27. Depeche Mode- Black Celebration (Mute, 1986)
While synthpop, industrial, and EBM may not qualify as goth to the purists, there’s enough crossover between sub-genres to warrant inclusion for us. As Depeche Mode continued to experiment with industrial textures, this record bridged the gap between their earlier dance-driven work and the stadium-filling juggernaut they would become. There’s plenty of darkness boiling just underneath the surface, from the sprawling title track, the pounding “Fly on the Windscreen,” the Philip Glass-esque “It Doesn’t Matter Two,” and closing track “New Dress,” which eerily predicted the demise of Princess Diana under the context of celebrity fascination.
