167. Depeche Mode, "Violator"

 

Let's start with some audience questions!

Oh my.  To answer People's questions: No; about 15 million worldwide; um, Violator is not capable of Depeche Moding, since Depeche Mode is not a verb, but I think you're looking for 1990; and Speak & Spell.  While this album isn't the "best album ever," or even anywhere remotely close, it is a good, if slightly overrated, album.  

I am not one of the many, many kids who spent their formative years locked in their bedrooms listening to this album over and over again, feeling like someone finally got them.  (That happened with a lot of other albums, including one that's later this week.)  Personally, I was never drawn to DM's icy cold sound, with Dave Gahan's slightly off-putting baritone and the echoey synths that formed the backbone of their songs.

Remember "Personal Jesus"?  It was the first single off this album, reaching number 28 in the US, and was hailed as a breakthrough because it featured a guitar that's barely recognizable as a guitar.  Ok I guess!  There's also the back-to-back "Enjoy The Silence" ("All I ever wanted/All I ever needed," you know it), which was a mid-level US hit, and "Policy of Truth," which was not, although it's arguably a better song.  "Policy" is more edgy, angular even, presaging the electroclash movement and bands like Hot Chip and the Faint and Scissor Sisters.  But it shows off what this album can be when it shines - a popping synth riff, with a great Gahan melody and a driving, insistent beat.

I think, though, there's a fair amount of filler on here that just looks good by association with the rock-solid songs like "Jesus," "Silence," and "Truth."  But does it matter?  Not really.  Listening back to it now, I get it; I was about 7 to 10 years too old when this came out for it really to speak to an anguished teenage soul, which it seems laser-focused to do.  Just imagine being a teenage girl (or boy, for that matter) and hearing Gahan, who by then was heading towards sex-symbol territory, thanks to Anton Corbijn's hypnotic videos, sing to you and you alone:

Things you'd expect to be
Having effect on me
Pass undetectedly
But everyone knows what has got me
Takes me completely
Touches so sweetly
Reaches so deeply
I know that nothing can stop me

The song itself is kind of slog, and although it's superficially about sex and/or drugs (repeated mentions of "the sweetest injection," get it), it's a downcast song, perfect for fangirls & fanboys who feel so deeply wounded by this world.

About that title: the band acknowledged that they were taking the piss, so to speak, and trying to think of the most hair-metal dumb title they could, as a joke.  But, contra their intent, it actually works!  A lot of the album is about violations of various sorts - societal norms, sexuality, the shared agreements lovers are supposed to have.  Whoops, Depeche Mode, you accidentally nailed it.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Yes.