In high school, you're surrounded by people who are popular, people who are sports stars, people who love drama, and people who disappear into the paint on the wall. When you're young and stoned out of your freaking gourd, you think that everyone you go to school with is going to go onto fame and fortune. The football QB will be playing for the Raiders someday, the President of the debate team will go onto Congress, the drama kids will get a spot in a hot indie movie. The truth is...none of this will ever happen. The QB will go onto sell real estate. The President of the debate team will likely become an overpriced lawyer who gets divorced annually, and the drama kids will either end up in rehab or teaching drama. Maybe...just maybe, the kid that everyone ignored may go onto some sort of success...developing the next big website or selling a screenplay to Spielberg. Depeche Mode is that kid.
For years they were ignored, scoffed at, belittled and told that their 15 minutes of fame was 15 minutes past due. But 25 years later, they have remained as one of the premiere bands of the 1980s. Take that Richard Marx!!
Dave Gahan, lead singer of Depeche Mode (do I really have to say that?), is releasing his 2nd solo LP today. It's called Hourglass. If 25 years into your career, you get to release your 2nd solo CD...and there's still interest in what you're doing...well, that means you're doing something right. You don't hear people knocking each other down to get the new Loverboy CD (except for Walmart)....and Loverboy used to be huge. HUGE, I tell you.
Here are the 11 Best Depeche Mode Songs:
1. Enjoy The Silence (Violator)
2. It's No Good (Ultra)
3. But Not Tonight (Black Celebration)
4. Photographic (Speak and Spell)
5. Somebody (Some Great Reward)
6. Never Let Me Down (Music For The Masses)
7. Halo (Violator)
8. Shake the Disease (Catching Up With Depeche Mode)
9. Strangelove (Music For The Masses)
10. Walking in My Shoes (Songs of Faith and Devotion)
11. Sea of Sin (World in My Eyes B-side)
I think you've got "But Not Tonight" too high, and I haven't heard Sea of Sin, but otherwise a great list (IMHO). Enjoy the Silence is definitely #1.
ReplyDeleteHere's my top 11:
1. Enjoy the Silence
2. Personal Jesus
3. Strangelove
4. Master and Servant
5. Just Can't Get Enough
6. World in My Eyes
7. The Sweetest Perfection
8. Dreaming of Me
9. Precious
10. It's no Good
11. Lilian
My list is a little Violator heavy, but then I consider that the greatest album of all time (with New Order's Technique a close second).