Depeche Mode album Black Celebration on CD
BLACK CELEBRATION, Depeche Mode’s fifth album not counting compilations, reflects a band coming into its own, exploring new sounds yet staying true to the electronic New Wave that catapulted the foursome to icon status. The production and arrangements move further into the atmospheric, somewhat industrial realm first tentatively explored on the preceding SOME GREAT REWARD, with more impressive results. “Fly On the Windscreen,” a song previewed in a much different arrangement on the singles compilation CATCHING UP WITH DEPECHE MODE, sounds more convincing in this form, and it’s one of the band’s best-ever efforts.
As a whole, BLACK CELEBRATION is a landmark Goth-pop album. Martin Gore’s lyrics are less strident and more personal–even the politicized “New Dress” is couched in humanistic detail instead of slogans–and his mostly minor-key melodies have a certain dark majesty. David Gahan’s unearthly vocals lend borderline-orperatic songs like “A Question of Lust” and the title track a Weill-esque sinister undertone. In the middle of it all lies “Stripped,” a haunting pop track straddling the line of love and control, an apt harbinger for what was to come, both from the band itself and from goth-industrial in general.
This 1984 album is an emotionally intense, anthemic masterpiece that introduced classic songs. The CD boasts 3 songs recorded live in Birmingham 1986, plus 8 more bonus tracks including alternate versions, plus the film Depeche Mode 1984: The Songs Aren’t Good Enough, There Aren’t Any Singles And It’ll Never Get Played On the Radio.
Black Celebration In 5.1 And Stereo
Live In Birmingham, April 1986
Additional Tracks
1. Shake The Disease
3. It’s Called A Heart
4. Fly On The Windscreen But Not Tonight
5. Breathing In Fumes
7. Christmas Island
Recorded at Westside, London, England and Hansa, Berlin, Germany.
DVD Features:
Depeche Mode: Martin Gore (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, keyboards); David Gahan (vocals); Alan Wilder, Andrew Fletcher (synthesizer, keyboards, background vocals).
A Short Film
2. Flexible
6. Black Day
Rolling Stone (p.66) – 4.5 stars out of 5 — “[A]n instant classic for the band’s fans…”
Q (7/95, p.139) – 3 Stars – Good – “…show[s] how distant from their chart peers Depeche Mode were becoming.”
NME (Magazine) (7/1/95, p.50) – 7 (out of 10) – “…Mephisto…advised Depeche Mode to make BLACK CELEBRATION, and what they created was an eerie thing somewhere between the pop songs of A BROKEN FRAME and the full-on goth pop of VIOLATOR…”