Depeche Mode - Sounds of The Universe

Over the past year four great eighties bands: The Cure, U2, Bauhaus and Depeche Mode have released new albums. The Bauhaus album was good if you were already a Bauhaus fan, but wasn’t that accessible to new listeners. The Cure album was good, but not up to par with their other albums. I refuse to even discuss the disappointment I experienced with the new U2 album. Not to worry fans, Depeche Mode’s new effort, Sounds of the Universe surpasses them all.
It seems that every new album by Depeche Mode is hailed as the best album since the listener’s favorite. Eighties kids usually claim Some Great Reward, Black Celebration or Music for the Masses. Nineties kids prefer Violator. I imagine the kids of this decade consider Playing the Angel their album, and I agree that it was pretty spectacular. And in that spirit I hail Sounds of the Universe as the best Depeche Mode album… since the last one.
Sounds of the Universe is a dark album. Depeche Mode has always had a certain spooky factor that is difficult to explain. It’s the feeling of a church after midnight. It’s big, empty, and haunted. Depeche Mode are the guys who broke in to play with the pipe organ. They fill the space with haunting vocals and disturbing music. For all its eeriness, however, Sounds of the Universe is a lush and gorgeous album.
Recommended Tracks:
‘In Chains,’ the opening track, is classic nineties DM. The music is sparse and spacey; the lyrics haunting. It has the appropriate feel for the opening track of an album called Sounds of the Universe.
‘Wrong’ is pure DM cheese. This song feels like an excerpt from Some Great Reward. It has all the bombast and electronic thuggery of their early albums. I love it!
‘Little Soul’ is DM at their creepiest. The music is cinematic, dissonant, and tense. The vocals are as plaintive and ethereal as Dave Gahan can get.
‘Come Back’ feels as if it is part romantic paean, part ominous threat. This ambivalence is displayed in the contrast between Gahan’s voice and the samples that cascade in the background.
Martin Gore’s lyrics and Dave Gahan’s delivery have achieved a maturity that one would expect with over twenty years as a band under their belts. Sounds of the Universe is a psychological thriller of an album: tense, suspenseful, a bit playful but mostly just very satisfying.
Sounds of the Universe may not have the cultural impact that Some Great Reward or Violator had. Or even the impact that Playing the Angel should have had. But it is a good, solid Depeche Mode album and whether you are an old fan or a newcomer to Depeche Mode, this album will not disappoint.

Birmingham AL
May 2009