All Episodes
Dec. 21, 2023 - RadixJournal - Richard Spencer
53:34
Depeche Mode: Construction Time Again

Richard Spencer and Andrew Jensen review Depeche Mode’s third studio album, Construction Time Again (1983). 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

| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
So, I think this was really Depeche Mode's first album.
Don't you think?
Absolutely. Yeah, this is, and it's, you know, I never liked this album all that much when I was a lot younger, like when I was into Depeche Mode, when I was, you know, 10 to 15 years old or something.
I, you know, Everything Counts was a classic.
Track, of course, but I would mostly just listen to the live album 101 over and over again, basically.
But I did mention that it...
I remember listening to Catching Up with Depeche Mode on CD actually very early on, and I did almost discount a lot of the Speak and Spell and Broken Frame tracks.
It was like, you know...
You know, it's just too early.
They don't have the sound.
But even with the opening track of Love in Itself, which, you know, isn't actually that impressive in terms of lyrics or so on, you hear the industrial sound,
the banging and clanging.
There's a certain new toughness, you could say, to Dave Gahan's voice.
And I feel like this was actually it.
Now I find that most of the time, love's not enough in itself.
And I wasn't even positive that I would have said this before we started doing this, you know, 15 album homage podcast.
But this is it in the sense that this album contains all of the essential elements of Depeche Mode.
The samples, the noise.
At one point, I can't remember which track it is at this time, but it's almost like they recorded like a...
Subway or U-Bahn train when they were in Berlin and integrated it into the song.
And so everything, the lyrics, the socialist, whether that's communist or fascist vibe, the tough singing by Dave, they're starting to move away from a love song.
They're singing protest songs, which is very interesting.
they're also singing a song like Everything Counts, which both is
critical of capitalism, of course, and talks about the shallowness of it all.
But then you could almost imagine this song as a soundtrack to Wall Street or something like it in in criticizing capitalism.
aesthetic or cool about it, so to speak.
You know what it like in the way that Wall Street and Gordon Gekko's speech about greed is good and
You know, taking from the needy, giving...
To the greedy, that is good, as Ayn Rand said.
You know, that overtly anti-capitalist film probably inspired more people to go to Wall Street and be a broker than an Ayn Rand novel, perhaps.
I mean, if you understand what I'm saying.
The handshake till the contracts from the contracts
pay.
There's no turning back The turning point of a career In Korea, being insincere The holiday was
fun fact The contract still intact The firing hands, grab all they care All for themselves, after all Grabbing
hands, grab all they care All for themselves, after all It's a competitive world Everything counts in large amounts The following:
The New York Times The New York Times The New York Times The New York Times
Yeah, I mean, I think it's all here.
And then the other thing, because I'm just giving my general overview here, is that with Alan Wilder, it was clear that Alan Wilder is paying a lot of attention to the sound.
There's an interesting quote I have from the book, Just Can't Get Enough, about Alan in the studio.
He's also writing songs.
I mean, even...
One of the B-sides from this album, Fools, is one of my favorite songs from the album, actually, and it's a B-side.
Absolutely. I
just think this is it.
They're still young at this point.
And they're still in that put out an album every year and kind of throw it together in a few months and see what happens kind of thing.
But this is it.
I think this is where Depeche Mode found a unique sound that no one else can do.
At the time...
Before them, afterward, there are obvious influences.
There's Kraftwerk influences.
There's a lot of German New Wave because they were in Germany recording this.
There's all sorts of things that you could say are influencing them.
David Bowie as well.
This is where there's a confident demonstration of who they are in one album.
So those are my opening thoughts.
And I was surprised to have them, I'll say before I let you speak.
Is that, again, so many of these things get grooved into your mind.
And how I remembered this album was, it's not that great.
It's kind of like Broken Frame.
You know, Everything Counts is a great single, but nothing else is there.
And just sitting down and re-listening to it and listening to the whole album as, again, doing the vinyl thing, just sitting down, putting the needle to the record, letting it play.
Interesting to say that you think that it could be their most important album.
I guess I understand that Insofar as it kind of projected them to get that kind of quality fan like you and I, and kind of made them who they are, I guess, sonically.
As far as the superficiality of the music, you know, with using synthesizers and you're kind of making up your own sound, and I think it kind of reflects that neoliberal capitalist...
era of the Thatcher, Reagan period.
And I think this album as a whole
It's kind of interesting.
That makes sense.
The themes are...
The whole album, I think it's kind of anti-Martin Gore in a lot of ways, because it's outward-looking.
It's objective.
It's about other people.
It's about you and the world, but it's maybe three-quarters about the world and one-quarter about you.
There's not the, as we've talked about, the Martin Gore that is introspective, navel-gazing, guilt-ridden as much.
I mean, there is, with a song like Shame.
That might be an exception.
But it's still outward looking.
Even the song Love in itself is kind of like about...
It's relatable.
It's about him losing his first love and getting over that.
There was a time when all on my mind was love.
Now that I find, most of the time, love's not enough in itself.
Don't you think that's also a manifesto?
Usually the first track on the album, at least for Depeche Mode, I think for a lot of bands, it's a bit of a manifesto.
It's telling you what the album is about.
I mean, I was just editing our podcast on Memento Mori, and My Cosmos is Mine kind of sums up so much of the album.
And it offers sonically as well, just kind of is a statement about the album.
And yeah, Love's Not Enough in itself.
We're not singing those songs anymore.
Right. And with My Cosmos is Mine, it's...
Obviously, outward looking as well.
I think that's been the kind of repeated theme with a lot of their songs.
As I said, with World in My Eyes on Violator and Love in Itself, obviously.
But I think to say that it is just simply like a political or conscious album is wrong.
I think that's what some have said about it.
This sounds like a Labour Party manifesto.
But I don't actually think that that's the case.
I kind of think that with a song like The Landscape is Changing, it's kind of like about Britain changing maybe financially or fiscally or environmentally, but it's also about them changing,
in my opinion, demographically, becoming less traditional in a way.
The values got you here inside Evolution, the solution on a Saturday Can you imagine
this intrusion of their privacy Because I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world I don't care if you're going It's obviously a political album,
in the sense that these are protest songs.
And maybe People Are People could count as something like that.
And it's something that they moved away from.
Some Great Reward is definitely a different album in terms of tone, black celebration, etc.
I think it gets to something we were talking about with Spirit as well, where there's, and a broken frame, there's somewhat of a pretense about Depeche Mode, and I mean that in a good way, even though the word's not usually used that way,
in the sense of it's, they're kind of imagining a certain vibe or situation or Attitude.
And they're evoking communism and fascism in pretty much equal measure.
And they kind of were trying to get at that aesthetic very early on.
And I think now they're achieving it.
So it's an aesthetic socialism.
In both ways.
I mean, in both senses of that term, it's talking about the landscape is changing.
Like the and then, there's a way in which Martin Gore is kind of throwing up his hands, but then also offering something, a radical vision of taking a map off the wall and tearing it into pieces.
And all the boys and girls will see how easy it would be to, you know, redraw the lines of the map or tear it up or refashion everything.
But then there's also a certain kind of sarcasm or irony, is that all we need at the start is universal revolution, that's all.
And we'll trust in our hearts, we'll find the solution.
So I take that as a little bit sarcastic, or that cheeky is maybe the better.
Certainly, it's ironic.
in the sense of we can't really do it, but then look how easy it would be just to remold all of this.
Let's take a map of freedom, tear it into pieces, all of the boys and
the girls, we'll see how easy it is.
To put it all down and start again, from the top to the bottom and then, I'll have faith or I prefer to think that
things couldn't turn out worse.
All that we need at the start, beautiful, beautiful revolution, and if we trust in our hearts, we'll find the
To put it all down and start again, from the top to the bottom and then, I'll have faith or I prefer to think that things
couldn't turn out worse.
I guess what I'm saying is that they're trying to capture a certain attitude or vibe or aesthetic.
And I think they're better achieving it at this point.
But I think the aesthetic comes first.
It sounds like a criticism in a way, but...
But dogmatic or didactic or preachy music just stinks to high heaven.
And to be fair here, there's a little bit of that, you know, with...
I don't care if you're going nowhere, just take good care of the world.
I mean, a little sing-songy and preachy there.
But, so, you know, they sometimes will miss the mark.
But... A working class song that's telling you to vote labor or lower taxes or put your trust in Jesus or something.
These things suck inherently.
Conservative movies, as an example of a didactic type of art form, just sucks.
It's unwatchable.
It's patronizing and insulting on some level.
Hollywood is much more...
I'm going to dump all the commie stuff at this point.
I mean, look at the cover of the album.
It's a guy with a sledgehammer.
Granted, hammered sickle.
You know, the sickle was in the last album.
But he's standing before the Matterhorn, and it looks pretty fashy.
So they are trying to get towards an aesthetic of fascism, and I think they're writing the kind of song that a fascist would write.
Let's put it that way.
Okay. Yeah.
And so it's not really...
I mean, again, with some exceptions where it's preachy and a little bit cloying, We'll forgive those faults.
But I think overall, they're approaching that fascism as an aesthetic.
And remember when we were talking about Spirit, where they said that they were inspired by the Hitler youth.
And again, I obviously don't think that any member of the band is some Hitlerite or anti-Semite or whatever.
They just grasp that the Nazis...
National socialism as optics was just very successful.
And it was powerful.
It inspired, in many ways, so much of the fashion movement going forward and corporate presentation, national presentation, etc.
And I think they're trying to capture that.
And in the next few albums from that, again, three albums recorded in Germany.
Very interesting.
They're going to get there and they'll end up with music for the masses with a red megaphone as this, you know, commie, fashy aesthetic all in one.
But it is an aesthetic.
I think this, and I say that as praise, I think this would be a lesser album if it were actually singing about working class issues or...
Or offering some kind of mockish pain to the working poor or something.
Not that those people don't deserve sympathy, but the best way to show them sympathy is not to sing some hippie anthem or saccharine pop song.
I think they're going for something very different.
And in a weird way, it sounds strange to say this about a rock band, but they're going for a visual aesthetic.
That they're achieving sonically, if that makes sense.
Sure. Another way you could say it is that the image reflects the music, I guess.
Or the music reflects the image, yeah.
Yeah, the album cover and the associated artwork.
Yeah, and just the vibe.
They've dropped the sweaters and the vintage suits that they wore.
This is when...
You know, Martin Gore is wearing bondage gear, the leather jackets, the toughness.
Are they even from Britain at this point?
You mentioned And Then, and there's kind of two interpretations of that song that I have.
With the lyric, I took a plane across the world, got in a car.
When I reached my destination, I hadn't gone far.
Superficially, it's a comment on how technology of transportation makes the world smaller.
But I kind of also see it as, like, capitalism has kind of homogenized our world in a lot of ways.
For example, in Vegas, you can visit New York, New York, or the phony Eiffel Tower that they have there, or even something as simple as getting, like, a Neapolitan Italian food in New York City.
That might even be better than Neapolitan food in Naples.
Which I think is what they're getting at.
Yeah, there's no doubt that I think that's I hadn't gone far.
You could read that in all sorts of ways, but like he personally hadn't gone far or something.
But yeah, what I think it is, is looking at this homogenization of the West at the very least.
Most of the globe through industrialization.
And again, they're going to embrace this.
They're going to write an album called Music for the Masses.
And what is that outside of this almost like fashy gloss that they're going to put onto Western capitalism?
I think Gareth Jones...
Needs to be kind of recognized as taking their sound and making it so much harder and so much more interesting because this album is especially sample-based.
At this point, it's the most sample-based of their three albums at the time.
But it's also harder and edgier.
And as you said, Dave really comes into his own as having that quintessential Dave gone.
Almost kind of yawning baritone that he was popular for in the 80s.
And, you know, I mean, they're taking, especially in a song like Pipeline, they're taking basically all of those sounds were, with the exception of a few, were really just sounds that they had in,
that they found in a construction site.
And, I mean, they have the train, at the end of the song, they have the train literally going over the tunnel to kind of end the song.
And so the sound is, I can understand where it's labor-related or labor-adjacent, whatever, because these are all industrial kind of sounds, and they're using, you know, I smack a hammer on a piece of aluminum siding and kind of pitch it in the...
in the keyboard and spread it across the keyboard and I play the melody At
the time, it would have been extremely radical and original.
There were other bands who were doing it, but Depeche Mode was doing it in a similar way that the Beatles were incorporating, let's say, Indian music into their songs.
They had kind of taken it and really pushed it to the fore and made it popular.
And I mean, you hear that, of course, and everything counts with the scraping of the metal to open the track.
by Ben Thede
It's something that I appreciate, but if you let friends listen to it today, they're kind of like, ah, this is kind of corny.
It's not new and exciting and fresh, to which I rebut, well, what is, you know, today, at least.
Yeah, no, I think there's definitely, I mean, like, Pipeline, I think taking from the needy, giving to the greedy, is a bit cringe and it it also when you have a line like that I don't quite know what you're singing about but those are my criticisms of the song and it's obviously not this fun song that You know,
you want to dance to or sing along or something.
That's granted, but it's not trying to be that.
I mean, it's this art song with all of these layers, these repetitive sounds that will enter in a kind of crescendo and then leave and then come back.
And it really, it strikes me as a kind of more listenable version of some experimental music.
That people might write in grad school or something.
They're trying to do a kind of anti-music and put it together and make something of it.
Again, is it a song I love listening to or singing along with?
not really, but it's great as a statement about what they're trying to achieve.
Thank you.
*Tonk*
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that makes it not very Martin Gorey is the, one, the fact that it's outward facing and it's kind of objective, but there's no, as far as the chords, there's no,
you know, enjoy the silence type of chord where it's that C minor to E flat minor, that kind of dark.
This album is tough, but it's not very dark.
Yeah. It's weird and quirky.
Unfortunately, a little bit corny.
What do you think More Than A Party is about?
See, I wouldn't actually...
I think this is their most left-wing album.
Yeah. More Than Spirit?
I see it as...
Okay. I know.
Go on.
I don't want to...
It's their most labor-y album.
Maybe a comment on Thatcher's, the neoliberal revolution and it being more than just a party.
This is more than just a Republican or conservative party.
This is a revolution in the West as far as deregulation and kind of, I don't know what you call it, hypercapitalism or just neoliberalism.
I don't want to throw those words out there because they're kind of buzzwords, but I'm kind of short on the vocabulary.
But what do you think it's about?
Yeah, I think that's interesting.
I'm not positive.
The failed magician waves his hand, and in an instant, the laughter's gone.
Lots of surprises in store.
This isn't a party.
It's a whole lot more.
I mean, you don't know.
I was thinking while I was reading Simon Spence's Just Can't Get Enough.
This is a quote by a man named Fetan.
He said, Martin had broken up with Anne, we talked a little bit about regarding Broken Frame, and started going out with these more sophisticated women.
We'd go to some strange fetish-style club somewhere in the Netherlands, and he'd do a strip tease on the table.
But I have to say, it was mostly harmless fun of people being silly rather than anything heavy.
I don't remember there being any drugs.
They drank, everyone drank, but not to excess.
I don't know if there's a little bit of that quality to it.
It's more than a party.
But I think your reading is also probably correct.
More than a party.
you you can't do it.
Bye. Bye.
You know, might they be singing about the Tories or something?
Maybe. I don't know.
It's very ambiguous.
Lots of surprises in store.
Okay, yeah, I can definitely see that being about a swinging party or some kind of BDSM-laden.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's kind of both or something.
You know, we talked about this.
There's the hidden, there's like the personal hidden meeting for Martin Gore, and then there's...
How you take it or something.
As far as the failed magician waves his hand and the laughter is gone, I could also take that as a song about deindustrialization overall with like, okay, I waved my hand and these factories are now in Asia or wherever and they're closed down and you have no job.
Because I kind of view the magician as he's asserting his Will on reality and changing reality in the same way that a politician can actually do that.
Maybe that's a stretch, but they wave their hand, the corporation waves their hand, and the jobs go overseas, and the laughter's gone because people are out of a job.
And actually, the next album in Some Great Reward, that image of that factory, that same year that that picture was taken in 1984, which I think is...
In a place called Shoreditch was demolished and taken down.
So, I mean, deindustrialization might be a theme to consider.
Interesting. And I think just overall that Martin's, he's, whereas if he's channeling any humanities or disciplines, he's kind of channeling psychology.
He's talking about himself.
I'm talking about the quintessential Martin Gore that we know and love.
But in this album, he's kind of like channeling like political science or economics or something.
It's not, as I said, it's very outward.
And I think it's outward first and then inward second.
Yeah. Also, a song that struck me was Two Minute Warning, which was written by Alan Wilder.
We're lying by the orange sky, two million miles across the land, scattered to the highest high.
Expect they'll either laugh or cry.
No sex, no consequence, no sympathy.
You're good enough to heat.
And so he's talking about nuclear annihilation.
This certainly, this was on...
Everyone's mind.
I mean, around this time, Naina had this single 99 red balloons in English that was about releasing red balloons and it starts a nuclear war.
And I'll see you next
time. Bye.
Bye. Bye.
Bye. Bye.
I'm sorry.
So I think a lot of this almost like black comedic look at nuclear war was there.
But I appreciate the, again, the hardness of it all where it's not saying like two-minute warning and the babies will be crying.
Why did you do this to us?
It makes no sense.
You madman.
You know, those are...
Sentiments are fine and good, but it's cynical and ironic and more disturbing, where it's talking about the people,
expect they'll either laugh or cry.
There's no sex, no consequence, but also no sympathy.
You're good enough to heat.
The dawning of another year.
Marks time for those who understand.
One in four still here, while you and I go hand in hand.
So they're among the survivors.
No radio, no sound, no sin, no sanctuary.
So welcome to your last.
So it's, I mean, again, it's very laconic.
And it's simple, but I think in just a few lines really creates this imagery of nuclear holocaust.
The fact that it's focusing on sex, it's like no sex, no consequence, but also no sympathy before you die.
And then afterward, you have no sin, but also no sanctuary.
I think it's actually great.
No sex, no consequence, no sympathy.
You're good enough to hear Two minutes morning, two minutes later when Time has come, my days are numbered Two minutes morning, two minutes later
when Time has come, my days are numbered Time has come, my days are numbered
You know, I don't know how many times this has been performed afterward.
It's not one of their greatest or most classic, but in terms of setting the mood and establishing Depeche Mode's essence, I think a song like that really does it.
Interesting. With the no radio, no sound, no sin, no sanctuary, I get very much Garden of Eden type of vibes, like a new world after.
The nuclear holocaust.
Definitely. There are a couple of other things worth mentioning.
The next three albums are recorded at Hansa Studios.
That is in West Germany.
Obviously, the Cold War is still on at this point in time.
It's on everyone's mind.
It's interesting because David Bowie...
He recorded Lodger, Heroes, and Lowe at Hansa Studios.
It's known as his Berlin Trilogy.
And this will also be where U2 records Octoon Baby, which is their very Berlin album.
And their greatest album.
It was recorded during the end of the Cold War as well.
I mean, it's quite incredible.
And I think they were becoming a European band.
None of this surprised me when I was reading this chapter in Simon Spence's book, but they're failing to chart in England.
They're selling more copies in Germany.
They actually don't do an American tour for this album, but they do Spain and France and Germany.
I mean, eventually they'll go to the Soviet Union.
I think this, too, was a liberation of sorts from England.
And Depeche Mode, you know, I mean, perhaps they sense this all along with a French name, but it's becoming a European band.
They're, you know, they're intentionally choosing to record these things in West Germany, which is, you know, again, it's like an island city.
It's in...
East Germany.
There's the wall separating you from the east.
Hansa Studios overlooks the wall.
You know, a lot of people living in Berlin thought, you know, if the bombs start flying, we'll probably be first.
I mean, whether or not that was correct, that is definitely the sentiment in the air.
And then also, this is when Alan Wilder is really allowed into the band, and he...
Again, I think his influence on the music and where Martin Gore will be as a songwriter later, or Dave Gahan as a songwriter even, for that matter, is underestimated.
And this is just a paragraph from the book.
Alan wrote a bit of Construction Time again.
It was just Martin, really.
Martin wrote the songs.
Dave sang most of them and Martin sang some of them.
And Martin sang backing vocals and Alan sang a bit of backing vocals.
But everything was played by the machines.
So it was more about what atmosphere we teased out of the machines.
And Andy was a really important part of that because he was a really important part of the group dynamic.
And he would also put his foot down sometimes and say, it's not weird enough.
That sounds a bit too normal.
I know what you're saying.
Andy was very concerned that we should maximize the potential of Martin's songs.
Very concerned that that should be the case.
But not necessarily in the most simple pop way.
With that album, they were determined to do something that would earn the respect of their peers.
They were determined not to be dismissed as synth pop.
That was very important to Andy as well, that the band should reinvent themselves in some kind of successful but moody, dark, edgy kind of way.
This is actually Gareth Jones.
So, you know, you can tell that Fletch is much more interested in commercial success, although he also recognizes the need to go edgy and dark.
Martin is the, you know, obviously, like, fundamental songwriter, but it seems like Alan Wilder is the one really drag.
I would agree with that.
I think that Andy was their manager before their manager.
And he's also Martin's biggest fan, but to be fair, also his biggest critic, maybe.
I know he said before, why do all the songs have to be about death?
Basically saying that, okay, we don't want to turn this album and make it too sad.
But it's weird to kind of...
He's kind of like dictating.
The way that you read that, it made it sound like he was almost like dictating.
And he was important in the direction of their sound, is what I can conclude from that.
my personal bias against him for whatever tensions he had with
with Alan.
The Yoko Ono of Depeche Mode.
A bit like that.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think that Alan definitely wanted to get away from Speak and Spell and the poppiness of it.
He had said in multiple interviews that he had to be diplomatic.
He didn't want to come into the band and immediately start arguing with Martin, especially over the sound, over the direction of the songs.
And obviously, he had, as time went on, more and more influence in changing the direction of the songs.
But his songs, I have to say, Alan's songs, I mean, they're all right.
And lyrically, they're a little bit interesting.
But, I mean, they're kind of fillers at the end of the day.
Maybe especially the landscape is changing.
And I think, you know, he would have better ones on the next album.
Yeah. Again, Fools is one of their better B-sides.
True, true.
I actually bought some vinyl singles and b-sides from this album.
It's very interesting.
Fools, there's a lot of live tracks.
Even performing Speak and Spell songs, you can tell there's this difference.
Performing the live version of Photographic.
That was the Speak and Spell song.
What are the lyrics to that?
I take pictures.
Photographic. But it's a white house, a white room, the program of today.
It's played at a much faster tempo.
And that was a choice.
I mean, remember, there's not an actual drummer.
They're playing a 8-track tape.
But it's just played very hard.
It's also kind of pushing towards that almost heavy metal sound that you'll see from them.
This kind of slamming the keyboard.
And it's just...
Again, it's recognizable, but almost unrecognizable from this Speak and Spell album, which could properly be described as cute.
This is Photographic!
So you went to the concert one week ago in Detroit?
I did.
How was it?
It was the best concert I've ever been to.
Oh, really?
They did about the same songs that they did in Chicago, but...
There were a few changes, and I'm trying to remember them off the top of my head.
The one that they did, which was a two-person deal with Martin and Peter Vordino, was Dressed in Black.
And they kind of sang back and forth with the, what are the lyrics?
Dressed in Black again?
Yeah, that part.
Oh, dressed in black again.
I mean, I wasn't on the floor, but I was two seats away from the floor.
I was about 100 feet from Dave and Martin, and it was awesome.
It was the best concert I've ever been to, full of energy, and I have to say that the crowd was extremely responsive and extremely Whereas in Chicago, I don't know if it's because I was sitting a little bit further back,
but they weren't, as you could tell, there were a few people who weren't as interested in the music.
And for some, I think a lot of those fans perhaps were just like, oh, I'm kind of a nostalgic 80s guy.
I'll go see Depeche Mode.
This, you know, felt like these were actual Depeche Mode fans.
I mean, people were singing, like, the lyrics to some of their more unknown songs, like...
Dressed in black.
and knowing the lyrics, which was good.
She's a picture of the world.
A reflection of you, a reflection of me.
It's all there to see if you will be given to the fire within.
Oh, just like a game.
Oh
So where would you rank this album?
It's in the middle.
It's, you know, just due to the things that are holding it back are the lack of weird Martin Gore chords and the lack of the, you know, navel-gazing.
So I think I have this one at nine?
Yeah. Okay.
I agree.
But all I would say is that this has increased quite a bit in my estimation.
And I might put it higher just because I do think this is an essential album.
Also, just in terms of historical importance, I would definitely put it higher.
If not...
Even perhaps number one.
Really? In terms of this is when they became who they are.
I mean, this is it.
They found their unique sound here.
And no, it's not perfect.
Lots of things missed the mark.
Yes, but they found those essential qualities of Depeche Mode.
And I think that...
Brings it to a higher state than it otherwise would be.
But we'll have to go to this.
After we finish the whole tour of the albums, I'll sit down with 15 and force myself to rank them.
And maybe I'll put it lower than that.
But I think I've gotten my message across.
So, quick question.
Did you see, have you seen them this year on this Memento Mori tour?
No. And, yeah.
I might have to do a quick flight down to Vegas.
That's where they're going to be next?
Yeah. They're not doing that new sphere thing in Vegas, but they're doing the basketball arena or something.
And, yeah.
It's a hop, skip, and a jump, actually.
I mean, you have to see them by the time this is...
I could do a review of that in itself.
You have to see them before their tour ends.
Because I'm also afraid...
I don't know if this will be their last.
I hope not, but, you know, 62, 3?
Yeah. I feel like I'm shaming you right now.
I've seen them in concert quite a bit, so...
I still have some opportunities.
Export Selection