will hear no factory preset synth sound originating from this melodic dark masterpiece.



My favourites from the album include:



The rocky / anthemic 'Never Let Me Down Again'. It is a dark fusion of the best of Mr Gore's song writing skills together with Mr Wilder's programmed sampled sounds and riffs.



Strangelove is an interesting track that is filled with interestingly haunting sampled vocal chords backed by a hardy slappy / pulsey beat.



Thank god the album version of Behind the Wheel was put out on the album and not the version that was released on 7". Behind the Wheel on the album is awesome - Starting with a hub cap sample it jumps straight into an urgent thumping base line over seen by pan pipes and backed with a four to the floor drum beat - gradually building layer upon layer I can almost imagine Wilder at work on that primitive equipment.

One of my favs

This is one of depeche mode's best albums. "Never let me down again" and "Strangelove" are classic, and the aggro mix is fantastic.

the beginning of the end of an era

Music for the Masses was one of the most groundbreaking events of it's musical era, not because it was experimental (many had done these things before), but because it was able to bring such experimentation to the mainstream (hence the title). A "concept" album with a thematic unity much deeper than tempo or popiness, it was the the crowning achievement of the "bedroom album" that Depeche Mode always does best.

The album is constructed like a sympony or an opera, moving from high to low, repeating musical and lyrical themes, exploring the tender and vunerable facets of love.

The tragic results of such sucess was that subsequent experimentation was slowly eschewed for "pop" consitency. As with all golden eras in popular music, this album didn't suceed because it had an abundance of radio-friendly songs ("the catchy ones"), but because the album has an artistic and thematic unity that touched the listeners not only of it's generation, but subsequent ones as well.