Artist: Depeche Mode
Label: Mute Records
Released: 2006
Rating: 4.5/5
Alongside their earlier “singles collections,” this is Depeche Mode’s first official “best of” album, covering a career that now stretches over a full 25 years.
The guys have shuffled the selection chronologically into a sequence that’s dynamic and varied enough to keep the listener on their toes for the whole running time, both in terms of sonic palette and the twists and turns of the band’s career. The compilation kicks off with the punchy Personal Jesus from “Violator” (1990)! “Violator” is also the album with the strongest showing here, with a whopping three tracks, and as the most successful record of the band’s career, it undoubtedly deserves it. The whole thing closes with a proper anthem, one the fans have long since adopted as their own: Never Let Me Down Again (“Music For The Masses”, 1987). In between, there are 15 more tracks! Seven of them come from Depeche Mode’s 1981–1985 era. Given that there’s nothing from “Black Celebration” (1986) on “The Best Of Vol. 1.” at all, and given the huge leap in songwriting quality Depeche Mode made with “Music For The Masses” (1987), those 7 “game boy rock ‘n’ roll” tracks feel sadly lost among everything else. Especially next to the sheer expressive power of songs like Strangelove, Enjoy The Silence, It’s No Good, Never Let Me Down Again and Walking In My Shoes.
Still, they’re an undeniable document of fearless pioneering, and they paint a vivid picture of Depeche Mode’s greatness all by themselves, especially on the experimental side, where the band never lacked guts. That’s the generative core that keeps driving Depeche Mode on to ever more creative heights even today, and keeps the band looking fresh and youthful in the new millennium. Still, this raises the question of whether putting the band’s “best of” tracks in chronological order was really the smartest move.
On the flip side, those leaps in quality sketch out one of the compilation’s most interesting stretches, the “trio” of Just Can’t Get Enough, Everything Counts and Enjoy The Silence (tracks 2 – 4), where the band’s evolution, cascading upward year by year, jumps out at you the most!
What pretty much forces fans to dig into their savings and cough up some tolars (euros, these days) for this “best of” is the 100% guaranteed draw of a brand-new track on the compilation called Martyr, which you won’t find on any other officially released record from the band! A solid techno dance beat and Gore’s beloved use of semi-acoustic guitar samples keep the atmospherically obscure pulse of “Playing The Angel” alive in this track too.
Fans, definitely grab the limited edition, which comes with a bonus DVD of the band’s “best of” video clips, which of course belongs right there in a collection like “The Best Of Vol 1.” Going by the title of this disc, you can guess right away after one try that part one will be followed by a part two (maybe even a part three?), and it’ll be interesting to see what aces Depeche Mode still have up their sleeve, since “The Best Of Vol 1.” doesn’t include a single track from “Black Celebration” (1986) or a live track from “101”. Anyway, this is a selection that’s tailor-made as a gift for any occasion! And you won’t even have to buy roses on the side, since there’s one on the cover already!
Lineup
Dave Gahan – vocals
MArtin Gore – keyboards, guitar
Andrew Fletcher – keyboards
Alan Wilder – keyboards (all tracks except: 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17)
Vince Clarke – keyboards (tracks: 2, 17)
Track list
1. Personal Jesus
2. Just Can’t Get Enough
3. Everything Counts
4. Enjoy The Silence
5. Shake The Disease
6. See You
7. It’s No Good
8. Strangelove
9. Suffer Well
10. Dream On
11. People Are People
12. Martyr
13. Walking In My Shoes
14. I Feel You
15. Precious
16. Master And Servant
17. New Life
18. Never Let Me Down Again
Running time: 75.04
