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[The Guardian, 12th March 1993, Words: Adam Sweeting.]
This astonishingly powerful album is Depeche Mode’s tenth, and kills any residual notions of them being a “synth-pop” act stone dead. If its forerunner, Violator, suggested growth, Songs Of… is a firebreathing heavyweight.
In a period of shrivelled imagination, the Mode’s range has expanded to spellbinding dimensions. Lyrics exploring persecution, desire and guilt are matched with music that broods, threatens and aspires. The group offer variations on soul and gospel music in Condemnation and Get Right With Me. But the Mode can rock too. Track one, I Feel You, serves notice of intent with its insistent pulsing riff, but it pales beside In Your Room, a saga of vampiric emotional obsession mounted on a steam-hammer groove which will bring the house down when they play it live (which they will when they tour in May). Why beat about the bush? This is a masterpiece.
[The Guardian, 12th March 1993, Words: Adam Sweeting.]
This astonishingly powerful album is Depeche Mode’s tenth, and kills any residual notions of them being a “synth-pop” act stone dead. If its forerunner, Violator, suggested growth, Songs Of… is a firebreathing heavyweight.
In a period of shrivelled imagination, the Mode’s range has expanded to spellbinding dimensions. Lyrics exploring persecution, desire and guilt are matched with music that broods, threatens and aspires. The group offer variations on soul and gospel music in Condemnation and Get Right With Me. But the Mode can rock too. Track one, I Feel You, serves notice of intent with its insistent pulsing riff, but it pales beside In Your Room, a saga of vampiric emotional obsession mounted on a steam-hammer groove which will bring the house down when they play it live (which they will when they tour in May). Why beat about the bush? This is a masterpiece.