Getting excited/Time to get excited (Exciter - Depeche Mode)

Member Name: mo79

Product:	Exciter - Depeche Mode
Date:	16/05/01 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great album from an evolved DM, and is in line with their other good records

Disadvantages: Not as impressive as their older stuff, and some songs are dwindley in areas, while the instrumentals are purely filler

It's been approxiamately 20yrs since the cheeky Depeche Mode teenagers from Basildon graced us with their debut album which featured the memorable, but laughable hit 'Just Can't Get Enough', and though the lads have long since turned from synth-pop boyband prototypes to perve-pop electro rockers their inital entry still eludes them, as it still popularity wise surfices their after-works, atleast in the local territories. It's unfortunate then that many people have missed out on many DM gems.

It's also been 5yrs since DM's last album 'Ultra', which seemed to have been made out of the last scraps of gasping life within the band. Singer Dave Gahan had only begun part of the journey in a bid to climb out of a heroin addiction which nearly killed him, and while songwriter Martin Gore, and er, that keyboard key toucher Andrew 'Fletch' Fletcher' had their own problems, the band lost their most greatest asset in engineer and occasional songwriter Alan Wilder who left to pursue his own Recoil project.
Resultantly 'Ultra' wasn't a great album, it had some brilliant singles but the album was a bit flakey and weak, but it's still surprising that they made that album at all after all the hell that would be inflicited on the preceeding 'Devotional' tour.

Depeche Mode '01 sees the band back on the ball, and evidently happier and healthier. This is an album that would not have reached fruition if the Mode boys hadn't found any semblance, but here they are with another new album and though it's not their best, it's definetly not their worst and it's a better album than 'Ultra'. Sounds good already, eh?

Reviews in popular magazines have said things like 'Exciter' is possibly the most DM sounding album and yet also the least, which even though sounds weird is kind of true, as on listening to it you know it's DM, but it's got things they ha
ven't done before, or in a while, while diluting the best parts of 'Violator' and 'Ultra' (see how the band have a love for the past 10yrs with album names initalled by letters pretty much from the stronger lower end of the alphabet, i.e.: UV (no W), eX).
Some people will hate it, some people will love it, and some will think it's pretty acceptable for a good but troubled band at the brink of shared 39yrs in member age, and I agree with the last option. If you're looking for dark energy as on stuff like 'Violator', do be somewhat warned; this album is much more sublime. Atleast though it's decently long (about under an hour) as there's a trend going round for short records - those lazy bastards, probably!

Working with producer Mark Bell (most famous for his work with Bjork), 'Exciter' is a less brasher album in terms of style and production, making him the wise choice, opposed to the bombasticness of Tim Simenon's 'Ultra' and the alternative slanted Flood who worked on two of DM's best releases before 'Ultra'.
Bell adds a subtle but well rounded embodiment to this album, it's hard to explain but if you've heard stuff like the songs on Bjork's 'Homogenic' you'll recognise the signature applied to these songs, and well suited they are.

This 13 track album (complete with interesting trademark artwork and photography by long-time Mode art director Anton Corbijn - including Gahan in his boxers...) has as usual all songs penned by Martin Gore, with Gahan the singer on all but 4 tracks, 2 of which where Gore sings and the other 2 are instrumentals (the same strength as those on 'Ultra', unfortunately; interesting but ultimately filler).
There's traditional DM synth, samples and drum machine element to the album with acoustic or twangy Bluesy guitar, and added newfound experimentation which gives subtle nods to experimental electroni
ca, while still being a good commercial pop album. It's 'Kid A For The Masses' in a very vague sense.

Opener and first single 'Dream On' features classic acoustic Blues guitar (that was meant to be taken out from the final mix, but in the end suited the song more with it in there) pinned by shakey fragile drum programming and ordered vinyl-pops and synths washing over and here and there, with obligatory weird trademark DM bleeps and stuff in the mix too. As with most opener songs and first singles by DM, it's really good, one of the best songs on the album.

Second song 'Shine' is another gem, topped with subtle pseudo-obligatory perve references such as the lyric "put on your blindfold and a dress that's tight", while Dave's smooth voice floats over the gentle lulling synths and non-obtrusive beats, and the chorus shows some kind of old-style DM abrassiveness with it's edgy stabbing bass and sharp hollow sound vacuums.

Next up is 'The Sweetest Condition', a song which sounds similar to 'The Sweetest Perfection' on the 'Violator' album both in song title and music. It borrows the shuffley drums from '...Perfection', makes them sound more sharper and keeps the low sounding drones - the rest of the song however is not much to do with '...Perfection', though if you wanted to, you could say it's an acceptable sequel to that song. The most noticable difference in '...Condition' is the easy laid-back Country feel by the guitars, and oh yes Gore via Dave wants to be "taking hold of the hem of your dress" and "getting lost in the folds of your skirt"...

'When The Body Speaks' is another song I was impressed with, with it's rolling heart-beat bass, sparse percussion and lullaby piano while Dave whispers before the entrance of ambient guitar and strings. "Oh I dream of one caress"; Gore dreaming
of old studio sessions ('One Caress' is a song on 'Songs Of Faith And Devotion')? Needless to say this is quite an experimental departure for DM. It's a tiny bit like 'Waiting For The Night' from 'Violator' in terms that it's beautiful, surreal, ambient and mind-numbing.

'The Dead Of Night' has a pervy, dirty and distorted bassline downloaded straight from the computer of Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor with modern comedy cow-boy techno-glam and ghoulie slow stomp cabaret synths and drums topped with the seedy Sinatra croons of Gahan. They're "the horniest boys with the corniest ploys", you know. It's a nice enough song, it's quite comical though and is therefore the most light-hearted song on the record and is also therefore a bit out of place. It's almost a parody of their darker contemporaries, and maybe even their former selves. It lets you know their smiling when everyone else is still selling 80's product gloom.

'Lovetheme' is the first instrumental from the album, a short track which sounds a bit like radio/TV ad or showroom music and my girlfriend pointed out that it sounds like the music on the 'Laguna' TV advert, I'm not able to confirm that though. It's just a nice sublime, polished and swirly piece of music, but at the end of it all it's just poly-filler.

Continuing with the lovetheme (aha!-no) is 'Freelove' (Their song titles are a bit lazy as 'Ultra' had a 'Freestate') which starts off with the dissolving sound of chaotic static to liquidy digital bleeps which makes way for some more bleeps, cushion-textured drum work and harsh and windy synths as Gore lays down his lush acoustic guitar alongside more moving vocals from Gahan - who's voice incidentally sounds much more healthier on this album, though his state on 'Ultra' gave those songs their own unique grisly edge too, not that it&#
39;s desirable to be ill for that effect though!

'Comatose' is another favourite of mine with it's brittle hi-hat work that's like sleep dust, along with wibbly-wobbly bass painting a dream-like state with lush, twinkly and bright synths adding more to the aptly titled sleep soundtrack, as Gore (who sings on this song) enters "Comatose, almost". This song is also the shortest non-instrumental one.

'I Feel Loved' ("I Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel You!", ahem, no, wrong song) which is to be the next single from 'Exciter' this Summer is simply a strong stern drum rhythm with shakey M People-ish percussion (by guest Airto Moreita), a somewhat burried tune buried amongst zippy distortion synth bass and some rising synth in the chorus. It'll probably do well as a single, and it is a good song itself, but the emphasis here is on rhythmic power and effects rather than tune.

'Breathe' (first they used a popular Chemical Bros. title, now one by The Prodigy!) is kind of like 'The Dead Of Night' with it's cabaret tones minus the parody ghoulie theatrics. It features pretty edgy, spider-leg like percussion work for a bit (all scuttling), a shakey bass shift with atmospheric synth and guitar textures layered over this Gore sung song.

Second filler, er instrumental 'Easy Tiger' is simply just over 2 minutes worth of percussive organ stabs every couple of seconds or so floating in a sparse ambient synth collage. The only change is the addition of brushing percussion near the end. Radiohead's 'Treefingers' from 'Kid A' vaguely springs to mind.

One of my uber-favourite songs from this album, possibly my most favourite is 'I Am You', with it's live drums from 'Singles 86>98 tour' touring drummer Christian Eigner, and liquid metallic harshness and skewed siren ambience in the pinned rolling bass atmosphere. Gahan is "you, and
you are" him. Interesting or weird, depending on how you assess that. This song is probably the most down-beat, yet most beautiful moment on the album, it's also the most old-DM sounding as it can be, without fully being that way. They'd do wise to release this as a single, if not this then 'Shine' would do well. If you like Massive Attack, this would be quite an agreeable treat.

Final song 'Goodnight Lovers' sounds like a Righteous Bros. reel remixed for modern day consumption with it's background constant "mmm"'s adding extra emphasis to the feel of this calm and uplifting piece of warm bass and jangly and sparse subtle-pop. Not a dynamic way to end, but nevertheless as it's name implies it does in an apt, goodnight kiss way as opposed to a kick in the teeth.

So, what do I think of it? It's good. If Depeche Mode made a pumping edgier electronic album on the brink of being 40yr olds it'd seem a bit silly, and with their new matureness it might've been musically too.
It must be noted though that Depeche Mode's traditional peak album-wise was at 'Songs Of Faith And Devotion', a high album, with quite an overly high life style supporting it. 'Ultra' and beyond was a DM with it's molecular structure changed, or changing during 'Ultra'.

Modern Depeche Mode since 'Ultra' is more about being subtle and stripped down to the bone (um, that sounds familiar) than being forever ardent pioneers of the electronic music scene (which the Industrial and Braindance and Minimilistic movements have since swiped). They had their time as being energetic and inspirational and massively commercially viable, so the only option for DM to continue both as a band and people now in a 20yr running machine is to move on and do what pleasures them and most of the fan base that has grown up with them. And fortunately, DM's self-pleasure has released a new LP th
at sits finely as many others in their body of work with many DM fans, by being the least DM sounding album and yet still the most. This is the new way forward for DM, it may not be as good as their past, but it's still very good nonetheless. Their impressive niche of good techno-love songs remains the same.

Not a great album, but neither is it poor, or mediocre which ultimately means I'll have to give it 4/5. Listen to it a few times yourself when/if you get it before judging it. I'm off to spin in for the nth time now. Enjoy the music. It's probably the best home-grown moderate paced commercial electro-pop album you'll hear this year. Saltute electro-pop's elderstatesmen!

Pointless fact: Some of this album was recorded at Sarm West Studios (not far from Portobello Rd., London) which has seen artists such as Madonna, Suede, the Live Aid project, and er Level 42 record there... And I only live 5 minutes away from this studio! I should've gatecrashed DM's sessions!

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