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Dec. 12, 2023 - RadixJournal - Richard Spencer
41:12
Depeche Mode: Delta Machine

Richard Spencer and Andrew Jensen review Depeche Mode’s 13th studio album, Delta Machine (2013). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radixjournal.substack.com/subscribe

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Welcome to my world Step right through the door Leave your tranquilizers at home You know,
I really don't know what to say about this album because I don't dislike it and I think that there are a lot of songs that are quintessentially Depeche Mode and that I like and that I feel are part of the canon in a way.
And I would include Goodbye, All That's Mine, I like, Heaven, Angel, Secret to the End, which kind of has a hard-driving synth, at least at the beginning.
So there's nothing that I dislike about it.
And secondly, the bluesy sound that they evoked.
I like that quite a bit.
I think I've mentioned this on one of our earlier conversations about the Soul Savers, which was an off-the-beaten-track band that has some kind of relationship with Dave Gahan.
I'm sure they were fans or influenced by him.
They're probably friends.
They've done a number of albums, particularly the first one they did in 2012.
I just think is a revelation.
I mean, I think it's really a unique sound that they created, and it's a kind of acoustic digital blend, a blues and country Americana with...
Depeche Mode blend.
In this room and in your words In too many ways to mention These thoughts torment me Ain't more to shake me There's a man that I should be Someone I could be It
works. And there's a lot of blues in Martin Gore's writing throughout his career.
There's a lot of Elvis in Martin Gore.
Something that I think is underappreciated.
You know, a song like Pleasure, Little Treasure or something, I could almost imagine Elvis singing.
So, I like the fact that they went there and, you know, what is some of the...
There's some great lines on Goodbye, like...
I was always looking, looking for someone, someone to stick my hook in and pull it out and run.
Now I'm caught on your line.
All my thoughts are entwined in you.
I was always looking, looking for someone.
Someone to stick my hook in.
I'm pulling out a run.
Now I'm caught on your line.
All my thoughts are entwined in you.
You can hear a kind of almost elaboration on...
Personal Jesus as well.
But at the end of the day, Personal Jesus is better.
And I could do without the album in some level.
I don't know.
Maybe that's too strong a language to use.
I mean...
I like the album.
As I said, a lot of the songs are quintessentially Depeche Mode.
I like a lot of the songs.
I'm not sure I love one of them.
And I don't think they really added anything terribly new or terribly indispensable to their body of work.
So I guess I'm ambivalent about this.
I have mixed feelings.
Do you know what I think it is?
If there's an emotion about this album, there's an overwhelming sense of annoyance or ambivalence.
Not to all of the songs, but to too many of them.
This is a complaint.
I feel like that didn't really take them into new directions.
But that's kind of like the first layer of the onion.
That's my overall thoughts on the album.
What about you?
I think that the name, Delta Machine, kind of says it all.
Because it invokes the Mississippi River Delta, which may be a birthplace of blues.
More so jazz, but nonetheless the point comes across.
Yeah. African-American music that's Southern, that's coming out of poverty in many ways, that's uniquely American, that is singing about pain.
I mean, there's a natural dovetail with Depeche Mode in that music.
And I know why both Martin and Dave really care about that music and want to evoke it.
Like you said, with Martin's music, a lot of it is this happy, is it sad?
It's probably sad, but you still have that kind of questioning, and that's what blues is to a large extent, because you take, like I said before, major blues lines, there's this kind of flatted third or minor third and major third and minor and major being sad and happy,
and it kind of plays with that.
And so you don't know.
But, you know, I think one of the things that this album is missing, if it was going to go for the sort of synth-pop blues or electro-pop industrial blues combination, I think it should have had, which is my kind of long-standing critique since the departure of Our Lord and Savior Alan Wilder,
is the grooves.
The grooves are not...
They're rather stiff.
They're too electro-pop or synth-pop, and they're not bluesy enough.
I think that would have helped to sort of give a better feel to the blues influence.
And, I mean, blues, in a lot of ways, would kind of be strange if you said, on the surface level, it'd be strange if you said Martin was influenced by blues music.
At least that's what I initially thought.
But, you know, it does make sense because with a lot of blues, I mean, rock and roll, for example, the phrase is literally about having sex.
But there's also a sadness with the word blues, like a blue note.
It literally means being blue.
And in Martin, it's about sex.
The two main themes are sex and sadness or longing.
So there is that yin and yang quality
Do you think there's something to this?
Ben Hillier, who's also a musician and writer, he's English as well.
I don't know when his path crossed with Dave or Or Martin.
But he produced three albums.
They're in succession, one after another, separated by three to four years.
Playing the Angel, which I think has a lot.
I mean, I think Playing the Angels, I like it.
It has a lot.
I can't wait to revisit it because I might even have a different opinion on it.
Sounds of the Universe, a bit disappointing.
Delta Machine, interesting but disappointing.
More interesting than Sounds of the Universe, but still disappointing.
And I also feel like the blues stuff, I mean, that's native to Martin, but it's almost like they were reacting to Soul Savers from the year before.
I mean, if you imagine that they took a break after Sounds of the Universe tour, tour of the universe, and then Dave worked with Soul Savers in 2010, 11, and the album was released in 2012.
It's almost like...
There was a little jealousy about the Soul Savers album, and again, I feel like it was done better with the Soul Savers, and it was done first.
Again, blues is native to Martin Gore, but the Soul Savers, they've had a number of collaborations with Dave Gahan.
Let me just call some of them up.
The Light, the Dead Sea, Angels and Ghosts, and Impostors, album of covers.
The Light, the Dead Sea, S-E-E.
So it's The Light, the Dead Sea.
It's kind of ambiguous.
S-E-A and S-E-E, The Light, the Dead Sea.
They just went headfirst dive into Americana blues.
And they just did it better.
And I almost...
There's just something, again, disappointing when you know about this album in succession of, you know, the best Depeche Mode was actually done under a different name.
And that's just never a good thought in a way.
Like, you want...
If Dave and Marta want to, you know, branch off, they should do something that's totally different and that is...
You know, shouldn't be under a Depeche Mode label, but instead they created a better Depeche Mode album, or Dave did at least, and that just makes the whole thing a little disappointing and unfortunate.
But I don't know.
I don't want to bash it too hard because I feel like I've listened to this album a number of times, particularly when it came out.
I was just waiting for it.
I was excited.
I've listened to it a lot when I've...
You know, on headphones, walking around.
I've listened to it on vinyl now.
Although I ordered a used copy and the record's kind of bent.
It's having a lot of issues.
So disappointing.
Wasting $30 like that just makes you want to jump into the grave.
But anyway, yeah, you can hear it in my voice.
It's just not quite there, even though...
It's one of those feelings where the song comes on and I know it.
I have listened to this album numerous times over and over again, but it is a little bit forgettable.
Wow. The more I talk about it, the more critical I am of this album.
Let me read.
There's an interesting review that came out 10 years ago.
It's funny how time flies.
You think...
Five years is separating a broken frame and music for the masses or something, and you see this massive transformation.
And then now, ten years is separating these, and it does feel like they're running out of gas.
They even sing about this.
The well is dry, and the stream runs shallow, and the sun is high, and the field lies fallow.
My tongue is tied, and my body aching.
Now I'm open wide and afraid of breaking.
The food is hot and the tables are ready, but my stomach's nuts.
Make my hands unsteady, so I take to pace and up and down the room.
While my heart keeps racing and my mind's consumed.
I just want to be part of the light, of the light, of the light, of the light, of the light in your eyes.
I just want to be part of the light, of the light, of the light, of the light, of the light in your eyes.
Are they singing about their own exhaustion?
This is from a review in Pitchfork by Douglas Wolk.
No idea who he is.
Being that it's called Pitchfork, I imagine this is some sort of leftist mag.
I don't know.
I might be wrong.
Delta Machine, like playing the angel and sounds of the universe before it, was produced by Ben Hillier.
Includes three songs with lyrics by Gahan.
This is a double album.
And it sounds like it could be a set of outtakes from songs of faith and devotion.
The word soul appears in five of Gore's songs here, not including Angel or Heaven, which shouldn't be confused with the earlier Halo or Judas or Sacred or Jezebel or Martyr.
It's old news that Gore's favorite lyrical topic is sin and salvation, and that's historically been a pretty fertile topic for songwriting in general.
Unfortunately, there's no line here as sly as strange love.
I give into sin because you have to make this life livable.
And no sense that Gore's idea of sin extends to anything other than mildly kinky sex.
Ouch. Then there's the blues stuff, i.e.
loops of bluesy guitar licks as on Goodbye, which might just as well be called Personal Jesus 14. They're personalizing.
Another one turns up and slow, repeating endlessly as Gahan sings Gore's lyrics about taking it nice and easy in bed these days.
The requisite Gore vocal here, The Child Inside, might have the most embarrassing extended metaphor he's committed to date.
Tears turn into a river that overflows and drowns the loved one's inner child.
As for Gon's own song, yeah.
It's not totally dull record.
Gahan and Gore are singing as well and hyper-dramatically as they ever have.
My Little Universe is a clever piece of minimalist.
Still, what made Depeche Mode work when they worked wasn't just the contrast between Gore's dry detachment and Gahan's dorky innocence up to, say, Music for the Masses.
That's an interesting thing to say.
I think that's definitely true of the very early Gahan as being an almost...
Dorky kid up there dancing around.
But he quickly became something else by the mid-80s.
But they stopped pushing forward long ago, and now they don't even bother pretending technology has opened up any possibilities for recorded sound in the past 20 years.
Now they're just extruding a new album once in a while, reconfiguring the grooves and keywords of the album from the period when they were a force in pop.
Without the push towards new noises and uncertain feelings that made the music powerful.
There is not a single moment of shock or freshness in Delta Machine, and it's enormously frustrating to hear what was once a band of futurists so deeply mired in resisting change.
It's a bit much, maybe.
It's highly critical, but I have a hard time disagreeing with what they're saying.
And I'm just reminded of some of these very good documentaries that have been Released on YouTube, where they've collected a lot of interviews of the band from the early 80s,
and they're sampling found footage, basically.
Like the rock dropped down a gutter.
they drop a rock down a gutter and they record it.
Or blasphemous rumors.
Certainly, you know, everything counts in construction time.
Again, it has a lot of that found sound.
You know, they're actually scraping like an aluminum siding board or something like that to get that sound.
And even, you know, it's almost like passe now, but it's cool and it's an interesting thing to do.
It's an expansion on electronic music where it's not just having a backing track playing on stage and a recording on stage, and it's not just playing synthesizers.
It's using noise like this.
And that was an example of these 20-year-olds trying to find something new very genuinely.
Even though I like the hearkening back to Americana blues, it is a kind of expression, there's nowhere to go but backwards.
Or there's nowhere to go but towards pastiche.
Yeah. I feel like, I think I can count about five different examples where they're kind of calling on old Depeche Mode.
I think, for example, the opening track, Welcome to My World, I just think of My Cosmos is Mine and World in My Eyes.
I mean, those are, and they're all openers on each album.
You know, I just feel like this album, they were just looking back to their old stuff and kind of copying it, whether or not they realize it.
On Angel, the song Angel, the rhythm of it with that triplet kind of blues rhythm, the dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot.
The legs beneath me weaker, I began to crawl.
I was lost.
I was found.
That rhythm, the bass, it's kind of like the dotted like that, that, that, that, that, on the offbeat, the guitar riff, that minor blues guitar riff, and even Dave's voice, which is like bordering on yelling and singing,
It sounds like I feel you off of Songs of Faith and Devotion.
This is the dawning of Allah.
And, I mean, in the song Should Be Higher, I mean, some of these I am kind of reaching, but these are just both lyrical and production examples that I could find where it seemed like they were calling back.
I mean, Should Be Higher.
Dave says this lyric that's reminiscent of policy of truth, like, lies are more attractive than truth.
Maybe that's a stretch.
Or, you know, lie to me as well.
you know.
You know.
Your lies are more attractive than the truth.
But that's almost explicating the sense of lie to me.
It's that old phrase of show, don't tell.
You tell when you're writing an essay, but you show when you're writing poetry or a play or...
Lyrics or a novel or something.
You don't tell the audience what this is about.
And it's like, lie to me, but do it with sincerity.
That's a great rhyme.
And it's real simple.
But now we're at, you know, your lies are more attractive than the truth.
And it's like you're just explaining to the audience what this is about.
Love is all I want.
Again, God, I'll just say this, though.
I don't dislike it, though.
No, no.
It's just, you know, it is a little bit of a letdown in total because you're like, I want that song that's going to sink its teeth into me and I'm just going to be hearing it in my head throughout the day.
That kind of thing.
All the old, you know, the classic stuff, We're holding my eyes, whatever.
I mean, that will penetrate your brain and then, you know, the other songs that you're not so hot about will eventually later on penetrate and then you're really involved in the whole album and you can see it as a cohesive piece.
But this album, there wasn't one song that really like, oh man, I'm really like, I'm really feeling this one.
I'm really persuaded by it or, you know, but.
Yeah. The other example I had was in Secret to the End, there's a synth line that is identical.
It might not be in the same key, but it is identical to the opening melody to Sister of Night from Ultra.
of Night
Not only are they going back, you know, as far as like, let's do Americana Blues, but with, you know, synths, but it was also like, let's kind of call back to, whether, I don't think that was conscious, but, you know, let's go back to our old stuff.
Let's call on these old things.
And I don't know, there's a part of me that can kind of get tired of the same themes over and over.
I'm not saying Martin Gore has to write a song about being a hero instead of a martyr, but...
Right. Yeah, I mean, that also might just come with, you know, having reviewed these weekly now.
Yeah, there's another strange tendency in here, and that is, and I don't know if I've seen this tendency in their other songs, but this repeating something over and over again, and I don't know what they were playing with,
but it seems monotonous in a bad way.
I mean, a lot of...
Depeche Mode music actually is monotonous in a good way.
It's that driving sound.
But like, should have been you, should have been you, should have been you, should have been you, should have been you, should have been you if it had been me.
There's some other examples of this.
There's only one way to soothe my soul.
just this like repeating.
I'll see you next time.
I just want to be part of the light of the light of the light of the light of the light in your eyes.
This weird, like, repeating of the lyric over and over again.
And I don't know what to say.
It just, it's a...
I guess maybe again, it's like when they repeat this repetition throughout the album, it becomes disappointing and just strange.
And I think that maybe is on the producer as much as anyone, actually.
But it's just...
I don't know.
If it happened once...
And I even like...
I just want to be part of the light of your eyes.
And the light of the light of your eyes.
It's actually a cool image.
Again, I don't dislike this album and I don't dislike any of these songs.
I can kind of imagine walking into a dark lounge or something and...
You know, with a drink and this music kind of playing in the background.
And it's not, it's not like electro synth enough to get you dancing or something like that.
And it's got a little bluesy quality to it.
There's just something cool about it.
And there's some imagery that I like, but it just doesn't, it's ultimately, as I've described it, it's ultimately background music.
Well. Honestly, I think my favorite song is The Child Inside.
It's Martin's, you know, another one of his most personal songs, but it just sounds good.
And that lyric about the tears or whatever that was kind of corny, I didn't even touch that.
You know, I think...
That was probably the best produced song.
It had a good, like, sad atmosphere.
And I think it was kind of autobiographical because he's talking about, you know, he described himself as being a loner as a child and not really going out to play and presumably writing songs in his bedroom.
And, you know, there are lines in that song that, you know, were basically saying, why didn't you go out to play when...
When you were a child and all the other kids are on such a nice day kind of thing.
Because, you know, he's admitted he was like a reclusive, kind of lonely, raised by a single mom kid, you know, unfortunately.
Or maybe fortunately for us as fans.
But, yeah, I think that was probably the best song on the album.
And, you know, that could have just been on a Martin Gore solo project.
Have you got buried inside The shallow grave in your soul The ghosts there have taken control You really should have dug a little deeper there Body parts are starting to appear and
scare I agree with the general sentiment of the Pitchwork Review,
But I would say each tear that flows down your face trickles and picks up the pace and turns to a river inside, a river that will not subside.
I can hear that dreadful overflowing sound and watching from afar, I see a child is dragged.
Yeah, it's a little, you know, the inner child.
It's a massive cliche, but that doesn't mean it's bad.
But again, is this better than when they weren't quite explaining the metaphor to the audience?
And a song like Little 15, you know?
Yeah. Who wants to drive away?
I think that might be a function of age, too, because it's okay to be a bit pervy when you're about 25, 26. Right.
But when you're in your 50s, it's probably...
I don't know that this is...
Fair enough.
Maybe they couldn't get away with it.
But I guess my point is that, yeah, that song could be read in a pervy way.
Fair enough.
But I don't read it in that way.
And the sadness of the music and the piano, it strikes me as, yeah, there's a little bit of sex around the edges, but it's actually a really tragic song, Little Fifteen.
little 15 you help me forget your world outside you
You're not part of it yet And if you could drive You could drive her away To a happier place To a happier day He's not like Rolling Stones singing Brown Sugar or something.
This is a This is like a hard, sad, weighty song.
It's like a teenage prostitute or someone who's child-trafficked.
Don't quote me on this.
There's something kind of sexy around the edges of it, but it's a sex enwrapped in pain and loss of innocence and exploitation and regret, etc.
Yeah, I mean, I just, I think it was better when they, when the lyric was in a way simpler and kind of poppier.
Yeah, I would definitely agree.
I don't know, I just overall just don't, I think first and foremost, since Exciter on the production has not served.
And that does, I would say, Ultra does really serve those songs well.
The production really serves those songs very well.
And I don't blame Martin or Dave so much.
Like I said, it's just unfortunate that they haven't found somebody to really...
I think the closest was Ben Hillier when he did Playing the Angel.
I think that's their best album of this century.
But yeah, I think first and foremost, because it has to be listenable and it has to be almost addicting.
Yeah, Precious is up there in terms of Depeche Mode anthems.
It's up there with Never Let Me Down Again, Enjoy the Silence.
Definitely. I mean, it's up there.
It's equal to all of those songs.
And it's actually very Martin Gorey.
It has a kind of personal message to it, you know, as well.
So it's not just like a typical pop song or something.
So, yeah, I mean, I would praise them.
Just since we're focusing on lyrics here, just heaven.
You know, again, I think in a way, like all of the negatives about this album are some of the positives.
Like it's disappointing.
You're waiting for more, but then there actually is something great about it as well.
He's basically, I dissolve and trust.
So he's trusting the Lord.
I will sing with joy.
I will end up dust, just like Adam.
Dust, you came from dust, you'll end up there.
I'm in heaven.
I stand in golden rays radiantly.
I burn a fire of love over and over, reflecting endless light relentlessly.
I've embraced the flame forever and ever.
I will scream the word, jump into the void.
I will guide the herd up to heaven.
I mean, there is something, I guess, authentically American.
I mean, dare I say it, authentically black?
I mean, I mean that seriously.
It's like cultural appropriation, but in a really interesting form.
You get to this raw, unrefined, but then also authentic and in a way justified monotheism of America.
Of not even really knowing the stories, but just remembering a few things.
We're going to all end up dust.
We're going to yell the word.
The flame will burn me up.
I'll lead the herd up to heaven.
I want more, but then at the same time, that is one of the best songs in the sense that it's a primitive Depeche Mode song and almost a primitive expression of monotheism.
I stand in golden rage Ragingly I burn a
fire of love Over and over Reflecting endless lies Reliclessly
I have embraced a flame Forever and ever I will scream a word
Jump into the void I will guide
the world Up to heaven Up to heaven Up to heaven
If I'm permitted to say it, is it not Dionysian?
Maybe. I will scream the word, jump into the void, I will guide the herd up to heaven.
It's just Christian.
Yeah, I mean, it might be Dionysian.
The idea of, like, just I'm going into dust, but I'm doing it in trust.
That's an interesting rhyme.
And I trust in the Lord, and then I'll just end up dust, and I'm going to lead everyone else up to heaven, because our best life is far away.
It's the next one.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's kind of like surrendering, you know.
It also sounds like it's surrendering to sex, and, like, I'll get burned by this.
It's almost cautionary, like a kind of Augustinian kind of, what's his quote about make me chase Lord, just not yet.
Just not right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, something like that.
And that's what I, and he's jumping to the void, a guide that heard up to heaven.
I mean, that borders on like, you know, kind of.
Death cult stuff.
Now, I'm not going to say, you know, Martin Gore's running a secret death cult.
Obviously not.
But, you know, it's martyr-like.
It's, you know, guiding the herd.
I guess you and I are part of the herd as his fans.
But seriously, though, it does sound a bit like he's almost like making it sound like he's a saint to die in the fiery passion of lust or something.
That's at least what I get from it.
There is something remarkable about this, because it's not terribly surprising for Christian sentiments to make their way into pop music.
Just because America is a Christian country, etc., etc., it's the culture that people draw from.
They're going to use terms like angel and heaven and heaven is a place on earth and all this kind of, yeah.
But this is more authentic.
This gets to someone who knows at least the rudiments of the Bible.
And it is fascinating in a way that that type of sentiment is reproduced in this.
band that, yeah, they might just crank out an album every three to four years, but
do and they're good.
And the fact that that basic primitive monotheism...
It continues in this setting of going to a stadium in Berlin or a basketball arena in Los Angeles or something, and yet they're continuing this tradition of primitive Christianity.
It's remarkable.
That tradition has continued in the musical arena, if not If not, for most all of the people attending these concerts on Sunday at 10 a.m. at church.
Yeah, there's something liturgical about their...
I saw somebody in a YouTube comment say about the devotional concert.
He said, this isn't music, this is a religious experience.
I mean, that's what their concerts feel like.
Yeah. The day when I dare to believe you're the answer.
When the shame and the guilt...
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