DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 53: SHOULD BE HIGHER

 

The third and final single from Delta Machine was released as the tour entered its final few weeks. Should Be Higher is a Dave penned track (with the assistance of Kurt Uenala) and is the third Depeche Mode single co-written by Dave after the wonderful Suffer Well and Hole To Feed.

As with the album's two previous singles, we got three official formats, no promos, some "will this do lads? I've got a Joshua Tree anniversary tour to actually start designing things for and I can't be arsed" art from Anton and the worst set of remixes on one 12" in Depeche Mode's history.

With that build up, you'd be mad to stop reading now.

YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO PRAY - SHOULD BE HIGHER

The Single

Should Be Higher was released on 11th October 2013 in Germany, 14th October in the UK and France and on 15th October in North America.  3 days, 3 times the fun.

The Quietus liked the song when it previewed the album track by track:

"It starts off as the murkiest track yet with a purposeful 4/4 whip-crack beat. There's now no doubt that Delta Machine is the the darkest and most violent Depeche Mode material in years. Lyrically, the title and lyrics of holes in infected arms and lies , succumbing to bliss and so on suggest another addition to the DM canon of songs that might be about smack, or love, or both. There's another sky-straining chorus that makes this brilliant stadium pop, and yet more evidence of the weakness of the Anglo Saxon ear. Across Europe, from Volgograd to Turin, Helsinki to Lodz they'll come in their thousands for songs as mighty as this... while here in Britain we like to watch Coldplay and Muse. The disgrace of our nation."

I can't fault the Coldplay hating right enough. DIY Magazine said:

"The pace subsides, for a couple of minutes, in the waltzing brooding sway of ‘Should Be Higher’, an effortless and sombre build-up to a swirling and hypnotic pay-off. Martin Gore lends his backing vocals perfectly as he does throughout the album, creating beautiful contrasts with Gahan, as well as stunning harmonies."

Pitchfork was, naturally, scathing:

"As for Gahan's own songs-- this time, their music is by Kurt Uenala-- they're generally a reasonably convincing imitation of middling Gore. His Should Be Higher is yet another on the pile of ex-junkie lyrics"

One day music journalists will write about Dave and Depeche Mode without talking about drugs.

Anyway, the initial reviews of the song were mainly positive and I recall many people liking it at the time. The band of course neglected to promote it in anyway and thus it only hit number 81 in the UK charts. Ok, that's 7 places higher than Soothe My Soul, but it's hardly a chart smash.

The song is on ok song I suppose, but that's a problem Depeche Mode have suffered from since Sounds Of The Universe - a lot of the songs are just ok. It's an inoffensive enough track but it's just not really all that good. I would have preferred that the band were braver when choosing the inevitable Dave single from the album as Broken would have been a much better choice and one that might even have had a chance of charting and getting some exposure. Obviously, it would have been destroyed when remixed but it would have made a decent single. 

Should Be Higher was a fixture on the Delta Machine tour, using the various arenas' lights to full effect and, unusually for the, erm, challenging films Anton produced for this tour, the backing film was rather nice too. It was played 92 times on the tour, last appearing in Turin on the 18th of February 2014.

The Video

The video is a live version of the song, directed by Anton Corbijn with footage taken from the Delta Machine shows in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich. The full impressive scale of the accompanying film is shown in full effect and we see the five standard things we've come to expect on Depeche Mode tours in recent years:

1. Christian playing drum fills where there is no need to do so

2. Peter massaging his keyboards. He has a unique playing style really that brings to mind Swiss Toni from The Fast Show ("playing keyboards for Depeche Mode is very much like making love to a beautiful woman Fletch")

3. Martin grinning. A lot.

4. Fletch fletching like only Fletch can fletch

5. A sweaty Dave twirling around, pulling faces as he sings looking like a man who forgot to go for a pee before going on-stage.

During the film that is playing on the screens we see the members of Depeche Mode setting fire to all their pictures of Alan Wilder and flinging them around the place to dramatic effect which is eye catching if slightly petty.*

*possibly untrue

The Formats

It's funny to look back on these blogs and see the occasional criticism of some early remixes. They had a lot to live up to back then so the odd bad one stood out. When you have, for example, the Split Mix facing off against the Tsangarides Mix of Never Let Me Down Again, there can only be one winner.

I've never really seen the point of the Tsangarides Mix you see, as it doesn't actually seem to do anything bar make a few parts of the song slightly different. Perhaps it is too subtle for me. What I would say however is that I would happily have the late Chris Tsangarides remix every single Depeche Mode song if it meant I didn't ever have to listen to whatever on earth the collection of utter tat masquerading as remixes on this release again in my life. Christ, this is a rough ride.

The first CD is the best of the bunch here, primarily because it features one listenable track and therefore has a 50% success rate.

The two tracks here are Should Be Higher (Radio Mix) and Should Be Higher (Little Vampire Remix Single Edit). The first one is the good one. The second one is not good. On the artwork side, the live shot on the back is nice.

Night follows day, four years silence follows the end of a Depeche tour and CD2 always follows CD1. 

There are five remixes on this CD. Six. Two and, being generous, a half of them work, so we nearly get the 50% approval rating.

Here we go then:

1. Jim Sclavunos From Grinderman Remix. The good thing about Grinderman is the genius of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. This remix is like a Grinderman track with all the genius removed. Did any member of Depeche Mode even hear this?

2. Little Vampire Remix. This longer version of track 2 on CD1 is actually ok but that may be because I'd just sat through track 1 of this CD

3. MAPS Remix. This is the star of this CD. It's a lovely, shimmery take on the song that actually remixes it rather than gives it a kicking.

4. Jim Jones Revue Remix. Genuinely terrible. There's no other way to put it.

5. Radio Mix. Presuming you haven't kicked your CD player to death, this track comes as a relief.

We've reached the 12". Because I feel I owe you all a duty to report on every UK release, I listened to this for the first time since the only other time I listened to it, just so I could tell what it's like. "It can't be as bad as you remember David, " I said to myself as I nervously removed it from the 12" section of my Depeche Mode shelves. 

It was as bad, in fact, it was probably worse. What on earth is the point of this record? I wonder if my copy is actually defective as it appears to contain no Depeche Mode whatsoever in places and instead comes across like a collection of tracks by people who think they can operate modular synths but in fact can't. In the 90's there was a no doubt apocryphal tale put about by the Aphex Twin that when a record company courier came to his house for his remix of a Lemonheads track, he realised he'd forgotten so handed over the first DAT he could find. As we has the Aphex Twin, anything he touched would do and so the remix was used. Now, that may all be rubbish, but having heard this 12" I think the story has a new level of plausibility to it.

There are six remixes of Should Be Higher in total. Six. They are:

Side A

1. Truss Remix. This starts off badly, tails off in the middle and is dreadful by the end. A remix by the hapless current UK Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs Liz Truss would possibly have been better.

2. MPIA3 Definition. Firstly, that is a crap title. Secondly, this remix is surely a joke? The only note I have from when I listened to it is "Christ"

3. Keon Groenveveld Massive Remix. A massive waste of vinyl

Side B

1. Pangaea Dub Remix. By the time you get to Side B, you're questioning whether you still like music. This remix makes me hate everything.

2. Uberzone Remix. This is a good remix but that is only by comparing it to the surrounding horrr.

3. DJMREX Remix. Unlistenable

Seriously, if I ever look like I'm doing a "Let's look at Depeche Mode remixes" blog thing, please remove my access to the internet. I love Depeche Mode, they have brought me and will forever continue to bring me almost unexplainable levels of joy, but for the duration of this 12" which I think is around 76 hours, I wish I'd never heard of them.

Elsewhere, there were the two CD singles in the US, one in Taiwan, two UK promo CD-Rs and the usual digital download bundles so that you could take the Jim Jones Revue Remix wherever you went in case you met someone you hated or had to torture a prisoner.

And on that high note, the Delta Machine era releases came to an end. How on earth could they follow the worst 12" in their history? Would we ever see Depeche Mode again?

The tour ended in Berlin, there was a DVD of the Berlin gig and Dave did some Soulsavers stuff unlike after the Global Spirit Tour when...oh.

Anyway, they did come back and they were flag waving and fully bearded up. We'll take a look at that revolutionary return next time.

DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 5: THE MEANING OF LOVE

After See You had shown everyone that Depeche Mode were still very much able to carry on with a new songwriter, the band followed Martin's synthpop masterpiece with another poppy love song. Let's be honest, it's not their best single, but it did pretty well considering its fairly synthpop-by-numbers approach, curious lyrics about "wanting a scar" and a video that is quite terrible. Despite all that though, it's still better than everything about Hole To Feed and it has a glorious B-side. Here is the story of The Meaning Of Love.

FAIRLY ODD - THE MEANING OF LOVE

The Single

The Meaning Of Love was released on 26th April 1982. 11 years later, Walking In My Shoes would be released on the same day - one single a towering, dark masterpiece with a sound that is the essence of Depeche Mode and the other the second single from Songs Of Faith And Devotion. Ho ho.

The single entered the charts on 8th May at number 34 and this appearance on Top Of The Pops on 6th May helped it rocket up the charts to number 12 the following week. Martin had only just finished his shift on a fishing trawler as you can see from his clothing. 

Number 12 on 15th May was as high as the single would get however and it then tumbled from there to 17, back up to 15 curiously, back down to 17 and then 21, 46 and 72 before leaving the Top 75 forever.

It was reasonably well received in the music press. Smash Hits said it was "as damn near perfect as a record could be," which is perhaps a bit much, before adding that the song was "truly scrumptious."  Smash Hits also printed the lyrics and a picture of the still officially three piece band in its 28th April edition

Sounds was less complimentary, claiming "the lead melody line is musically identical to their last hit" which isn't really true.

As we'd learn when A Broken Frame was released, The Meaning Of Love was clearly not the direction in which Martin's song writing was headed. In hindsight, it's very much an exception to the general theme of the album and it stands out along with A Photograph Of You as being almost too poppy for the record. Pre A Broken Frame however, pop songs were what Depeche Mode did, or were at least what was expected of Depeche Mode, so it's perhaps no surprise that The Meaning Of Love was picked to follow See You. It was a safe choice and certainly a wiser choice than A Broken Frame's other full on pop track A Photograph Of You. That would have been a bad move.

As a song, The Meaning Of Love is fine but nothing special. Martin clearly came up with the lyrical concept before the lyrics however.

"Dave?"

"Yes Martin"

"How would you describe something other people tell you that you want or need when you don't want that thing itself?"

"I dunno. I'd just say no thanks to whatever it was being offered."

"Hmmmm...and if you'd made notes about it?"

"Are you ok Martin?"

"You know....if you'd researched something, made notes but still couldn't see why people thought you should have it...if you said it seemed that wanting it was like wanting something really odd?"

"........"

"Look, Dave. Help me here. From the notes I've made so far, love seems something like wanting...."

"I have no idea Martin. A car? A bar? A guitar. Actually, a guitar would work because we use nothing but synths. A guitar Martin. There."

"A scar Dave?"

"Love seems something like wanting to be badly cut enough that your skin ends up disfigured Martin? Almost certainly not. No. Don't use scar."

That conversation probably happened.

The Meaning Of Love quickly joined the band's live set, debuting at the 20th January 1982 show at Crocs and featuring another 133 times before last being heard live on 10th March 1984 at University in Madrid. Little did the gig goers that night realise that they were witnessing musical history.

The B-side of the single is far more interesting than the A-side. Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) is named after the, would you believe it, small town of, that's right. Oberkorn in Luxembourg. Martin told Jonathan Miller all about it:

"Instead we found ourselves pulling into a tiny village called Oberkorn. It was a curious kind of village with a population that would hardly fill the first few rows of any ordinary theatre, so it was quite a fascination for us to find out just what would happen. Instead of our gig being to a handful of people, the place was packed as the audience came from all around and even from across the borders. But there was an interesting twist to this concert. When we got back to our hotel our record company told us that whilst the A-side of our single was all set, they needed a title rapidly for the B-side. We're never all that good with names and the first thing that sprang to mind was the name of this village, Oberkorn. So that's the title we used!"

Footage of the gig on 30th March 1982 recently appeared on RTL Today and you can watch it here - Oberklick (It's A Small Piece Of Footage)

It doesn't feature Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) sadly. The song itself is an instrumental but a gloriously haunting one. It's one of those synth instrumentals that only the early 80's era was capable of producing really, all gloomy swooshes and uplifting melodies. Brilliant. The song would eventually appear on the band's setlist, appearing 47 times on the A Broken Frame tour. You can hear part of it before My Secret Garden on the ...And Live Tracks 12" of Get The Balance Right. ("Good evening everybody.")

THE VIDEO

This video is on drugs. It starts with children playing with building blocks before Depeche Mode and a mystery fourth man (he was apparently called Alan Wilder and he had some role in the band. As your grandparents) appear in front of  very glitzy backdrop that is an obvious fire hazard. Oddly, Dave is holding a book but that's because he's read "more than a hundred" of them and he throws it away, no doubt in a visual joke that will please all fans of that sort of thing. Hang on...more than a hundred? DOES THAT MEAN THAT BOOK WAS BOOK 101 AND THIS WAS THEREFORE ALL PART OF SOME MAGNIFICENT PLAN? DOES IT?

No, no it doesn't. Stop that. We move on from Dave throwing about Book 101 (...hang on....) and we find him peeking through a keyhole at a ballet dancer. It turns out he's not just being a peeping tom as,  all of a sudden, he literally becomes pie eyed, which is a way people in Britain had back then of saying that someone was in love with someone else. The phrase makes no sense of course but that doesn't stop the visual gag slamming home as mightily as the book one earlier. Anyway, Dave then dusts the pastry from his eyes and gets back to the day job of being a scientist. He looks into a microscope and sees Fletch as what I can only describe as one massive sperm singing to him, closely followed by Martin. We mercifully return to the live set part where the band all take it in turns pointing at Dave and singing "I've never been in love before," before we obviously move to a shot of 60's children's puppets Pinky & Perky dancing around. By this point, you have no idea what's going on anymore.

Dave then starts eyeing up the dancer from a park bench in a park where she is somewhat inexplicably dancing. His whole head then turns into a pie which is just baffling. There is no such phrase as "Pie Headed." Dave loses the pie and hands the dancer flowers and they fall in love. Pinky & Perky return, this time operated by Dave in front of the other band members who have another sing and jiggle around, before we head home to Dave And The Dancer, now married and very much out of love. They have a row and she throws things at Dave, presumably having just been played the Hole To Feed demo. Quite brilliantly, and I genuinely mean that, a piece of debris flies towards the TV on which we see the band in action and they all duck. Very good that. The one positive thing to emerge from Dave And The Dancer's marriage which was no doubt the talk of the tabloids by that point ("All Gahan Wrong" etc) was their child which is probably a boy (that haircut makes it hard to tell). He has worked out that love has its ups and downs and, noting his parents' behaviour, Child Of Dave And The Dancer, calmly uses his building blocks to spell out the song title. 

Just goes to show you eh? Or does it? I have no idea. There's a lot packed into that video and I've just watched it three times in a row. I wrote more than I intended to about it and now need a lie down.

The Formats

Once again, there were only two formats released in Britain.

Firstly, there's the 7" which remarkably enough features the A-Side and B-Side described above. The sleeve (above) is different to the 12" which is a nice touch I always think and, like See You before it, takes a very literal approach to depicting the song title. 

The labels are a nice touch too. Here's the A-Side

Here is the B-Side

There are 7 different variations of the 7" if you're the sort of troubled soul who needs them all. See depmod.com for details.

The 12" (front cover at the top of the page) features two remixes. On the A-Side, the literal interpretation theme of the video and sleeve is followed with the Fairly Odd Mix of The Meaning Of Love. It's just under 5 minutes long and lives up to its name. Much in the way remixes do now, it adds a few extra beats and ambles along before going all bleepy and odd about 1 minute 30 in. It's the sort of thing that people would proclaim revolutionary if the Aphex Twin released it on its own. The song returns and we get back on track with the middle 8 of the song before the Aphex Twin re-emerges. 

Once again, and this is all getting a bit annoying now, we go back to the middle 8 of the song. All of a sudden, someone (maybe Martin? I imagine a lot of you know the answer) says "What do you want to do then? What can we do" which is something of a surprise. The last of the Aphex Twin returns with Dave trying to sing over him before the song we all know and partially love appears in a seemingly different key to the remix and the whole experience ends. Not fairly odd, very odd. Very odd indeed.

The B-Side is Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) (Development Mix). Not only is it a much better remix name, but it is also a much better track. It's 7 minutes 39 seconds of quite glorious instrumental goodness and is yet another B-Side from that era that you really must familiarise yourself with.

The UK CD Single reissue campaign in 1991 assembled the 4 tracks from the release in the one place:

As ever, there are a couple of nice foreign formats to have a look at. The German red vinyl 7" is a lovely thing, both on the A-side

and the B-Side

The 12" was released on yellow vinyl too.

If you want one, the cheapest currently on Discogs is £64. Pricey.

Once again, the Intercord blue stripe CD from Germany is a must have. No-one ever knows why that is the case by the way. I certainly don't yet I collect them. 

There were also various releases in Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Australia.

And with that we leave The Meaning Of Love. Its place in Depeche history is secure, not because of the video (THAT MUST HAVE BEEN BOOK 101 - THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY etc) but because of the single that followed it. Leave In Silence clearly signposted the way Depeche Mode were heading but only after The Meaning Of Love showed us the way out of the first phase of the band's career.

We'll have a look at Martin's first go at making "violence" rhyme with "silence" next time.