We are the bigots, we have not evolved/we have no respect, we have lost control. That’s the opening line to Going Backwards, the brooding first track off Depeche Mode’s 14th studio album Spirit. Even for a band known for moodiness, it’s an especially dour note. It’s clear the electronic titans are…

Depeche Mode tap into techno and produce their best album in over two decades After a couple of so-so albums in 2009’s Sounds of the Universe and Delta Machine four years later, it would have been easy to look at Depeche Mode as a spent creative force, despite the fact that they’re the last of…

I reviewed Spirit last week for XS Noize and did so having listened to the album twice in quick succession, basing my review on early impressions of the record. Obviously, being the person I am, it takes a lot for my first impression of any new Depeche material to be anything other than rapturous,…

There is no band of the Eighties generation who've remained both as big, and as great, as Depeche Mode. Duran Duran? Lightweights. U2? Sunk into self-parody a long time ago. But the boys from Basildon are something else: they've come through all the pressures of fame, addiction, ageing and the rest…

Some quick thoughts.I've listened to it once with some not so good headphones. Average set of remixes if you ask me. Pearson 6/10Too long for my taste and I feel it doesn't try to enhance the song as a piece of its own. Fun danceable beat and it does keep some of the melodic aspect of it, but the…

Eredeti WTR: talán a fellépésnek is köszönhetően most először éreztem benne egy kis fenyegető érzést, néhány új dobot is felfedeztem benne. Most tetszett a legjobban a vészjósló lépegető hangulata, mintha újonnan hallgattam volna. Talán a szünet is jót tett neki :) Ewan Pearson, mit műveltél? Az…

As you might have gathered from my Classic Album – Violator piece, I’m a Depeche Mode fan. Reviewing them objectively can be hard given my, ahem, devotion to the band and the fact that a new Depeche album has come along thrills me. My job for you though is to tell you if it’s a good or a bad album…

So after first listen I am quite impressed with 'Spirit' although I can fully understand the views previously expressed by Samuli, Michael and some others that have heard it as there are no stand out tracks and nothing jumps out as a second single Going BackwardsA strong first track with a sound…

A politicised return, unafraid to look afresh at the band's sound and approach... “We’re fucked,” sings Martin Gore on ‘Fail’, the final track on the new Depeche Mode album ‘Spirit’. It’s not exactly the uplifting, elegiac ending to an album that one is badly in need…