I have been a fan of Depeche Mode for more than 30 years now. I discovered them thanks to a friend in 1985 when I was in Form I and I have been addicted to their music and lyrics since then. Depeche Mode released their first album, Speak & Spell, in 1981 and the 14th, Spirit, was released only a few weeks ago.
Below are the different eras of Depeche Mode. For me, the best era was from 1984 to 1990 with four mythical albums Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music for the Masses and Violator. What about you?
The formative years
The albums are:
- Speak & Spell (1981)
- A Broken Frame (1982)
- Construction Time Again (1983)
Characterised by the presence of Vince Clarke (of Yazoo and Erasure fame) at the beginning and, following his departure in 1981, the recruitment of Alan Wilder in 1982. Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:
- Just Can’t Get Enough
- Everything Counts
- See You
- New Life
- Leave In Silence
- Dreaming Of Me
- Photographic
- The Meaning Of Love
- Any Second Now (Voices)
- My Secret Garden
- Puppets
- Told You So
- Tora! Tora! Tora!
- Pipeline
- More Than A Party
- Nothing To Fear
- Boys Say Go!
- Big Muff
- Nodisco
- I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead
- Two Minute Warning
- Shame
- Monument
- Love, In Itself
- The Landscape Is Changing
- Satellite
- A Photograph Of You
- And Then…
- What’s Your Name?
- Shouldn’t Have Done That
- Everything Counts (Reprise)
- The Sun And The Rainfall
The world domination era
According to me, this is when Depeche Mode created their best ever albums:
- Some Great Reward (1984)
- Black Celebration (1986)
- Music for the Masses (1987)
- Violator (1990)
The music of Martin Gore and the vocals of Dave Gahan were at their top. And the production skills of Alan Wilder as well as the managerial skills of Andrew Fletcher. During these six years, Depeche Mode became the most popular electronic group in the world, sold millions and millions of albums and even, in 1987, conquered the USA.
Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:
- Enjoy The Silence
- Personal Jesus
- Strangelove
- Never Let Me Down Again
- Policy Of Truth
- World In My Eyes
- People Are People
- Stripped
- Master And Servant
- Behind The Wheel
- Halo
- A Question Of Time
- A Question Of Lust
- Sweetest Perfection
- Waiting For The Night
- Little 15
- Clean
- Black Celebration
- Blue Dress
- Blasphemous Rumours
- Somebody
- Nothing
- To Have And To Hold
- Sacred
- The Things You Said
- Fly On The Windscreen (Final)
- Pimpf
- Here Is The House
- I Want You Now
- Something To Do
- Dressed In Black
- Sometimes
- World Full Of Nothing
- It Doesn’t Matter Two
- New Dress
- Lie To Me
- But Not Tonight
- Stories Of Old
- If You Want
- It Doesn’t Matter
- Breathing in Fumes
- Black Day
The drug addiction era
Following the phenomenal success of Violator in 1990, things started to go very wrong. Dave Gahan fell into drug addiction and the various members of the group started drifting apart. During this difficult era, two albums were released, one with Alan Wilder and one without his musical and production skills as he left Depeche Mode in 1995. The albums are:
- Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
- Ultra (1997)
Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:
- It’s No Good
- Walking in My Shoes
- I Feel You
- In Your Room
- Useless
- Barrel of a Gun
- Home
- Condemnation
- Mercy in You
- Rush
- One Caress
- Judas
- Higher Love
- The Love Thieves
- Sister of Night
- Freestate
- Uselink
- Insight
- Get Right with Me
- The Bottom Line
- Jazz Thieves
The new millenium
This period is characterised by a number of elements: Dave Gahan stops taking drugs but, according to a lot of people, his voice seems strained when singing live, the music, while good, gets a bit less inspired (even though Playing the Angel is very well regarded) and, most importantly, a lot of filler tracks are inserted in the albums which are:
- Exciter (2001)
- Playing the Angel (2005)
- Sounds of the Universe (2008)
- Delta Machine (2013)
Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:
- Precious
- Dream On
- Suffer Well
- John the Revelator
- A Pain That I’m Used To
- Freelove
- Heaven
- The Sinner in Me
- I Want It All
- I Feel Loved
- Macro
- Damaged People
- Nothing’s Impossible
- Introspectre
- The Darkest Star
- Lilian
- Shine
- Welcome to My World
- When the Body Speaks
- Soothe My Soul
- Angel
- Goodnight Lovers
- The Sweetest Condition
- Should Be Higher
- Breathe
- Comatose
- Secret to the End
- I Am You
- The Dead of Night
- Easy Tiger
- Broken
- Lovetheme
- Slow
- My Little Universe
- Alone
- The Child Inside
- Goodbye
- Soft Touch/Raw Nerve
The revival?
Spirit was released two months ago and, dare I say, it is a very good album. Some say that it is as good as Playing the Angel released in 2005 but, personally, I like it better. The album is:
- Spirit (2017)
and here are all the songs from this album sorted by popularity on Last.fm:
- Where’s the Revolution
- Going Backwards
- Cover Me
- Scum
- The Worst Crime
- You Move
- Poison Heart
- So Much Love
- No More (This Is the Last Time)
- Eternal
- Poorman
- Fail
Not bad at all for a bunch of oldies born in the 60s :-)
For posterity, here are our top 20 Depeche Mode songs since we started tracking our listening patterns on Last.fm in 2005:
- Precious
- Personal Jesus
- Photographic
- World in My Eyes
- Wrong
- Never Let Me Down Again
- Suffer Well
- Dream On
- Enjoy the Silence
- John the Revelator
- Just Can’t Get Enough
- My Little Universe
- Angel
- Strangelove
- Heaven
- Blasphemous Rumours
- A Pain That I’m Used To
- Behind the Wheel
- Master and Servant
- Something To Do
Precious, Suffer Well and John the Revelator were personal favourites of Kyan and Anya when they were little kids. We have cute videos of them singing and dancing to those songs in their nappies but they’ll kill us if we put those online…
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