DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 30: IN YOUR ROOM

 

The fourth and final single from Songs Of Faith And Devotion, In Your Room is a curious beast. On the album, it's a titanic track, an absolute classic and a perfect example of just how powerful Depeche Mode can be. As a single, it was remixed and given an overhaul that stripped the song of its power.

The whole single is odd really. Hugely expensive 12" singles, the band's first and only "crucifix" pack CD single and a video that not so much hints as blatantly points out just how messy things were for Depeche Mode at that point, 

It's also the band's last single as a four piece. Not many people know this, and certainly those that do keep it very quiet, but Alan Wilder left after this. I know, you had no idea right?

WILL I ALWAYS BE HERE - IN YOUR ROOM

The Single

In Your Room, BONG24, was released on 10th January 1994.  The single was released on three CD singles and a cassette originally with the first CD and cassette on 10th January and the next two CD singles a week later.

The rear of the promotional postcard above explains all. The single was given a few enthusiastic reviews, though not by Dave Morrison in Select Magazine:

"There are three CDs' worth of mixes and live versions of stuff making up In Your Room by Depeche Mode. All this is released separately over a period of weeks. Why? To keep it in the charts? Shame on me for being so cynical. The Mode may have some Dorian Gray-style pact that means they improve with age, but unless you've more money than sense don't buy it all, go for the Butch Vig mix."

In Music Week, Alan Jones was much more complimentary, giving the song Single Of The Week and saying:

"Less obviously a rock record than some of their recent releases, the new Depeche Mode singles is a fairly dark but nevertheless quite commercial record in which some dense guitar work is punctuated by a pleasant chorus. The fact it is spread over three CDs will help it to acheive a chart placing above and beyond what could otherwise be expected so reaching the Top Ten is a real possibility.

He wasn't wrong. The song entered the UK charts at number 18 and then soared into the Top Ten at number 8 the following week. It didn't cling on long however and then fell to 28 and, much to the disappointment of fans of numbers with 8 in them, ended its chart run at 56.  There was of course no Top of The Pops appearance here or in any other country on earth, and, even though it quite clearly only happened because of the three CD single trick, In Your Room became the third of the four Songs Of Faith And Devotion singles to chart in the UK Top Ten, the band's highest ever singles per album success rate. 

(Maths note: Speak & Spell 50% success, A Broken Frame 33%, Construction Time Again 50%, Some Great Reward 66%, Black Celebration 0%, Music For The Masses 0%, Violator 25%, SOFAD 75%)

Melody Maker advert courtesy of Michael Rose and depmod.com

The A-Side of the single is a remixed version of the song called the Zephyr Mix. It's a remix by Butch Vig and it was summed up rather neatly by Alan:

"I was eventually outvoted in favour of a remix by Butch Vig. Unfortunately, as is often the case with outside remixers, Vig's interpretation did not relate to many aspects of the original, and the track lost much of its Depeche Mode character, falling short of its intended sensuality and intensity."

He's not wrong. Even though Alan lobbied for the original or at least an edit of that track, the band voted for this remix and, well, it's just not that good. The song has been a live staple since its release, featuring 603 times. The Devotional version is by far the best as far as I am concerned. It's difficult to imagine a more intense version of any song ever. Live performances were blighted by the Zephyr Mix version for years until the album version made a return for the Global Spirit Tour where it was paired with one of Anton's perplexing films.

The B-side, though not literally as the cassette plays both tracks and CDs don't have B-sides, is Higher Love (Adrenaline Mix). If you think the Zephyr Mix kills the original atmosphere of a track, then try this destruction of Higher Love out for size. Shoddy rubbish. Mercifully, this version of Higher Love has never been performed live. The original has of course, featuring 127 times in total, comprising 97 show opening Devotional versions and 30 Martin solo versions on the Delta Machine tour.

The Video

Well, this is a right laugh.

Anton thought that this was going to be the last Depeche Mode video he would work on as he wasn't sure what would become of the band once the 14 month piss up of Devotional/Exotic/USA94 came to an end. He gave us then a video Greatest Hits, showing off his work with the band against the background of both an ever present light bulb and what appears to be an electric chair type thing. This was no Leave In Silence.

We open on a monochrome road and then find Dave in a room, strapped to a chair. Last time we saw him he had been chained to a woman in Hungary by the Depeche Mode Monks, so he was really having no luck around this time. We see a tree and then Martin, chained to a chair too. It's only a few seconds in and it's quite clear that this is a very dark video.

Suddenly, Dave is up and about and we see him singing along behind the big light bulb looking absolutely miserable. The mood is further darkened by Alan and Andy's various chained up to a chair appearances and, in between of shots of the band playing instruments, we then see them struggling to break out of their manacles as the song progresses. Good lord it's really no fun at all. 

As the second verse starts, we see a woman dressed up in the king gear from Enjoy The Silence, carrying a deckchair. Remember that video? It was all bright and had beaches and snow in it. The band were all together, all leathered up and looking cool. Happier times. She disappears and we're back to the Depeche Mode Dungeon Of Terrors again where we see Fletch struggling this time while Dave sings from behind a light bulb and Martin looks very cool in his silver gear, 

Personal Jesus was a fun video too wasn't it? All cool monochrome and Dave looking ace - we even got to see Andy on a wee horse. Well, don't worry, because here's a nod to that video with a woman in a hat somewhat inexplicably taking her top off.  We then see someone copying the Strangelove video, a video in which we saw the band laughing which seems a distant memory by this point before the chorus arrives and gives us a full band performance which includes Fletch playing a grand piano. Freed from their chains, the band set about doing what they do best and things seem to be on the up.

Ah. They are all back in the chairs again.

An I Feel You tribute lightens the mood somewhat and, as the final verse begins, alongside shots of a Walking In My Shoes demonic chicken head beast, we see Dave sitting unchained on a moustache shaped sofa. He's been freed and, to celebrate, the Walking In My Shoes demonic chicken hed beast flicks through a copy of the tour programme. They ultimately thrown it away, but if they'd kept it, it could be worth some good money now. A Halo tribute appears next, not Anton's take on the forthcoming Violator related blockbuster book, but one of the clowns from the video instead.

The band play on and take it in turns looking miserable in their respective chairs and that's that. "Will I always be here," sings Dave as the song ends.

"You might be Dave, but I know I won't be," thinks Alan. Possibly.

The Formats

There was no 7" single again, not even an expensively priced promo, so we'll start with one of the two formats released on 10th January 1994 - CBONG24, the cassette single. It features the light bulb first used of course on the Devotional film and a nice label. It also features the A-Side and B-Side mentioned above, but we've no need to look at them again.

The first of the CD singles is CDBONG24. It comes in a tri-fold digipack, more of which in a minute. The cover can be seen above,

That's the back.

The CD itself looks like this. It features four tracks - the Zephyr Mix, the Extended Zephyr Mix which, sadly, does just what you'd think it does and then, thank God, two live tracks. We have Never Let Me Down Again and  Death's Door from the 29th of July 1993 gig in Lievin, France. Both are great.

LCDBONG24 followed a week later and it gave us four more live tracks and a wonderful sleeve. From the same gig as the CDBONG24 tracks we got In Your Room, Policy Of Truth, the staggering Devotional version of World In My Eyes and a glorious Fly On The Windscreen. I listened to this CD single endlessly. 

XLCDBONG24 arrived on the same day. This contains two remixes of In Your Room  - the Jeep Rock Mix by Johnny Dollar and Portishead and the Apex Mix by Brian Eno. Both are great. It also contains the Adrenaline Mix of Higher Love which is not great.

And what do you get if you put them all together? Voila. The tri-fold, "crucifix" pack that features a drawing of either Dave or a mushroom with legs. Presuming it's Dave (it is), CDBONG 24 is his torso and shoulders, LCDBONG24 his right hand and XLCDBONG his left hand which is disconcertingly much bigger than his right. I imagine your Big CDBONG24 Box is just like mine - falling apart. Not exactly built to last but a novel thing and just about as mad as everything else in Depeche Mode world was at that point in time.

There may be no 7" promo, but there is always a 12" promo. P12BONG24 features three tracks. On side A, we have the dreadful Higher Love remix and the Jeep Rock Mix of In Your Room.  On Side B, we get the Extended Zephyr Mix which manages simply to prolong the agony of the original.

There were 12" singles too but these had too many tracks on them to count for chart sales. 12BONG24 is a still insanely expensive piece of Depeche vinyl despite its appearance in the Songs Of Faith And Devotion 12" Singles boxset. Prices on Discogs just now start at £74. It is a lovely thing however. On Side A, we have three remixes of In Your Room - Zephyr, Jeep Rock and Apex.

Side B hates us however - it contains the Extended Zephyr Mix and that remix of Higher Love.

The initial run of the single came with a luxury inner sleeve. It's black and shiny basically.

For people who simply do not deserve luxury, it also can be found with a plain, boring, white paper sleeve. 

L12BONG24 is a beautiful thing., It has a gorgeous matt sleeve and equally gorgeous labels on each side. It is also very expensive to pick up. What you get with this record is a mini live album as it takes the 6 live tracks from CDBONG24 and LCDBONG24 and sticks them on vinyl for your audio delight. Side A features In Your Room, Policy Of Truth and World In My Eyes.

Side B blesses us with Fly On The Windscree, Never Let Me Down Again and Death's Door.

If all that wasn't already enough, there is also another luxury inner sleeve. For those of you who can't handle the luxury lifestyle. the later editions had a white paper inner. Perplexingly, these are even more expensive and there are currently two for sale on Discogs in pretty poor condition for either £100 or £250. My word.

The 2004 CD single boxset reissue takes all 11 tracks from the various releases and adds Higher Love (Adrenaline Mix - Edit). This is a mercifully shorter version of the original mix and this was the first time the edit was released anywhere. It had featured on a the very first test pressing cassette where it was labelled 7" Mix but then Mute replaced it with Death's Door on their own test pressing cassette. On the rear sleeve of the German 12" equivalent of 12BONG24, the track is listed as appearing but doesn't in fact do so. The 12" tracklisting is incorrect.

Elsewhere in the world, the Germans gave us a 7" and that was very kind of them.

It contains the same two tracks as CBONG24. This is the only 7" version that was released. The German releases also featured the same three CD singles and two 12" singles as in the UK with the CDs coming in the tri-fold mushroom with arms and legs box too. The German 12BONG24 contains the erroneous tracklisting mentioned above.

As well as the same CD and 12" arrangement as Germany and the UK, the French also released this two track CD single in a card sleeve featuring the two CBONG24 tracks. 

The US CD single comes in one of those eco pack boxes and has Dave's torso and shoulders on it. There are seven tracks in all - all the In Your Room remixes, that Higher Love mix and the live versions of In Your Room and Policy Of Truth. There was a promo CD scheduled that was to feature In Your Room (Zephyr Mix Edit) but that was never released.

The US 12" has four tracks. On Side A there is the Extended Zephyr Mix and Apex Mix.

Side B gives us the Jeep Rock Mix of In Your Room (hooray!) and the Adrenaline Mix of Higher Love (booooooo).

Elsewhere on earth, there are three CD trifold mushroom packs in Australia and Belgium, a Swedish CD single and a Spanish 12" among others.

Despite the single's January release, the Songs Of Faith And Devotion era was far from over with the tour rumbling on until July when everyone decided that they'd had too much fun and it finally ended.

Dave was a mess, Martin wasn't much better, Fletch had had to go home leaving Darryl to replace him and Alan...well, Alan wasn't that happy at all.

By the time we next saw Depeche Mode, Dave had talked at length about his problems, Martin hadn't and the band had released a blistering new single. Someone was no longer there however. The Wilder era, and indeed the wild era, was over.

MY JOY - DEPECHE MODE: SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION: THE 12" SINGLES

 

When Songs Of Faith And Devotion was released, any lingering perceptions people held of them being a weedy electronic act were finally and permanently dispelled. Despite Violator's all conquering performance, Depeche Mode were still viewed with suspicion in their homeland and when I Feel You first appeared, it shocked not only Depeche Mode fans but also everyone else who heard it and was told it was Depeche Mode. While Songs Of Faith And Devotion is not as universally acclaimed as Violator is, it is still a hugely important album and one that is still an enthralling album from start to finish. The album's singles were all wonderful and three of them even charted in the Top Ten in Britain, their best singles-from-an-album chart performance ever.

The newest boxset in the Depeche Mode 12" reissues is the Songs Of Faith And Devotion one and that has been released today. Let's see what's inside.

As with the previous 12" boxsets, it recreates and celebrates the era quite marvellously. The front of the box (above) is a new take on I Feel You's iconic artwork.  Martin is on the left and Dave on the right (more of how we know this below) and Alan (beside Martin) and Fletch have been decapitated for some reason. Harsh. The back of the box looks like this:

As ever, it comes with one of those pointless paper menu things which acts like a picture menu in a restaurant where you don't speak the language? "How do you say play the limited edition 12" of Walking In My Shoes?" "I don't know - just point to it."

"No I said CONDEMNATION. God, don't these people speak (insert language?)"

The 12" singles are, as ever, beautifully and faithfully (lolz etc) reproduced. When I Feel You came out I was in my first year at Aberdeen University. The song debuted on Simon Mayo's Breakfast Show on Radio 1 and I recorded it and then played and rewound the tape (ask your grandparents) endlessly and much to the increasing distress of those who could still bear to hang around with me. When the singles came out, I bought and played them endlessly too, all the time wearing a selection of Depeche Mode t-shirts and being known as "Depeche Mode Dave" to some because I wasn't mature enough to wear actual adult clothes.

Fast forward 27 years and I'm currently listening to I Feel You on 12" while wearing a Depeche Mode t-shirt and relaying that anecdote to a bunch of people who know me as the bloke who writes a Depeche Mode blog. That's progress. I think.

Anyway, I'm not reviewing me thank God, I'm reviewing the singles. Future blog episodes will look at each single in turn (wait...come back) so I'm not going to review all the remixes today. Here's the I Feel You 12":

The cover shows the drawings of the band that would become the terrifying large metal things that hung behind the Devotional stage. Top left we have Alan with Dave to his right. Andy is below Dave and Martin bottom left under Alan. How do I know this? Well, other than Martin's picture having something like his hair, each drawing has the band member's birthday in the bottom right. Presumably Anton did this so that the permanently drunk band would be able to remember birthdays on the Devotional tour - either their own or everyone else's. The back of the 12" features Dave looking moody in Hamburg:

There is no inner sleeve here, just a paper one. Here's Side A of the record:

Even though that is just a big purple blob, I do like that. Side B  has another lovely label and tells us the tracks:

The Throb Mix is the standout for me here. The Babylon Mix is good but has a daft name. Not as daft as others in this box however. There was of course a limited edition 12" and it is a lovely looking gatefold. Here's the cover:

Alan and Dave minding their own business there while Martin and Fletch slope off to chat all things Basildon on the back:

The gatefold inner features two pictures:

On the left we see Alan and Dave back in Hamburg with a lifesize topless cartoon and on the right, all four lads together, all clearly hungover and with Martin standing in a very odd way. The front of the inner sleeve is wonderful:

It's a lovely thing. The other side of it is, well, black:

I show that for completeness sake and nothing else. The labels are again fantastic - here is Side A:

As you can see, it mirrors the image on the inner sleeve. Things like that probably shouldn't make me happy, but they do. If you are reading this then you are likely nodding in agreement. The B-Side label is below:

Fantastic. These 12" singles were easy to get at the time, unlike the In Your Room ones and the recreations here are spot on. There are two Brian Eno remixes on this 12" by the way which are quite interesting. They Eno here and there, burbling and glugging around in that Eno-y way but are pretty decent if you like that sort of thing.

The second single, and the only one to fail to crack the UK Top Ten fact fans, is the godlike genius of Walking In My Shoes. The standard 12" has a lovely shiny sleeve:

As you can see, it features the topless, terrifying part woman part demonic hellbird that featured on the live footage accompanying the song. The same beast features all over this single. Here she is on the back sleeve too:

The original pressing of the singles had a matt cover with spot gloss (thanks Scott) parts such as the barcode section above and the repressing didn't. The boxset version is a recreation of the original pressing. There is no inner sleeve here, just a paper one and Side A's label looks like this:

Side B lets Side A take the arty glory and instead shoulders the burden of displaying actual information:

On the music side of things, for this is after all about a band who play music, the b-side My Joy is a track you don't want to miss. It's a hidden Depeche classic. There is only one remix of the title track here and that is the Grungy Gonads Mix.

That name doesn't improve with age.

The limited 12" is another wonderful thing and I had, and still have, a T-shirt with this cover:

The back is another matt/spot gloss affair:

Like I Feel You, this is a gatefold 12":

The Page 3 with a demonic bird head theme continues on the inner sleeve:

The other side of the inner sleeve is nudity free; in fact it's free of anything other than the catalogue number - L12BONG22:

I really like that. Side A of the actual record continues the label theme from the standard 12":

Again, Side B tells you everything you need to know:

There are four remixes of Walking In My Shoes on the record and they are all great although the Ambient Whale Mix is a bit bland.

The next single was the much heralded Depeche Mode Do Gospel Condemnation and this release introduced us to the Devotional tour which the band had already kicked off by the time the single came out. The sleeve takes a still from the film used when the song played on the tour:

The rear prints the lyrics which look like they've been drawn by someone holding a pencil between their toes rather than their fingers:

The original issue of the single featured a deluxe inner sleeve and that's what we get here. "Deluxe" seems an odd word to use as it's not as if it gets you access to a lounge or free booze, but its a nice thing anyway. It uses another still from the tour film:

The word "deluxe" is further tested by the rear of the inner sleeve whihc is once again just black:

Perhaps its shiny nature gives the additonal luxury purchasers of the re-pressed version missed out on thus ruining their lives. The record features 5 tracks including the Paris Mix of Condemnation, so called because the remix was finished off in a studio in Dusseldorf (hilarious), the at-that-point unreleased Jazz Mix of Death's Door and three remixes of Rush. The first two tracks appear on Side A

and in a move that will surprise nobody, the other three feature on Side B:

The limited edition 12" was a real thrill when it was released. Instead of being called Condemnation, it's called Depeche Mode Live and it features four tracks, Condemnation, Personal Jesus, Enjoy The Silence and Halo, all live from the gig at Forum in Milan on 4th June 1993.

It's another gatefold too. On the cover (above) we have Dave in action and on the back, with another matt/spot gloss effort, we see Martin belting his way through Condemnation:

The gatefold shows all four band members in hot live action on the left and Dave captured wonderfully by Anton in full rock star mode on the right:

Wonderful. The deluxe inner sleeve was again only available with the first pressing of the 12". If you bought later pressings, the record was thrown into the street and you were made to pick it up while people laughed at you outside HMV. Thankfully, the boxset reproduces the deluxe version although is it REALLY deluxe if it's just the same as the standard 12"?

The same question applies to the other side of the inner sleeve:

Side A features Condemnation and Personal Jesus

and, ever the traditionalists, the other two songs pop up on Side B:

The final single from the album was In Your Room, released in its Zephyr Mix form, a mix that would haunt live versions of the song for years after Devotional until they saw sense on the last tour. It featured on the 12" in 7" and Extended form along with two other In Your Room remixes and a comically bad remix of Higher Love, the ironically titled Adrenaline Mix. The cover uses the light bulb motif from the Devotional tour film and the song's video:

Here's the rear:

Again, lucky purchasers of the first pressing could bask in the glow of having a deluxe inner sleeve, reproduced here. It looks like this:

"Where's the luxury," you scream, "It must be on the other side. SHOW US DAVID." 

No, it's black too. At this point, I should let you all know that I'm veery much aware that I'm posting pictures of black inner sleeves. It's clearly a very odd thing to do, but I've started down this road and it would actually annoy me now if I knew I didn't have a photo of every sleeve, no matter how black they are. And yes, I have taken a picture of every one. I've not just taken on and re-used it. I am one of you remember and I know what you/we are like. Depeche Mode fans are very, VERY strange people and they'd complain if I tried anything on here. 

Side A of the record looks like this:

Side B is equally straightforward:

The limited edition 12" and final release from Songs Of Faith And Devotion, is a wonderful 6 track affair featuring six superb live tracks - In Your Room, Policy Of Truth, World In My Eyes, Fly On The Windscreen, Never Let Me Down Again and Death's Door. They are all bloody brilliant - the Devotional version of World In My Eyes is one of the band's finest live arrangements of all time and the live version of In Your Room makes your body shiver for hours after hearing it. Incredible. Depeche Mode are hugely underrated as a live band. This record shows just how good they were then. The cover is all lightbulbs, all the time. Here's the front:

Here is the back:

The really quite lovely cover art is one thing, but can you cope with ANOTHER deluxe inner sleeve? You can? Ok, here's one side of it

and here's the other:

The inner sleeve equivalent of a 5 night all inclusive break in a 7 star Dubai hotel. The labels on the record are gorgeous. Here's Side A:

and here is Side B:

Beautiful. As with the Violator singles' cover art, everything about the Songs Of Faith And Devotion cover art is superb with so much thought being given to every aspect of it, deluxe sleeves aside. The recreation of every aspect in this boxset is tremendous work.

I should say that the records sound superb too.

As with other boxsets there is an extra but, sadly, the only extra here is an admittedly lovely reproduction of a promo poster for Walking In My Shoes:

Perhaps we were spoiled with the incredible extras with the Violator boxset, and I'm perhaps being a bit too greedy, but an additional record such as a reproduction of the Rush  12" promo would have been a cool addition. It's a nice rarity from the era like the World In My Eyes promo reproduced last time, The lack of an other extras doesn't detract from how fantastic this boxset is mind you. I think if anything we may have been too spoiled by the last box.

Finally, there's a download card. 

The whole 12" reissue series has been incredible and a real joy throughout. The Violator box was going to be a hard act to follow, but this boxset is very much up to the task. It recreates the original releases perfectly and, when enjoyed and appreciated as a whole, it reminds us just how good Depeche Mode were in 1993.