Music review: Depeche Mode - Black Celebration (1986)

A very hard job to choose a favourite Depeche Mode album since Violator, Playing the Angel and even the rather uneven Music for the Masses are so good in their own rights! And each of these have their flaws too…

It opens with the very special title track that manages to set the tone for the whole album. "Special" because it's possibly their greatest work and their deepest foray into darkwave. Listened to at Swans volumes, it's almost a religious experience; very good for driving at night too.

After that, we get an incredible barrage of dark, murky yet electrifying groove and Gahan's best performance, perfectly suited to each other and marred only by the "Gore ballads" focusing more on text than music ("Sometimes" and "World Full of Nothing"). I rarely skip tracks, but I do for those two which really break the album tone and tempo.

This last point is truly Depeche Mode's clubfoot for us music enthusiast (as opposed to pop enjoying children): DM simply is good when it tries to be Kraftwerk + Gahan's baritone, not when it reaches for the Beatles wannabe act.

So why this and not their other acclaimed albums? True, Violator doesn't have those ballads and is generally strong… just nowhere near BC, nor is it as artistically ambitious. And Playing the Angel, while the nearest thing to BC in tone, greater in consistency and full of incredible singles (it's got an amazing 6 opening track run and "Lilian" is lovely) just doesn't hit as hard on its highlights; but it's really close!