posting for LOVE-HOUNDS

[Glenn Bruns <bruns@mcc.arpa>]

	Album Review: "Black Celebration", by Depeche Mode

Summary:
Inconsistent album with a three or four really good songs.  Most
of the album is slow to medium tempo.  Good synth work and 
arranging, but quite a few mediocre, commercial sounding tunes.
Depeche Mode should have taken more chances.


Discovering a great album is a fantastic experience.  After a few
listenings, a song grabs you and you listen some more.  Other 
songs begin to stand out.  Some of the songs that do nothing
for you at first become the most special.  Eventually you 
recognize the gestalt of the album - everything fits together
perfectly.

"Black Celebration" had the symptoms of a great album, but
after about 15 listenings, I gave up on about half the songs.

One of the album's strong points is the arranging.  Complex synth
arrangements can be difficult to keep from becoming muddy.
Cuts like "Black Celebration", "Here is the House" exemplify
the good arrangements.  There are a lot of nice contrapuntal 
arrangements, either between synthesizer parts, or between the
vocal line and a synth.  

As you would expect from Depeche Mode, there is heavy use of
synthesizers here.  Generally the synth work is very good.
Some nice trademark ringing, metallic sounds - the throaty
bell sound in "Here is the House" fits perfectly.
It sounds like they used a sampling synth for the voices in
the intro of "Fly on the Windscreen" (compare to the intro
of "Don't Mess with Dr. Dream" by the Thompson Twins).
Also check out the synths in the chorus of "A Question of
Time" and "Stripped".

The vocals are generally good.  The twists of the phrasing are
actually ingenious at times (but not as ingenious as 
Morrissey of The Smiths).  The vocals are treated with
a lot of echo or reverb in a few songs (e.g., "A Question
of Time").  I don't understand why, the lead vocalist has
a decent voice.

As you'd guess from the album title, almost all of the lyrics
are dark.  They suggest that we should look for small
meaning in a pointless world.

In a world full of nothing,	(From "World Full of Nothing")
though it's not love, 
it means something 

Death is everywhere, 		(From "Fly on the Windscreen")
the more I look, 
the more I see, 
the more I feel,
a sense of urgency, 
tonight.

The quality of songwriting is mixed.  A few times, especially on
the slower tunes, there is some classic songwriting.  Simple
vocals and melodies set in intricate synth arrangements.
"Here is the House" and "A Question of Time" stand out as
examples.  Other times the ideal is not achieved, and we
get something that sounds like Barry Manilow trying to be
Cole Porter.   The worst song on the album has got to be
"Sometimes", which sounds like Queen in their pretentious
mode.

I was surprised to find two cuts on the album that could easily 
fit on the first Naked Eyes album: "But Not Tonight" and "Dressed 
in Black".  "It Doesn't Matter Two" sounds like the style of the 
first Tears for Fears album.

It boils down to this:  There are some very good songs on this
album, but not enough.  Depeche Mode don't try to extend themselves
enough on the album - it's too tame.  If the weaker songs had
been replaced with more interesting songs (like "New Dress"),
then the album would have been a nice mix of classic songwriting
and more challenging stuff.  Instead it's a mix of classic
songwriting and OK songwriting.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 7.