Depeche Mode-Sounds of The Universe

This, Depeche Mode’s twelfth studio album, begins as you would hope for it to go on. Opening with a combination of feedback and the popping of electrons tuning up to a high pitch, a great humming crescendo is built up. This drops off abruptly and leaves us with a subdued synth ambience as backing to the ethereal baritone of David Gahan on ‘In Chains’. The result is really quite arresting.

Thankfully, for the six songs that follow, form is more or less kept up. The band manage to use age old Moogs and other archaic machines to reference their early work, while creating something that is current sounding. Notably, the introduction to ‘Hole to Feed’ sounds strikingly similar to that of ‘The Bears are Coming’ by Late of the Pier, and serves as a perfect reminder of the innovative force this band once were, setting in motion trends that would eventually lead to the current wave of young electro-poppers.

However, for all the merits of the first half of the album, the second posits a great deal of filler. Songs like ’Peace’, ‘Come Back’ and ‘Miles Away/The Truth Is’ sound formulaic, peddling the same old pulsing drive and darkly soulful musing we have come to expect. It is at this point that one realises just how much they have stuck to this template throughout, with varying degrees of success. There is a sense that Depeche Mode are simply being Depeche Mode, at their most blandly competent on these tracks, while the groove of cuts like ‘In Sympathy’ evoke their former glory.

And perhaps we should thank them for this as, aside from the aforementioned opener, when they do stray a little, in the ‘electro-lounge’ of ‘Jezebel‘, which is as tiresome as it sounds, they widely miss the mark.

3/5