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EXCITER
Depeche Mode
(Mute-Reprise)
This veteran British techno-pop outfit has a real winner in Dream On, the first single from their first album in four years.
Lyrically dark and the perfect blend of warm acoustic sounds and cold electronica, long-troubled lead singer Dave Gahan's documents his own brushes with death, self-destruction and drug withdrawal on one of the group's best and most potent songs in years.
"There's no time for hesitating, Pain is ready, pain is waiting, Primed to doits educating," sings Gahan,who attempted suicide in 1995 and faced drug-related charges in 1996. "Unwanted, uninvited kin, It creeps beneath your crawling skin, it lives without, it lives within you."
Too bad the rest of the collection, in stores Tuesday, doesn't quite measure up, with the exception of the heartbreaking, slow-burner When The Body Speaks, the poignant Freelove and Goodnight Lovers, and the fun, frothy dance number, I Feel Loved.
Working with producer Mark Bell (Bjork), Depeche Mode falters on such '80s retreads as Shine and The Sweetest Condition, the Martin Gore-sung Breathe and the pointlessly distasteful The Dead Of Night: "We're the horniest boys, with the corniest ploys, who take the easiest girls, to our sleaziest worlds."
Still, this collection is a vast improvement over 1997's disappointing Ultra, which Gahan now admits he wasn't physically ready for.
Depeche Mode kick off their world tour on June 15 in Montreal, followed by a show the next night at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. (More on: Depeche Mode)
Track Listing
1. Dream On
2. Shine
3. The Sweetest Condition
4. When The Body Speaks
5. The Dead of Night
6. Lovetheme
7. Freelove
8. Comatose
9. I Feel Loved
10. Breathe
11. Easy Tiger
12. I Am You
13. Goodnight Lovers