Depeche Mode Depeche Mode: Strange Too, Another Violation (NME, 1990)

Depeche Mode: Strange Too, Another Violation
[NME, 10th November 1990, Words: Stephen Dalton. Picture: Stefan de Batselier.]

A singularly unimpressed view of the “Strange Too” video. The reviewer is fair enough when he comments on some of the more ludicrous aspects of the video, but as the reviewer clearly has no interest in Depeche Mode, his comments end up going overboard and becoming unreasonable.
" [T]he songs are crap and the promo world has seen more than enough Cadillacs, clowns and pretty models. "

Depeche Mode: Strange Too, Another Violation
(Mute Video £9.99)

Four Basildon boys pull up at a desert drive-in to watch several of their own promos. They are in a vintage American convertible. It’s dark, but they are wearing sunglasses.

This straight-faced self-mythologising gets worse. In this grainy, sepia-tinted monochrome, the Essex cowboys visit a whorehouse to discover their ‘Personal Jesus’. [1] Dave becomes a pantomime king and wanders across miles of stunning scenery in order to ‘Enjoy The Silence’, then all the lads potter around a Stranger Than Paradise New York looking moody for ‘Policy Of Truth’. Meanwhile, understandably, their girlfriends get bored of waiting and get off with each other.

There are “special visual versions” of ‘Clean’ and ‘Halo’ – the usual ropey offcuts and arty wank [2] – and a glossy live recording of ‘World In My Eyes’ [3] which proves for all time that Depeche Mode are thunderously dull techno-goths with the charisma of crisp packets. Three cheers for getting these dark David Lynchian visions on to MTV, but the songs are crap and the promo world has seen more than enough Cadillacs, clowns and pretty models.

Nice packaging, dull content.

[1] - Incidentally, has anyone else noticed the continuity clanger in Personal Jesus? The four hookers each go into their separate bedrooms and the band members follow afterwards. Fletch goes in first, but as the last of the band members closes their door behind them, we glimpse one of the women coming out of the room that Andy has only just gone into. I realise of course it’s not supposed to be in real time, but I can’t help but think either Andy has put his little cart before the horse in the bedroom, or that even the tart changed her mind after taking a look at him. (Sigh) poor old Fletch.
[2] - On the subject of ropeyness, have a laugh at the end of the “Halo” video: a ‘rainshower’ starts up which is quite obviously supplied by two showerheads just out of the frame, as the rain clearly comes from the two points. It’s also raining in the foreground, but not further back. And I’m surprised the reviewer hasn’t lambasted “Clean” more – from start to finish, it is nothing but Martin getting progressively more intimate with an attractive (and scantily dressed) young woman in an empty cinema.
[3] - This is actually the standard promo video, and isn’t a live recording. It is the single version of the song played over edited footage of a concert on the 1990 World Violation tour.