CHVRCHES - Recover ep

Breaking from my usual Depeche Mode stuff, I thought I'd stick a quick post up about the new ep by Glasgow's CHVRCHES called Recover. I've been a fan of this band since hearing The Mother We Share and Lies late last year. What brought them to my attention was the fact that they're Scottish, are based in Glasgow and that they make wonderful electronic music. When my band was gigging ten or so years ago we were lone synthesiser voices in a wilderness of Oasis copyists - now Glasgow's electronic scene is really taking off headed by CHVRCHES with bands like the brilliant Nevada Base, Analog Angel and new boys Machines In Heaven all making waves too. It's great to see and I only wish we were less lazy and young enough to join in.

Anyway back to the point. If you have any interest in Electronic music at all the you've got to get the Recover ep. The lead track Recover is one of the best electronic pop songs you'll hear this year - simple as that. The music, the vocals, the lyrics. It really has it all. The ep also adds two new tracks Zvvl and Now Is Not The Time both of which are fantastic too and finishes up with a couple of remixes of Recover. It's only £1.99 on iTunes so for God's sake just get it

This review is fairly brief as I'm writing it having heard Recover for the first time about an hour ago. I felt I had to write this though I the immediate aftermath of hearing it as it frankly blew me away. To have that sort of impact on Delta Machine day is pretty impressive! Trust me try CHVRCHES - you won't regret it

DEPECHE MODE - DELTA MACHINE - A REVIEW

Every four years, the Depeche Mode machine starts up again and you can almost guarantee that the album will either be viewed as "OMG THE GREATEST THING SINCE VIOLATOR!!!!11" or "I gave up when Alan left to be honest. What's the point? It's just bleeps" by the fanbase. There is very little inbetween at least on first listen. I've heard Delta Machine a few times now and thought I'd do an almostpredictablealmost1 first and write a review of an album as and when it comes out as opposed to a historical look at an era.

The first thing I should say is that I really like Delta Machine. Recent Depeche albums have been far from perfect and I must admit that I was wondering what to expect here. Would I get the blandness of Exciter, the imperfections of Playing The Angel or the unmemorable SOTU? The good news is that the answer is no. Delta Machine is a really interesting work and grows and surprises with each listen. Ok, it's not Black Celebration, Violator or SOFAD - people claiming that it's up there with those works are wrong and have perhaps been blinded by the Sony generated hype and the general understandable joy of having a new Depeche Mode album to hear, however, it is an excellent album and a very welcome addition to the DM catalogue. As it's not out until Monday, I'm going to review the main album and not the additional tracks on the deluxe cd or beautiful double vinyl. Here's my track by track take:

1. Welcome To My World

A great start to the album which really sets the tone. It starts slowly building to a fantastic chorus with almost Beatles like string stabs. The production here, like the vast majority of this album is fantastic and it would seem that Flood has helped make the multitude of ancient synth sounds cohesive when mixing the album which is something SOTU certainly lacked. This is a far more upbeat start to the album than In Chains.

2. Angel

We'd heard this when the band announced the tour and I liked it from the off. From the lyrics you can tell it's a Martin track and Dave does his best Preacher style singing. I think this will really work live as it's big and noisy and that will come across well. We all know it post Paris so there's not a lot to add.

3. Heaven

Again, we all know this by now. Not the most obvious chioce for the lead single but it's a lovely song and again one which I've really taken to. I criticised people above for buying the album hype thing - I did that entirely when the single came out. I try to be objective at those times but is is hard. Having calmed down, I maintain that it's a great song and I'll stand by that.

4. Secret To The End

The first Dave penned track. Dave's songwriting has improved since his first efforts but I must admit that I am always a little concerned about what we might get from Dave. I'm not particualrly a fan of his solo stuff and for me his Mode contributions have been average bar Suffer Well and Nothing's Impossible. Anyway, this is good. Good lyrics and musically it's fantastic which is probably down to co-writer Kurt Uenala. The interplay on the chorus with Martin is really cool too. Well done Dave - top work. The last 50 seconds of this are fantastic by the way. Play them loud

5. My Little Universe
This is one that the latter day Wilder worshippers will hate! Bleeps, beeps and a seeming lack of a main riff are what you'll hear along with the puzzling line "I'm making progress in a non specific way" which sounds like something someone who was heavily stoned would say as a justification for another day spent eating crisps and playing XBox. Anyway, musically this reminds me a lot of Atoms For Peace, Thom Yorke's non Radiohead project who Martin recently talked up in an interview. It has that feel as well as a Four Tet kind of sound. Again, I like it although it is one of the weaker tracks here. I am a fan of the beeps/bleeps version of the Mode it must be said. Personally, I'm glad they keep trying new things rather than rehashing past glories badly in a U2 way.

6. Slow
I absolutely love this. I think it's brilliant that Martin dug this up from the Songs of Faith And Devotion sessions. I remember reading that a song called Slow had been demoed then and you can hear SOFAD all the way through this. I can easily imagine Dave Dave-ing this up on the Devotional tour with Martin bobbing aropund in silver and the backing singers going "That's how I liiiiiiiiiiiiike it." Absolutely top notch and close to the best track on here. Lyrically it's interesting as it's definitely one of Martin's older style lust songs rather than one about soul, sin and universes.

7. Broken
Dave and Kurt number 2. The chorus is the highlight here - nice and poppy and not bad at all for that. Dave's verses are a bit hammed up ( see "How long will you shufferrr?") and overall the song is a little lightweight. Again, I can see it working live mainly due to the chorus. The last 40 seconds or so however are clearly something that New Order recorded for Technique! Listen to it and tell me I'm wrong ;)

8. The Child Inside
The Martin ballad. I usually look forward to Martin's songs as they have been a highlight for me on a number of albums but this is not up to scratch. It's Martin singing a creepy Martin song on the usual themes albeit I don't think he's ever mentioned body parts before. It's a bit Comatoase both in sound and in mood and that's not saying much. Come on Martin - where's the new It Doesn't Matter Two?

9. Soft Touch/Raw Nerve
This has already divided opinion as some see it as the worst sounds ever committed to vinyl/cd. Its appearance on the Letterman show didnt help as the whole performance there was pretty flat but I attribute that to arena sized songs being played in a TV studio. Hearing new songs for the first time live than recorded is always a bad thing too. Anyway, like Broken, this is a decent enough pop song and that's fine surely? Decent chorus that'll work well live. Ok it's not Personal Jesus or Behind The Wheel but so what?

10. Should Be Higher
This is the third and final Dave written song on the album which again was played on Letterman. It's ok but not brilliant but then it's a lifetime away from I Want It All which is a good thing. Dave's vocals are interesting here as he goes very high at certain points. For that I can't see this one lasting beyond the summer shows. A decent song but there's not much to add.

11. Alone
The best track on here no doubt. For thos who mourn the Old Mode this is for you. Some of the synth sounds here are mindbendingly good - that melody that plays behind the verses is haunting and majestic at the same time and IS the exact sound Alan would have used here ;). Lyrically we're still saving souls etc but that works here. What a tremendous song and one that I really hope makes the cut for setlists.

12. Soothe My Soul
Some say genius. Some say the new Personal Jesus. Some say an absolute embarrasment. Blandly enough I again say it's ok with a top notch shout along chorus. Imagine yourself with friends at a Depeche show, drunk, jumping around and singing along - of course that's going to be good! The lyrics are a bit odd as it sopunds like Martin's breaking into someone's house for some nookie but let's presume it's all metaphorical as I'm sure it is.

13. Goodbye
This is a great closer for the album. The blues guitar that so many feared is here for only the second time (Slow) but it's not the primary feature. Honestly, the way some people were acting before this you'd think we were getting a Robert Johnson covers album here. Anyway, Goodbye is great - the "Gooo-oooo-oooodbyyyyee" part is wonderful and again, I hope this is played live.

Overall this is a very good album and one that certainly trumps SOTU and Exciter. Overall it's more coherent than Playing The Angel albeit it does feel a bit like a collection of good to great songs rather than something with an overall theme like say Ultra or even Construction Time Again. The fact that a new Depeche Mode album in 2013 is something that I've not been able to stop listening to says a lot. If you're sceptical, give it a go - ultimately you'll be pleasantly surprised.


22 March 2013.

DEPECHE MODE - I'LL MAKE YOU A BELIEVER - REMIXES 2 81-11 AND 2011

2011 saw the release of a new Remixes compilation following up the decent Remixes 81-04 from a few years before. As with the previous compilation, a classic single was remixed and released to promote the album. On 18 April 2011 the band released a remix of It's Called A Heart to critical acc...hang on...that's not it....no sorry - on 18 April 2011 the band released a remix of Personal Jesus which featured a number of different takes on the track but failed to get beyond number 119 in the UK which was rather disappointing. The song was released on two physical formats in the UK. First up we had CDBONG43 (right) which featured five remixes of Personal Jesus. Track one is the Stargate Mix which was used as the lead version here. It's a good remix and quite enjoyable however the video should be avoided at all costs. The Stargate Mix is followed by the excellent Alex Metric Remix and the ok Eric Prydz Remix. Track 4 is the M.A.N. Remix which is again ok and the final track is the excellent Sie Medway-Smith Remix which is the highlight here. The 12" (12BONG40 - same art as the CD) is a fantastic purple vinyl effort with the same five remixes albeit in a different order - Alex Metric, M.A.N., Stargate, Prydz and Sie Medway-Smith. All in all a decent pack of remixes made all the better with a coloured vinyl release.

The album Remixes 2: 81-11 was released on 3 June 2011 and reached number 24 in the UK. As with the previous remix album we were treated to some brand new remixes and for me the offerings here are far far better than the 2004 ones. The album (all artwork was the same - see left) was released on a single cd (CDMUTEL18), a triple cd in a cardboard sleeve with cd's in slipcases and a booklet (XLCDMUTEL18) and a 6xLP vinyl boxset (MUTEL18). In addition and rather annoyingly additional remixes were made available digitally depending on what site you purchased them from. Unlike other blogs I'll list these mixes but only because it is criminal that one of them was not made generally available. Here are the full tracklistings for each format - I'll make no comment on the old remixes as my other blogs will have covered them already. If you bought the single CD edition you got:

1. Dream On (Bushwacka Tough Guy Edit Mix)
2. Personal Jesus (The Stargate Mix)
3. Suffer Well (M83 Remix)
4. John The Revelator (UNKLE Reconstruction)
5. In Chains (Tigerskin's No Sleep Remix Edit) - A nice mix of In Chains albeit not a groundbreaker
6. Peace (SixToes Remix)
7. Tora! Tora! Tora! (Karlsson & Winnberg Remix) - I love this. Noisy and frankly bizarre in places. How good is it to see a remix of a really old album track?
8. Never Let Me Down Again (Eric Prydz Remix) - a bit repetitive but ok
9. I Want It All (Roland M. Dill Remix) - it improves on the original slightly but that's not too hard to do sadly
10. Wrong (Trentemoller Club Remix)
11. Puppets (Royksopp Remix) - fantatsically brilliantly excellent. You HAVE to hear this one
12. Everything Counts (Oliver Huntemann and Stephan Bodzin Dub)
13. A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)

Not a bad collection with the remixes of Tora! Tora! Tora! and Puppets being the highlights of the new mixes here. The 3CD version contains:

Disc 1
1. Dream On (Bushwacka Tough Guy Edit Mix)
2. Suffer Well (M83 Remix)
3. John The Revelator (UNKLE Reconstruction)
4. In Chains (Tigerskin's No Sleep Remix Edit) - A nice mix of In Chains albeit not a groundbreaker
5. Peace (SixToes Remix)
6. Lilian (Chab Vocal Remix Edit)
7. Never Let Me Down Again (Digitalism Remix)
8. Corrupt (Efdemin Remix)
9. Everything Counts (Oliver Huntemann and Stephan Bodzin Dub)
10. Happiest Girl (The Pulsating Orbital Vocal Mix)
11. Walking In My Shoes (Anandamidic Mix)
12. Personal Jesus (The Stargate Mix)
13. Slowblow (Darren Price Mix)

Disc 2
1. Wrong (Trentemoller Club Remix)
2. World In My Eyes (Dub In My Eyes)
3. Fragile Tension (Peter Bjorn & John Remix)
4. Strangelove (Tim Simenon/Mark Saunders Remix)
5. A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
6. The Darkest Star (Monolake Remix)
7. I Feel You (Helmet At The Helm Mix)
8. Higher Love (Adrenaline Mix Edit)
9. Fly On The Windscreen (Death Mix)
10. Barrel Of A Gun (United Mix)
11. Only When I Lose Myself (Dan The Automater Mix)
12. Ghost (Le Weekend Remix)

Disc 3 (a disc of all new remixes)
1. Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Remix Edit) - a decent remix
2. Never Let Me Down Again (Eric Prydz Remix)
3. Behind The Wheel (Vince Clarke Remix)

Hang on? THE Vince Clarke? THAT ONE? Yes, yes it is. Vince was back on board in a remixing capacity and bloody hell if he didn't nail it. His remix of Behind The Wheel is an almost entirely new take on the song and it is absolutely fantastic. The fact that Vince and Depeche were working together again was mindblowing news and when it worked out so well it was hard to take in. A majestic remix and one of the best of recent time. Top work Vince. Wonder if the remix and the VCMG project means he'll rejoin Depeche Mode.... (of course not)

4. Leave In Silence (Clara Intelecto "The Last Time" Remix) - a nice take on a classic. Impressive remix
5. In Chains (Alan Wilder Remix)

Ha. Vince Clarke? Next you'll be telling me that Alan Wild....hang on - THE Alan Wilder? THAT ONE? Yes, yes it is. Honestly, this was just getting daft. Vince and Alan? That was such good news and again like Vince's remix, Alan's works and even pilfers from DM's past (I Am You, My Joy). I'm not as crazy about this remix as I am about Vince's mainly because (sacrilege alert) I'm not that into latter day Recoil and its' "Let's make it sound like a long slow version of Songs Of Faith and Devotion" sound however despite that this is a nice remix and it gave most DM fans what they wanted - Alan's involvement. Will he rejoin....no.

6. When The Body Speaks (Karlsson & Winnberg Remix) - steel drums, oddness and a couple of very interesting sounds make this a cracker
7. Puppets (Royksopp Remix)
8. Tora! Tora! Tora! (Karlsson & Winnberg Remix)
9. Freestate (Clark Remix) - making Ultra's low point sound worse is quite an achievment. What is the point of this remix?
10. I Want It All (Roland M. Dill Remix) - blah. It improves on the poor original but doesn't do much
11. A Question Of Time (Joebot Presents "Radio Face" Remix) - brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
12. Personal Jesus (Sie Medway Smith Remix)

All in all, a good collection of remixes with a couple of bland ones but a much more satisfying set of new mixes than the 04 project. For me the highlights are Vince's mix and the mixes of Puppets, Tora! and A Question of Time.

As I mentioned above, if you bought digital versions you got additional tracks. Usually that means you get a live version of an album track or a radio edit of a b-side which is fine as they're mainly unnecessary. It was different here however and that was really rather annoying. The bonuses were:

ITunes
1. Master & Servant (RSS Remix) - at first you think "Bastards - a Master & Servant Remix. I need that" but then you hear it and realise that it doesnt really matter
2. In Chains (Myer v Wilder Deconstruction) - not as good as Alan's Remix

Amazon
1. Sister Of Night (Ida Engberg's Giving Voice To The Flame Remix)
2. Sweetest Perfection (Phil Kiernan Vocal Mix)

What's annoying about these two is that they are both mixes of well loved album tracks and are both quite good, certainly better than the mixes of I Want It All and Freestate that clog up the main release. It's stupid to shove them away as bonus tracks

And finally, the winner is

HMV
1. The Sun and The Rainfall (Black Light Odyssey's Further Excerpts)
2. The Sinner In Me (Six Toes Remix)

We know all about track 2 and how good it is so there's no need to go into that here. What is staggering and what shows a MASSIVE lack of judgement or even consideration on the band or Mute's part is that the remix of The Sun And The Rainfall is stuck away here as a bonus track on a site that I'm surely barely anyone used. For Christ's sake, that track is one that a majority of fans would STILL love to hear live and is thought of so well by Depeche fans that to not put it on the main album is ridiculous. Add in the fact that it is an amazing remix by people with close ties to Depeche and it just becomes more annoying. I will never understand this. The only way to have a physical verison is if you buy the hugely expensive US Record Store Day Personal Jesus promo 12". Arghhhhhhh

So there we go. The Remixes 2 project was a definite success at least in terms of bringing out new remixes and it features some absolute classics. It's well worth getting if you don't already have it.

As I finish this off we are 4 days away from the release of Delta Machine, the 13th Depeche album. I've been streaming it from ITunes almost non stop and for the first time ever will write a review blog before teh album comes out. That should be up at the weekend. Thanks as ever for reading.

DEPECHE MODE - A FRAGILE TENSION - SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE and 2009

Depeche Mode's albums post Ultra had been a mix of the good (Playing The Angel) and the not so good (Exciter) but there was still much excitement when a new single and album was announced in early 2009. As with the previous campaign, the official site released in studio video snippets in the lead up to the album all of which showed the band making a serious of strange noises via Martin's increasingly gargantuan analogue synth collection. It perhaps indicated that the new songs would be electronic/analogue/synthy sounding and that Depeche would make an almost wholly electronic comeback. Those who thought that (hello) got it, if you'll pardon the rather obvious pun, wrong.

The first new Depeche song in three years physically arrived on 6 April 2009 although after a premiere on a German music awards show, Wrong had been available digitally since 24 February of that year. I mentioned in a previous blog that Precious was a stunning comeback single - Wrong was no different. It is a classic Depeche track. Driving bass, lots of noise, great lyrics and whatsmore in the era of uniformly dreadgful videos, a great video. Wrong just works on every single level. Even non Depeche fans that I know (there aren't that many - I try not to associate with people like that) loved it. When the physical formats arrived the song performed really badly in the UK reaching only number 24 which is clearly a consequence of the song having been available digitally for an age before it's physical arrival. Having just recovered from the shock of seeing a good video, I was then amazed to discover good remixes on the cd singles. CDBONG40 (above left) was a two track affair featuring Wrong and a b-side in the shape of Oh Well (Black Light Odyssey Remix) which is a great remix of the first ever song to be jointly written by Martin (music) and Dave (lyrics).

LCDBONG40 (top right) has Wrong plus 4 remixes. The best remix here is track 2 which is the Trentemoller Club Remix which is an absolute cracker of a remix. The remainder (Thin White Duke remix, Magda's Scallop Funk Mix and D.I.M v Boys Noize Mix) are all fine too and are certainly an improvement on the previous few years' bland set of mixes. There were two vinyl releases too. Firsty there is the standard 12" (12BONG40 - above right) which takes the Magda's, Trentemoller and Thin White Duke remixes from the LCD and adds the ok-ish Caspa Remix of Wrong. The highlight of the release however is the numbered limited edition 7" single (BONG40) which comes in a red with black tints vinyl and features Wrong and Oh Well (Edit). The sleeve adds the phrase "platte im mehrfarbigem vinyl" which is the phrase you'd see on the German 12" coloured vinyl series from the 80's. It roughly means "record in multicoloured vinyl" (please feel free to correct me) and to have it on the front of the record was a fanatastic thing. A picture is below in the Peace review section.

Wrong was a fantastic start to the campaign and the album Sounds Of The Universe (SOTU) quickly followed it on 17 April 2009. Impressively, it reached number 2 in the UK, Depeche's highest chart position since Ultra. The album came in the usual formats of CD (CDSTUMM300), LP (STUMM300 - double vinyl which came with a cd of the album too) and DVD (DVDSTUMM300).

The standard tracklisting is: In Chains (long start to the album and ok), Hole To Feed (Dave written, worst song title ever, poor), Wrong (yay!) Fragile Tension (I like this track - loads don't. It was leaked pre release and because it wasn't Enjoy The Disease of Truth Jesus In My Shoes people got unnecessarily angry. The part where Dave sings "through glittering galas without even trying" harmonised by Martin is a joy to the ears), Little Soul (blah), in Sympathy (just not good), Peace (hmmm), Come Back (Dave's second song of the album and the best of his lot. It's ok), Spacewalker (Hello, I am the pointless instrumental), Perfect (drippy crap), Miles Away/The Truth Is (Dave again, Elvis impressions, stupid song title so named because Martin saw that Madonna had a song called Miles Away, just bloody awful), Jezebel (ok) and Corrupt (the band remember to do something Depeche Mode-ish). Not a great album by any means unfortunately. It's too long and too bland and some of Martin's lyrics are way below the high standard he set. It's overproduced too and really sounds like they should have spent much less time fannying around on ancient Modular synths and instead focussed on sorting out a top notch album. The fact that by the time the tour ended only 4 songs from the album were regularly played (and two of them were Hole To Feed and Miles Away ffs) says a lot. The artwork is lazy too. DVDSTUMM is a black version of the standard sleeve.

The DVD version added the album on dvd for those who wanted to hear how great Spacewalker sounds in 5.1, the Electronic Press Kit, the video for Wrong and three remixes - In Chains (Minilogue's Earth Remix), Little Soul (Thomas Fehlmann Flowing Ambient Remix) and the mighty Jezebel (Six Toes Remix). The latter is fantastic and you really must hear it.

For the first time we Depeche fans were also blessed with a super duper deluxe box set. BXSTUMM300 (right) was filled with a lot of stuff, some pointless, some great. I've only put a picture of the box itself on here - for pics of the rest please visit the excellent depmod.com. As well as a cd of the album the box also conatined a poster, two badges, two books of photos, a certificate of authenticity (for those who were concerned they'd bought a fake box) an envelope containing 6 art cards of which there were 14 to collect and thankfully some fantastic additional music. Tucked away in the box are 3 cd's and a dvd. CD1 is of course the album. CD2 features 5 additional songs and 6 remixes. The hugely frustrating thing about the 5 additional songs is that, Esque apart (another instrumental), they are all the equal of if not better than most of the main album. The songs are Light (a poppy number which is great), The Sun And The Moon And The Stars (a Martin sung ballad sort of song), Ghost (this is classic Depeche Mode. WHY IS IT TUCKED AWAY ON AN EXTRA CD!!!) Esque and Oh Well. The remixes are all decent too - Corrupt (Efdemin Remix), In Chains (Minilogue's Earth Remix), Little Soul (Thomas Fehlmann Flowing Ambient Remix), Perfect (Electronic Periodic Dark Drone Remix) and Wrong (Caspa Remix). The DVD has a 5.1 version of the album and the 5 extra songs as well as two documentaries (Making The Universe and 2009: Usual Thing. Try and Get The Question in Answer), the Electronic Press Kit, the Wrong video and superbly enough 4 live in studio tracks. From SOTU we have Corrupt, Little Soul and Come Back and they are joined by a guitar based version of Stories of Old from Some Great Reward. A random but fanatstic surprise.

The 5 extra songs aside, the real highlight of the boxset is cd3 which contains 14 demos. For years, Depeche demos have been sought after by the Black Swarm. Some have popped up on line (Here Is The House, Shake The Disease etc), some have had official releases albeit with the demo tidied up (Enjoy The Silence (Harmonium), To Have And To Hold (Spanish Taster) and some have been heard by only a select few of which I am sadly not a part. Here however were 15 for us to grab a hold of. They are all Martin sung unless other wise indicated - Little 15, Clean, Sweetest Perfection, Walking In My Shoes, I Feel You, Judas, Surrender, Only When I Lose Myself, Nothing's Impossible (Dave), Corrupt, Peace, Jezebel, Come Back (Dave) and In Chains. Judas is the best one here for me. It was long rumoured to have taken quite a few guises and Alan had even hinted once that it took a reggae turn at one point as the demo here actually proves. It's very far from the brooding genius thte song actually became. To be honest, the demos for the SOTU songs are the least exciting here and whilst it's easy to moan and say "Where are all the demos from everything they've ever done?" we should be pleased with what we got. As an additional cd, the demo disc is a really really good thing.

After the album, the next single to be released was, entirely perplpexingly, the dreadful Peace which slipped out almost unnoticed on 15 June 2009. I don't know what the point of this release was really. Even the band seemed to agree by failing to appear in the hideous video. The only sign of them was a poster that is briefly shown. Peace was also the first Depeche single since Dreaming of Me not to have a 12" release. The were only two things that stopped the release of Peace being wholly worthless, the first of which was the 7" coloured vinyl release (BONG41 - see below for my own Peace and Wrong 7" singles) which was on a white/grey vinyl again with a Platte Im Mehrfarbigem Vinyl on the front. The tracks were Peace (single mix) and Come Back (Jonsi Remix) which is of course a remix by Jonsi the lead singer of Sigur Ros and it's a decent enough take on the song. CDBONG41 (above left)  contained the release's other redeeming feature. Alongside the single mix of Peace we had the Six Toes remix of Peace which, like their remix of Jezebel, is a real treat and well worth grabbing. It's so refreshing to hear remixers do something entirely different apoint which is back up by the bland collection of remixes padding out LCDBONG41 (above right) - Single mix, Herve's "Warehouse Frequencies" Remix (blah), Sander Van Doorn Remix (Bleh), Japanese Popstars Remix( best one here and pretty good), Sid Le Rock Remix(Poor at best) and Justus Kohncke Extended Disco Club Vocal (like his Lilian remixes, as bad as the name suggests). Peace matched Dreaming of Me in reaching number 57 in the UK charts. A dismal performance for a dismal single and an insult to the glorious genius of Dreaming Of Me.

The final release of the campaign was a double A side of Hole To Feed and Fragile Tension which was released on 7 December 2009 and didn't chart because its releases werent eligible. There was a video made for Hole To Feed but you should never ever watch it. Ever. The single was released on a double 12", cd and digitally. The double 12" is nice to have as its packaging and artwork is cool but it really only has a couple of semi good remixes on it. The tracklisting of 12BONG42 (left) is Fragile Tension (Stephan Bodzin Remis), Fragile Tension (Kris Menace's Love on Laserdisc Remix), Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix), Hole To Feed (Paul Woolford's Easy Fun Ethereal Disco Mix), Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix), Perfect (Ralphi Rosario Dub), Peace (Herve's "Warehouse Frequencies" Remix) and Peace (Sander Van Doorn Remix). CDBONG42 (right) actually contains some decent listen to more than once stuff - Fragile Tension (Radio Mix), Hole To Feed (Radio Mix), Perfect (Roger Sanchez Club Mix), Come Back (Six Toes Remix - hooray!), Fragile Tension (Laidback Luke Remix), Hole To Feed (Popof Vocal Mix), Fragile Tension (Peter, Bjorn and John Remix - very good) and Hole To Feed (Joebot Remix). The digital versions add a couple more remixes but as ever I'm reporting on physical formats only.

And that was that for the SOTU releases. The Tour of The Universe went on for 102 shows over 5 legs which included a Royal Albert Hall charity show in which Alan stepped onstage to play piano on Somebody which was a lovely moment. The shows I saw were good though the setlist went from its early brave incarnation (Strangelove, Master and Servant, Fly On The Windscree, some songs from SOTU) to a fairly safe setlist by the time the European arena shows rolled around. Still, it's always good to see Depeche live whatever the setlist so no complaint from me.

I'm polishing this off on the day after the new album Delta Machine was announced so my next blog will be out very soon as it will deal with the Remixes 2 album by which point I'll be bang up to date. Thanks again to depechemode.com, depmod.com, depeche-mode.com and to the ever pulsating brain at the heart of the Depeche Mode universe Panos

DEPECHE MODE - I KNEW WHAT I WAS LETTING MYSELF IN FOR - THE BEST OF VOL I and 2006

Depeche Mode's first move post Playing The Angel was the release of a brand new single named Martyr which, like Only When I Lose Myself in 1998, was a prelude to a compilation album. The album Martyr was the single for was The Best of Volume I which I'll look at below.

Martyr was a song recorded during the Playing The Angel sessions which was rejected for the album as it was too poppy. You may recall that during the official site's pre album video teasers a version of Martyr was heard playing through the studio speakers whilst Fletch pretended to do something music related. It's a good song which whilst not really fitting for a Best Of, is better than say Lilian. Anyway, the single was released on 30 October 2006 and hit a very respectable number 13 in the UK. Following the band's rejection of the first attempt at a video for the song, an odd compilation style video accompanied the track with Dave seemingly singing the song in footage culled from live shows from the PTA era.

The single was initially released on cd and dvd. CDBONG39 (right) contained the single version of Martyr and the decent enough Booka Shade Full Vocal Mix of the same track. LCDBONG39 (left) gave us the bland Paul Van Dyk Remix Edit of Martyr, the excellent Alex Smoke Gravel Mix and the fantastic Digitalism Remix of Never Let Me Down Again. This cd is worth buying for the NLMDA remix alone. It is like an angry version of the Aggro Mix from the original NLMDA 12" single. It is easily on the of the best Depeche remixes of modern times. DVDBONG39 (below left)meanwhile has the Martyr video montage and audiof two ok-ish remixes of Martyr - Dreher & S.M. Art B.N. Reload Remix (nope, me neither) and Booka Shade Travel Mix. A slipcase is available for all three formats. A 12" (12BONG39 - same art as CDBONG39) followed on 4 December with 3 Martyr remixes - the Dreher etc one, Alex Smoke Gravel Mix and the Booka Shade Dub, the latter again an ok mix and exclusive to this release.

More interesting vinyl was released on 11 December 2006. Firstly there was another 7" picture disc (BONG39 - left)) featuring the single version of Martyr and the outstanding Digitalism remix of NLMDA. Secondly we had a real treat. L12BONG39 (right) was a double 12" single which unlike the band's previous double 12" (It's Called a Heart) was fantastic in every respect. The artwork along makes this worth getting with nods to the band's past throughout. The tracklisting is special too. As with the earlier Remixes project, four classic Depeche tracks were given modern remixes however on this occasion every remix is a cracker. Disc 1 has the NLMDA remix by Digitalism (did I mention that I liked it?) and Personal Jesus (Boys Noize Rework) which is a great remix of a great track. Disc 2 has the epic Everything Counts (Oliver Huntemann & Stephen Bodzin Dub) and the even epic-er still People Are People (Underground Resistance Remix). Both tracks are top class examples of how to remix older songs and make them sound fantastic. Get this 12" if you can.

The Best of Volume I(right) was released on 13 November 2006 and reached number 18 in the charts. The name of the album is I guess controversial given the album's tracklisting as every Depeche fan will have their own Best Of list but for the uninitiated it's not a bad start. The tracklisting is: Personal Jesus, Just Can't Get Enough, Everything Counts, Enjoy The Silence, Shake The Disease, See You, It's No Good, Suffer Well, Dream On, People Are People, Martyr, Walking In My Shoes, I Feel You, Precious, Master & Servant, New Life and Never Let Me Down Again. No room for The Meaning of Love eh? Seriously though, where are Stripped, A Question of Time and so on? The album was released on cd (CDMUTEL15) and special edition cd plus DVD (LCDMUTEL15 - the cover is the same except the flower is red) the dvd of which contained videos for all the singles on the cd bar New Life and Martyr and rather oddly added the videos for Stripped, A Question of Time, Strangelove, Behind The Wheel, Barrel Of A Gun, Only When I Lose Myself, I Feel Loved and Enjoy The Silence 04 before finishing off the the Electronic Press Kit for the album. A triple vinyl version of the album was released on 12 February 2007

All in all, the Best of Volume I isn't an essential release for the hardcore Depeche fan but it's a nice enough item and the single release, especially L12BONG39, is well worth getting. The next thing we'd hear from Depeche was the rather marvellous Wrong and that'll be lovingly poured over next time

Thanks to depechemode.com, depmod.com, depeche-mode.com and as ever to the editorial skills of Panos.

DEPECHE MODE - FRAGILE THINGS - 2005/06 & PLAYING THE ANGEL

After the let down of Exciter, (personally speaking of course) I had a sense of trepidation about the new Depeche Mode releases. The Remix album had provided some good moments but that was only ever going to be a stop gap as the real evidence of whether Depeche still had it in them would be the new album. Things turned out just fine....

The first new Depeche music in four years (I'm not counting the remixed versions from 2004) arrived on 3 October 2005 with the release of Precious. The song had been leaked through the company in charge of making the very odd Depeche on a computerised boat video a few weeks before so we were all familiar with it but setting that aside, the release of Precious was huge as it was and still is a classic Depeche track. The melody, the music, the lyrics (Martin writing to his kids apologising for any distress caused by their parents divorce), everything - it just worked. It was instantly better than anything from Exciter and would be welcome on any modern era album prior to that. The single joined Barrel Of A Gun and People Are People as joint highest ever UK chart position holders reaching number 4 in the charts. As with all the Playing The Angel era singles a collection of mainly bland remixes popped up too. The CD and DVD singles were released on 3 October. CDBONG35 (below left) featured the album version of Precious and the Single Edit of Sasha's Spooky Mix of the same track. There's nothing spooky about it really. LCDBONG35 (above right) gave us two bits of rubbish (Precious - Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix (Edit) and Precious - Misc Full Vocal Mix) and a.......wait for it.......B SIDE(!!) in the shape of new track Free. Firstly, it's a great song and secondly, ignoring the joys of digital releases and the fact they only have one side, IT'S A B SIDE! It's not an album track (hello One Caress and Pimpf), nor is it an instrumental (hello Zenstation. Actually, piss off Zenstation) it is an actual new song. Lovely stuff. One thing does occur though - why was it not on CDBONG35? Finally, DVDBONG35 (above left) gave us the odd Precious video, a very good and indeed best of the bunch remix of Precious by Motor and the Michael Mayer Ambient Mix of Precious which is ok

The 12" singles were released on 10 October. 12BONG35 (same art as CDBONG35) has the full length Sasha mixes - Spooky Mix and Gargantuan waste of time Vocal Mix both of which are unfortunately longer than the Edits. L12BONG35 (same art as LCDBONG35) had the Misc Full Vocal Mix (meh), Michael Mayer Balearic Mix (bleh), Motor Remix (hoorah!) and Misc Crunch Mix (hmm) of Precious. Finally vinally and somewhat belatedly a 7" picture disc of Precious was released on 11 December 2006. All subsequent Playing The Angel singles had 7" picture disc releases yet no-one seemed to think that it would make sense if all 4 singles had 7" picture disc versions. Anyhoo, following sterling work by depmod.com whose members petitioned Mute  the very colourful 7" picture disc (BONG35 - right) of Precious was released which contained the Album version and Michael Mayer Ambient Mix of the track.

Rather than release a new single, the band brought Playing The Angel out next on 17 October 2005 and it reached number 6 in the UK. The Anton designed artwork features someone who is either known as Mr Feathers or Tubby Goth, the latter being the band's name for him. Wonder if Robert Smith's lawyers were ever asked to get involved? We had the usual different formats to contend with. STUMM260 was a double LP, CDSTUMM260, LCDSTUMM260 (a SACD and DVD with a red Mr Feathers/Tubby Goth on the front) and UMDSTUMM260 which is apparently a format for the Playstation Portable. Now, I am a collector of Depeche releases as you may have gathered but I've never seen this and to be honest have no need to. Does anyone have one? The tracklisting of the album is A Pain That I'm Used To, John The Revelator, Suffer Well, The Sinner In Me, Precious, Macro, I Want It All, Nothing's Impossible, Introspectre, Damaged People, Lilian and The Darkest Star. This album is the first to feature songs written by Dave. He has three in all ranging from the excellent (Nothing's Impossible) to the very good (Suffer Well) to the...er...not as good (I Want It All). The remaining tracks are Martin's and are a bit of a mixed bag. A Pain That I'm Used to is a great opener and John The Revelator follows it up nicely. After Suffer Well we have The Sinner In Me which is for me one of the strongest tracks here and has a marvellous very noisy breakdown in the middle. Precious is obviously excellent two. The two Martin sung songs are Macro and Damaged People and both are a bit crap to be honest though Macro is noteworthy for Dave's backing vocals both on the album and live which was a nice touch. The lyrics to Macro are easily amongst Martin's worst however. Lilian is a poppy effort which is a 4 or 5 out of 10 and Introspectre is one of those entirely pointless instrumental things. Finally, the album ends on The Darkest Star which I think is excellent. It's a track that tends to split the DM fan base - seems you either love it or hate it. Overall PTA has far many more high points than Exciter's many low points and is the better album of the two.

The next single release came on 12 December with A Pain That I'm Used (APTIUT) to which charted here at a respectable 15. Two cd formats and a dvd format were the first releases. CDBONG36 (left) featured APTIUT and another new B side called Newborn which, like Free, is a great tune and far stonger than a couple of the tracks on the album itself. LCDBONG36 (right) gave us five remixes of APTIUT. First up there is the Jacques Le Cont remix and Jacques Le Cont Dub with the former being more impressive than the latter though both are pretty decent. Jacques Le Cont is the alter ego of producer Stuart Price who is a huge Depeche fan but turned down the chance to produce the band on the basis that he was too big a fan to undertake the task. Track 3 is the Goldfrapp remix which is good but not up to the standard of their excellent remix of Halo for the Remixes project. The Bitstream Spansule Mix follows (again ok) before the Telex Remix rounds things off. The Telex Remix is excellent - short and to the point. It's well worth hearing.

DVDBONG36 (left) contains the utterly pointless APTIUT video, some exclusive behind the scenes footage of the video (yawn) and the audio of the Foster Remix by Kettel of Newborn which is by far the only reason to own this dvd. Vinyl releases followed a week later with two 12" singles and another 7" pciture disc. The 7" (BONG36 - see my four (!) copies right) contains the Goldfrapp remix of APTIUT and the Foster Remix by Kettel of Newborn. The picture disc itself is dark on one side and has PAIN on the other as the picture of my needlessly large collection of them shows. 12BONG36 (same art as LCDBONG36) contained the two Jacques le Cont remixes and L12BONG36 (same art as DVDBONG36) has the Bitstream Threshold Mix (again ok nothing more) and the Bitstream Spansule Mix.

The third single of the campaign was a new chapter in Depeche history as it was a single that Dave had written making it the first DM single release since Just Can't Get Enough not to have been written by Martin. Suffer Well is a great song and remains one of Dave's best. I'm not really a fan of his solo work bar the odd song (Kingdom, Saw Something (until the horror of the guitar solo)) but Suffer Well and Nothing's Impossible are really strong tracks. Another pleasing thing about Suffer Well was the video which saw Anton Corbijn return and which put Martin in a wedding dress. Whilst he may not have suited the leather skirt look in the mid 80's it's fair to say that it was far more attractive a sight than him dressed up as a bride. As well as the blushing bride the video also features Dave as a bequiffed fallen rock star (possibly the guy from the Its No Good video?) and Fletch as a preacher. Do try and see it if you haven't already. Suffer Well was released on 27 March 2006 and got to number 12 in the UK which was a strong showing for the third single from a 6 month old album. CDBONG37 (above left) contains Suffer Well and yet another new track as a bside, the short and snappy Better Days which is again a good tune. LCDBONG37 (above right) has 6 remixes of Suffer Well - Tiga Remix (a bit bland), The Narcotic Thrust Vocal Dub (nowhere near as good as its name would suggest), the Alter Ego Remix (ok), the M83 remix (hmmm....some love it but I don't), the Metope Vocal Remix and finally the Metope remix, the latter two sounding just as interesting as each other. DVDBONG37 (left) has the video (hooray!) and two audio tracks namely Suffer Well (Alter Ego Dub) and Better Days (Basteroid "Dance Is Gone" Vocal mix).

As well as the usual 12" singles there will vinyl treats in store too. 12BONG37 (same art as DVDBONG37)  had a whopping three tracks, all remixes of Suffer Well - Tiga Remix, Tiga Dub (Aren't dub versions usually just worse versions of the remix they claim to be a dub of?) and the Narcotic Thrust Vocal Dub (case in point). L12BONG37 (same art as LCDBONG37) gives us the two Metope and one M83 remix of Suffer Well and the daftly named Basteriod etc version of Better Days. the 7" picture disc (BONG37 left) has the Metope Vocal Mix of Suffer Well on the a-side and the frankly brilliant Monolake Mix of The Darkest Star on the b-side. An album track remix as a bside! We're in Higher Lover (Adrenaline Mix) territory here albeit the Monolake Mix isn't rubbish. And finally, we have our third ever XL12", XL12BONG37 (above right) which features two further remixes of The Darkest Star - the Holden Mix and the Holden Dub. Some ill advised commentators may try and tell you that a dub mix is usually just a worse version of the mix it claims to be the dub of but they clearly haven't heard these mixes. Both are great and frankly, it was nice to have an XL12 again.

The last single from Playing The Angel was a double a-side, the band's first since 1984's Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody double header. John The Revelator (JTR) and Lilian were a curious combination for a double A side as JTR is a far stronger track than Lilian although perhaps the intention was to attempt to capitalise on Lilian's poppy sound. It was released on 5 June 2006 and got to number 18 in the UK is again a pretty decent performance. There was only a video for JTR which is taken from the live performance from the Touring The Angel dvd with Mr Feathers making cartoon style appearances throughout. It's not very good. Once again we had a 7" picture disc (BONG38 - below left) which had JTR (Unkle Dub) which is ok and the frankly hideously named remix of Lilian named Robag Wrumhe Slomoschen Killer. The remix itself is as good as the name. CDBONG38 (above left) had the single versions of both tracks both of which are slight edits of the album versions.

LCDBONG38 (below left)  had 5 remixes of JTR:- "Dave Is In The Disco Tiefschwarz Remix, Murk Mode Remix, UNKLE Re Construction, Boosta Club remix and Tiefschwarz Dub. I know that it may be getting repetitive of me but, the UNKLE Re Construction aside, these remixes once again suffer from the curse of the bland club mix and as a result none are in any way memorable. As ever for this campaign we aslo got a dvd (DVDBONG38 - right) with the JTR video and audio of the bare version of Nothing's Impossible (the best thing on show here) and the Chab Vocal remix of Lilian. I should say at this stage that Mute made cardboard sleeves available for all single releases from PTA which were designed to house the 2 cd's and the dvd. From memory they were only available by ordering them from Mute and were fairly limited. There was vinyl here too with 12BONG38 (same art as CDBONG38) providing the two Tiefschwarz mixes above and the Chab Dub of Lilian and L12BONG38 (same art as LCDBONG38) giving us the Murk Mode Dub and Boosta Club remixes of JTR and the Chab Vocal remix of Lilian. Really one for collectors only and not in a good way.

The band toured the album fairly extensively and the shows I saw were great. There was much more life to them than the Exciter shows and the choice of songs for the set was much better especially Martin's solo versions of Blue Dress, Judas, shake The Disease and.....LEAVE IN SILENCE! I couldn't believe it when he played that - it was truly magical. A live dvd from the Milan show followed the tour but failed to capture how good the shows were due to the needlessly arty direction of it - a real shame. Overall the PTA era was a far more enjoyable era for me than Exciter mainly because the band showed that they could still put together a good album and that they were still a real live force. Next up would be another Best Of which I'll come to next time.

Finally - please let me apologise for the formatting of this blog. Google have once again pissed around with the blogger settings meaning my pictures are all over the place. I can't find an obvious cure for this at present but will sort it out once I do.

Thanks again to depechemode.com , depeche-mode.com, depmod.com and to Panos for his editorial skills and huge Depeche Mode brain.

DEPECHE MODE - ALL I EVER WANTED - 2004 & THE REMIXES 81-04

Between Exciter and Playing The Angel (see next blog whenever that appears) Depeche broke new ground for them and released a remix compilation - Remixes 81-04. As I recall at that time more and more people were speaking of Depeche Mode as an influence on all spheres of electronic music and it seems that the remix album was released with a view to capitalising on that as well as with a view to increasing a number of bank balances. It is an interesting album mixing old (some good, some bad) and new (some good, some Headcleanr Rock Mix of Nothing). Here's how it all happenned.

The first we heard of this new album was with the release of a remixed version of Enjoy The Silence. Released on 18 October 2004, the single reached number 7 in the UK which was really pretty impressive. A whole host of formats were available al featuring brand new remixes of classic Depeche tracks. The lead remix was a single edit by Mike Shinoda (Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda) of shouty metal buffoons Linkin Park. I still really like this version. It adds quite a bit to the original making it a bit more grisly and adding harder electronics but it doesn't ruin the beauty of the tune. Ok, it was never going to surpass the greatest song of all time (see Violator blog) but it's not a bad effort at all. The song was released on CDBONG34 (right) along with another new remix, the Goldfrapp Remix of Halo which is a fantastic version turning what is a towering beast of a DM song into a ethereal acoustic style track with added vocals by Alison Goldfrapp. Well worth checking out unlike the video for Enjoy The Silence (Reinterpreted etc) which is utter balls. Given that the original video is one of the greatest things committed to film, you'd have thought they'd just forget a video on this occasion.

As well as CDBONG, we also had an LCD and an XLCD. LCDBONG34 (left) featured three tracks - the Timo Maas Extended Remix of Enjoy The Silence, the Ewan Pearson Remix of Enjoy The Silence and the Black Strobe Remix of Something To Do. The first is good, the second an excellent 7" style remix but the star of the show and the track that most excited me at the time is number 3 the Black Strobe Remix. The fact that one of the great DM album tracks was getting a look in was great but this mix exceeded any expectations I had. It's fantastic and I really recommend it to you all. XLCDBONG34 (released on 22 November 2004) ( above right) added 4 remixes - two of Enjoy The Silence (Richard X Extended Mix (great) and Ewan Pearson Extended Remix (good but I prefer the 7" version)) as well as the Cicada Remix of World In My Eyes and the BRAT mix of Mercy In You. The Cicada Remix is really good and can only ever be played very very loud. The mix of Mercy in You is of course by DM's webmaster BRAT and is very much in the classic 12" extended mix vein and all the better for it. All in all, XLCDBONG34 is a real treat and though hard to find is worth grabbing should you see it.

Not forgetting us vinyl addicts the band also put out three 12" singles. 12BONG34 (left) is a two track affair featuring the Timo Maas Extended and Ewan Pearson Extended Remixes of Enjoy The Silence. L12BONG34 (released 22 November 2004 - right)  contains the remixes of Something To Do and World In My Eyes by Black Strobe and Cicada but also throws in an absolutely bloody marvellous remix - the Rex The Dog Dubb mix of Photographic. Part of the beauty of the remixes put out at this time was that they were remixes made by fans of the band. The Rex The Dog mix is one of those mixes that DM fans (ok not all - I don't speak for everyone) hears and just gets because it sounds like a mix a DM fan would make. It's a brave choice too taking on what most people say is the best Speak and Spell track. Finally, vinyl wise, XLBONG34 (also released 22 November 2004 - below) gives us the Halo remix by Goldfrapp and two new mixes - Clean (Colder version) and Little 15 (Ulrich Schnauss Remix). I still don't quite get the Colder remix to be honest. It's ok but doesn't really do a lot for me. The remix of Little 15 by Ulrich Schnauss is nice though and worth hearing.

Overally, this really was an excellent release given the quality and number of remixes. What I like is that the 12" and cd singles weren't jammed up with remixes of obvious tracks with the majority of remixers going for album tracks instead. Good work all round really.

The Remixes 81-04 album followed on with the CD releases on October 25 2004 and the LP releases on December 13 2004 reaching a not that great number 18 in the UK. The album was available on a whole number of formats and rather annoyingly at the time included a download only section of remixes. I say annoyingly - what I mean is that I didn't have broadband at the time so even attempting to download them would have effectively broken the internet in Glasgow. As I have resolutely stuck to physical releases only on this blog I'm going to do that here too so I won't be covering the digital releases for the Remix album or indeed for the Playing The Angel releases especially given that I don't think anyone is 100% sure what remixes were made available digitally then as there were so many of them. (Ok, I know that some of you will not the exact number but you get my drift).

So, the physical formats of the album were a limited edition 6LP version (MUTEL8), a double CD (CDMUTEL8), a single CD (LCDMUTEL8) and a triple CD (XLCDMUTEL8) which came in a cardboard box with the three cd's inside. Here is the tracklist for the 3cd version:

Disc 1
Never Let Me Down Again (Split Mix)
Policy of Truth (Capitol Mix)
Shout! (Rio Mix)
Home (Air "Around The Golf" Remix)
Strangelove (Blind Mix)
Rush (Spiritual Guidance Mix)
I Feel You (Renegade Soundwave Afghan Surgery Mix)
Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Hard Mix)
Route 66 (Beatmasters Mix)
Freelove (DJ Muggs' Remix)
I Feel Loved (Chambers Remix)
Just Can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix)

Disc 2
Personal Jesus (Pump Mix)
World In My Eyes (Mode To Joy)
Get The Balance Right! (Combination Mix)
Everything Counts (Absolut Mix)
Breathing In Fumes
Painkiller (Kill The Pain - DJ Shadow vs Depeche Mode)
Useless (The Kruder and Dorfmeister Session)
In Your Room (The Jeep Rock Mix)
Dream On (Dave Clarke Acoustic Version)
It's No Good (Speedy J Mix)
Master & Servant (An ON-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic)
Enjoy The Silence (Timo Maas Extended Remix)

Disc 3
A Question Of Lust (Flood Remix)
Walking In My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix (Full Length)
Are People People?
World In My Eyes (Daniel Miller Mix)
I Feel Loved (Danny Tenaglia's Labor of Love Dub (edit))
It's No Good (Club 69 Future Mix)
Photographic (Rexx The Dog Dubb Mix)
Little 15 (Ulrich Schnauss Remix)
Nothing (Headcleanr Rock Mix)
Lie To Me ("The Pleasure of Her Private Shame" Remix by LFO)
Clean (Colder Version)
Halo (Goldfrapp Remix)
Enjoy The Silence (Reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda)

The same tracks appear on the triple album. The remaining two cd versions have selections from the above tracklist on them but don't feature tracks 1-11 from disc 3. The covers were all the same - see right  In all honesty, the LP or 3CD version was the only version worth having here given that it contained the remixes exclusive to this release. The A Question Of Lust remix is a rare one and was previously only available in the UK on the 1986 AQOL cassette single or on the French cd edition of the single. It's a rather decent mix too. Track 2 is an extended version of the WIMS remix from the single. We know all about track 3 already. The Daniel Miller remix of World In My Eyes is great. It's a bit less Kraftwerk than the original song and features different and harder sounding drum sounds. Passing by the overlong Tenaglia mix we come to the Club 69 Future Mix of Its No Good which was originally a promo mix given unncessary legitimacy here. The remix of Nothing somehow manages to make me yearn for the original version of Nothing which is quite a feat. The LFO mix is pretty cool though I've always felt a bit let down by it but only because I had high expectations of LFO remixing such a good song.

And that was that - he Remixes 81-04 campaign over and done with a a matter of months. It was an interesting experiment that threw up a number of very good new takes on classic Depeche songs so for me it was worthwhile. Ultimately, the later Remixes compilation would be more interesting given the remixers involved but that's a tale for another day.

Next time - Playing The Angel featuring classic DM tracks, actual b sides (woohoo!) and as much as we can try and ignore it, I Want It All.

Thanks as ever for reading and thank you to depechemode.com, depeche-mode.com and depmod.com