Violator was the last Depeche Mode record I really made an effort for (I was waaayyy into them during the bulk of the 80′s). When “Personal Jesus” (#13 UK, #28 US) came out in late August ‘89, I was still super into going out dancing to new wave and industrial music and that track was on heavy duty rotation (the 12″ single became one of the biggest sellers of all-time). By the time “Enjoy the Silence” (#6 UK, #8 US) came out in February ‘90, I was more into the neo-hippie culture of Madison (ie lots of Grateful Dead – in fact, I’m pretty sure I was in Canada seeing the Dead the week that Violator came out) so I liked it – a lot – but was no longer going out dancing to DM. Too bad because “Enjoy the Silence” is a track that has not only stood the test of time but I think actually sounds better now: it’s a perfectly crafted synth pop song that has a beautiful streak of sinister rippling through it. I also really love “Policy of Truth” (#16 UK, #15 US) – the drawn-out rhythm slide of the synth hook still just gets to me in the best way. I also like the final single from Violator, “World in My Eyes” (#17 UK, #52 US) though it’s definitely not as strong as the other three.

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Let’s have a black celebration
Black celebration
Tonight

To celebrate the fact

That we’ve seen the back
Of another black day

I look to you
How you carry on
When all hope is gone
Can’t you see?
Your optimistic eyes
Seem like paradise
To someone like
Me

Black Celebration was Depeche Mode’s fifth studio LP. It went to #4 in the UK and #90 in the US. DM released three singles off the record: “Stripped” (#15 UK and one of the darkest, rawest love songs I’ve ever heard), “A Question of Lust” (sung by Martin Gore, #28 UK) and “A Question of Time” (#17 UK). I bought this copy very soon after its release in ‘86; I had most of the lyrics memorized by that May – I remember writing the lyrics to “New Dress” on the sidewalk in Houdini Plaza that month for a peace rally a bunch of us local teen punks held while we skipped school that day:

You can’t change the world
But you can change the facts
When you change the facts
You change points of view
When you change points of view

You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

My friend Carrie and I saw Depeche Mode while they were on tour for Black Celebration on June 22nd of ‘86 outside of Chicago at the Poplar Creek Music Theater. My dad and grandpa drove us there from Wisconsin in my grandpa’s motorhome and they hung out in the parking lot while Carrie and I went to the show (Book of Love opened). We bought a concert program as well as DM and Book of Love t-shirts, my Depeche Mode t-shirt taken by some boy or other later that summer.

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Side A’s tracks plus the first track on Side B come from the Liverpool University concert on November 6th, 1981. Super-early Depeche Mode – I don’t think many people were in the audience as the applause is polite but it sounds like there are only about 50 people there. The Liverpool recordings include tracks from Depeche Mode’s first album Speak and Spell: “Photographic,” “Puppets,” “No Disco,” “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and two of my favorite DM songs ever, “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” The first track on Side A, “Television Set,” does not appear on any official Depeche Mode release. According to the website DMLive, “Television Set” was written by a friend of Vince Clarke’s, Jason Knott who was in the band The Neatelllls, and for this reason Depeche Mode never recorded it in the studio. However the song appeared frequently in their concert set lists between 1980 and 1982; in 1981 it was their go-to opening number. (The entire Liverpool concert can be found here, it’s pretty shitty audio and visual though)

Side B’s tracks, with the exception of the first song “No Disco” which was part of the Liverpool set, come from a Swedish TV show which was aired live from the Grand Hotel in Stockholm on March 22nd, 1982. It includes renditions of “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” (yay!), plus “See You” from Depeche Mode’s second album, A Broken Frame. There’s also an interview of the band that discusses their evolution into a synth pop band, their youth and hometown of  Basildon, and their confusion over what the lyrics of “New Life” mean – Vince Clarke was no longer in DM at the time of this performance (the host of the show interviews the band in English and then promptly translates their responses into Swedish). You can see the interview and “See You” here.

The album sleeve has a couple of adorable photos of the band, and man do they look SO YOUNG, especially Dave Gahan (whose hair in the first photo is simply shellac-amazing).

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Critically Construction Time Again received mixed reviews. Allmusic says it “is a bit hit and miss nonetheless, but when it does hit, it does so perfectly…The album’s clear highlight has to be ‘Everything Counts,’ a live staple for years, combining a deceptively simple, ironic lyric about the music business with a perfectly catchy but unusually arranged blending of more metallic scraping samples and melodica amid even more forceful funk/hip-hop beats. Elsewhere, on ‘Shame’ and “Told You So,’ Gore’s lyrics start taking on more of the obsessive personal relationship studies that would soon dominate his writing. Wilder’s own songwriting contributions are fine musically, but lyrically, “preachy” puts it mildly, especially the environment-friendly ‘The Landscape Is Changing.’” PopMatters says “Mostly, though, CTA serves as a stylistic bridge. As such, it’s the most awkward, and perhaps worst, studio album in the Depeche Mode discography” while Rolling Stone gives it either a 2 or 3 star rating (out of 5), Smash Hits a 7 star (out of 10) and Spin a 2 star (out of 10). I obviously wholeheartedly disagree and find Construction Time Again to still be totally relevant and a fantastic listen 35 years later.

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