Mode To Nowhere
[The Observer Music Monthly, 16th October 2005. Words: Graeme Thomson. Picture: Uncredited.]
* * *
Graeme Thomson looks in vain for a spot of light relief
Having waded knee-deep through personal trauma and survived, Depeche Mode are not about to let us forget it, by God. No sniggering at the back, this is serious stuff.
Every inch of Playing the Angel is laden with the kind of portentous navel-gazing which might be profoundly cathartic to the band, but is plain exhausting to the listener. 'Twas ever thus, of course, but they paint from such a limited palette you wonder how they can tell one song from the next. If you insist on being dysfunctional for a living then get a Thesaurus: 'soul', 'pain', 'dying' and words ending in '-ion' will only go so far.
'Precious' is great, of course, thrumming away like something vintage from 1987. It's a lithe pop song, which is what they've always done best. Then 'Macro' pops up, a desperately embarrassing episode which sees Dave Gahan bellow like a wounded heifer about the 'whispering Cosmos' and 'the thundering river pounding within me'. [1] No wonder the Americans love them.
'Lillian' and 'Nothing's Impossible' are classic Mode, but by the time you get to 'Damaged People' ('we are disturbed souls playing out forever'), you're longing for a slice of prime McFly. And I don't say that lightly.
Burn it: 'Precious'; 'Lillian'
[The Observer Music Monthly, 16th October 2005. Words: Graeme Thomson. Picture: Uncredited.]
* * *
Graeme Thomson looks in vain for a spot of light relief
Having waded knee-deep through personal trauma and survived, Depeche Mode are not about to let us forget it, by God. No sniggering at the back, this is serious stuff.
Every inch of Playing the Angel is laden with the kind of portentous navel-gazing which might be profoundly cathartic to the band, but is plain exhausting to the listener. 'Twas ever thus, of course, but they paint from such a limited palette you wonder how they can tell one song from the next. If you insist on being dysfunctional for a living then get a Thesaurus: 'soul', 'pain', 'dying' and words ending in '-ion' will only go so far.
'Precious' is great, of course, thrumming away like something vintage from 1987. It's a lithe pop song, which is what they've always done best. Then 'Macro' pops up, a desperately embarrassing episode which sees Dave Gahan bellow like a wounded heifer about the 'whispering Cosmos' and 'the thundering river pounding within me'. [1] No wonder the Americans love them.
'Lillian' and 'Nothing's Impossible' are classic Mode, but by the time you get to 'Damaged People' ('we are disturbed souls playing out forever'), you're longing for a slice of prime McFly. And I don't say that lightly.
Burn it: 'Precious'; 'Lillian'