to make Depeche Mode’s new album you were excited. Yet when it was released in its mammoth box set version on Monday, we were all left sorely disappointed.Here is how to produce a Depeche Mode album the Ben Hillier way:
Step 1: Get the track up and running with a good beat and melody
Step 2: Add the vocal and any overdubs
Step 3: Remove good beat and add tiny almost imperceptible analogue percussion
Step 4: Remove melody and add an out of tune drone
Step 5: Add distortion to EVERYTHING
Step 6: Ensure anything approaching melody is removed
Step 7: Add distortion to everything again just make sure
Step 8: Turn everything in the mix up until it distorts
Step 9: Ensure the mix engineer adds distortion to everything just to be doubly sure
Step 10: Ensure the mastering engineer is instructed to make everything very loud and distorted
I have noticed there are many ways to buy the album ‘Sounds of the universe’. It’s very difficult to just buy a straight forward CD with the album on. The afore mentioned box set is a truly amazing item with many many extras, there is also a CD/DVD package, a 2xLP and CD package and of course the digital downloads.All of this additional content and extraordinary packaging makes me wonder if we are supposed to be distracted from the quality of the album itself and simply admire it for how it is presented to us. This album has very little musical worth due to the way it has been produced and it sits squarely alongside the worst of Depeche Mode’s back catalogue.
I wish Alan would come back and sort this bloody mess out.
I'm afraid you're wrong. Um. Unintentional pun there. Depeche Mode albums *all* (well, OK, except maybe Speak and Spell) require a few listens to appreciate. They've suffered for years from people making comments like yours when the album has just come out.
ReplyDeleteBut surely even so, the rhythmic pop of Wrong, or the sonic excellence of Peace should really be apparent from the first listen?!
Finally, to suggest that somehow Alan was the creative mould who was holding the whole thing together is just plain daft. That simply isn't how creativity works!
Thanks for your comment Rollo. Very eloquent. But I am afraid I stick by what I said.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watch the documentary on the DVD that accompanies the album I am left with the feeling that the album was made by committee and lacks direction. Yes, some of the songs are very good (some are not) but the lack lustre production does them no favours at all.
I also know a thing or two about creativity works and DM have never been a paragon of creativity. One of their recent producers (who in private refuses to work with them ever again) said that his project was a mess and the input from the band was minimal. Alan was the driving force behind the bands sound for a long time principally because he was the only one who was interested in it.
I will always feel Alan was the ‘creative mould’ that held the whole thing together in the period when they made their best music. Listen to the ‘Harmonium’ version of ‘Enjoy the silence’ and then listen to what it sounds like when Alan got his hands on it.