Embalmer
The CD of choice for this week's driving (400 miles between Sunday and Thursday) was the 2001 Depeche Mode album Exciter. While I agree that the album has nothing to do with its title, I truly enjoy the album and was happy to listen to it over and over during the last week.
Perhaps the adjective is inaccurate, but I refer to this as Depeche Mode's "German" album. Way way back in the 1970s, Daniel Miller, Vince Clarke, and Andrew Fletcher were influenced by bands such as Kraftwerk who approached music from a detached and decidedly non-pop framework. While "Exciter" certainly isn't emotionless, and it includes the usual host of guitar work, the album itself has that same detached feel.
This link to the past is accentuated by the ninth song on the CD. If you are to believe Dave Thompson's biography of Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller's life changed the moment he heard the Donna Summer song "I Feel Love," which was characterized by Thompson as having nothing to do with punk rock, but everything to do with punk. So is it mere coincidence that this detached album by Depeche Mode includes the similarly-named song "I Feel Loved"?
I may have said this once before, but for me the climax of the album occurs near the end of the second to last song, "I Am You." Perhaps it's just me (I don't think I can blame this on my Reed College education), but I equate the repeated "I am you and you are me" (accompanied by the musical crescendo) to Huckleberry Finn's famous moral decision "All right then, I'll go to Hell." On one level, the two incidents have nothing to do with each other - Finn's moment results in a plan of action, while Gore's realization results in mere inactive observation - but they both serve as climaxes (climacies?) in their respective works. (Incidentally, I regard my own song "Football You Bet" as fulfilling the same function within "Digital Judge.")
Back to the album. My take on it is a minority view - perhaps a minority of one view - since the Amazon reviewers (professional and amateur) often regarded the album either as a return to form or a load of crap:
Mercifully, the band has exorcised the demons and produced an album that places them squarely back on track....Gore's keen ear for shimmering sonics and bellowing rhythm reinvigorates the Depeche Mode-branded synth-pop that's remained unique for the last 20 years. In all, Exciter is a stunning return to form, and a triumph by every definition. --Beth Massa
J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - COMPLETELY lacking of the wonderful melodies, lyrics and hooks of most of DM's work. I can only hope their next album is better.
Music_Lover_DM (United States) - ...All the people who gave this album 1 star are trying to sabotage the real depeche mode fans reviews and ratings. You can't honestly tell me this cd isn't better than 98% of everything other artists put out. These guys have been around for a long time, give them some credit....
Brutal Honesty "tells it like it is" (New York NY USA) - Why did Depeche Mode release this? Were they desperate for cash? Was this a contractural obligation? Were they actually convinced that the songs on here were not crap?...
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