One record at a time: 82. Digitalism - .JPEG

It took me a while to work out what this release was and I'm still confused about what it is called. The sleeve says the album is called .JPEG but Discogs lists it as JPEG_Complete and most people seem to refer to it as JPEG. Wikipedia gives us no idea as it doesn't even have an entry for the album.

As I understand it, this is a double vinyl release of the 2019 JPEG album which includes three extra tracks from the "Chapter Y" EP of 2021. Personally I am just pleased that some bands continue to release physical product and am content to refer to it as JPEG.

The title track is tinged with eighties house sensibilities and has a great groove. Whilst the lyrics are a little one dimensional, "JPEG" proves to be a perfect introduction and one of the highlights. "Panavision" builds into a dance track that has a syncopated beat that reminds me a little of drum and bass. There is a guest vocal from Louisahhh!!! on DISC_404 but it sounds like it belongs on a long lost album by The Prodigy circa 1997.  

"Chrome.exe" is another noisy instrumental club track that I'm having trouble digesting at 9am. The tracklist of the digital album and the vinyl become divergent here with the pounding beats of "Wish I Was There" being followed by the lacklustre and frankly annoying "Olympia". There are more eighties house vibes with "Knight Life" which develops into a nice track but is a tad too long. "Infinity" is immediately identifiable as a Digitalism track with it distorted lead and octave bassline. We hear a guitar for the first time on "No Data" which is as close to an 'indie-dance' track as you are going to get on this album. 

At this point it occurs to me that Digitalsim seem to have moved out of their usual formula or creating either club tracks or indie-dance pop; there's something more here. However, just as I began to hope they had left the French house pastiche behind them we hear "Voltage" which is more Daft Punk than Daft Punk. "Data Gardens" provides some respite from the pounding beats but by this stage everything is beginning to sounds the same. This isn't a bad album, but it isn't their best. 3/5

One record at a time: 6. Air - Twentyears

So, we come to record number six in my collection, the <ahem> unforgettable "Twentyears" by Air. As you may have noticed I am trying to work my way through my record collection in alphabetical order by artist; so coming back to the letter 'a' after over eighty entries is a bit of a cock up.

For some reason I keep box sets on different shelves to the rest of my collection and whilst I've had my eye on them to ensure I don't forget Enigma "The Complete Studioalbum Collection" (sic), I have completely overlooked this one.

"Twentyears" is a 'career defining' compilation album that was released on a variety of formats, including the three CD and double vinyl box set I am looking at today. In keeping with process I'm just going to play the vinyl today.

The first track "La Femme D'Argent" is taken from their classic debut album "Moon Safari". This song is a fantastic, laid back instrumental beamed to us from 1976. You can smell the flares and handlebar moustaches as Jean-Benoît teases licks and trills from the Rhodes piano.

I think must have already stated on this blog that the next track, "Cherry Blossom Girl" is a masterpiece, but it doesn't hurt to reiterate this and assert that no compilation album for Air would be complete without it. Another of my favourite tracks "Kelly Watch The Stars" features Solina synths stings, vocoder vocals and a Minimoog bassline - what's not to like!? At this stage, such an embarrassment of riches means I am beginning to think that this could be the best compilation album ever. However, things go a bit awry with "Playground Love" and "Sexy Boy" which aren't really to my taste. In fact, I hate "Sexy Boy". I have hated it since the first day I heard it wafting out the window of a student house sometime in 1998. I like a lot of Air's music but that one song really annoys me and I don't listen to it. So I've skipped it.

The Rhodes piano is wheeled out again for "All I Need" which is complimented by the etherial vocal talent of Beth Hirsch. The advert friendly "Alpha Beta Gaga" is presented as the "Single Edit" which unfortunately trims a minute and a half from the running time. If running time was a concern I would have suggested they jettison one of the less successful tracks (read awful) such as "How Does It Make You Feel?" rather than chopping up a good one.

Next up is the best song from the "Pocket Symphony" album, "Once Upon a Time". This is a dreamy piano driven song that Air always seemed to excel in delivering. I find "Alone In Kyoto" mesmerising and consider it one of their finest works. "Talisman" uses the same recipe as "La Femme D'Argent" but isn't nearly as good. "Run" is undoubtedly excellent and closing track "Le Soleil Est Près De Moi" is as relaxed and chilled a track as you could ever expect to hear.

Having reached the end, I am left a little bemused by this compilation. There is no track from the "Love 2" album and "Mer du Japon" should be on any and every Air compilation. The inclusion of the frankly awful "How Does It Make You Feel?" in preference to the tolerable "Don't Be Light" from the same album is mystifying. 3/5

One record at a time: 81. Digitalism - Mirage

I bought this record when it was released in 2016. I think I must have listened to it, decided it was another nice Daft Punk pastiche and promptly forgotten about it. 

Fast forward around three years and I was on a long and stressful train journey listening to my phone whilst it played on shuffle. As I sped through the countryside, a mysterious piece of music began to play in my earphones. The blurred images and flashes of light coming in through the window seemed perfectly attuned to the music and I became transfixed. Only when the song had finished could I wake my phone and see what had been playing. As it turned out the track was "Mirage, Pt 1" from this album and it led me to reappraise this record. Whilst I no longer neglect this album, it has been a while since I listened to it so I'm looking forward to giving it a spin again.

Digitalism songs tend to fall into two camps: disco stompers or indie-dance tracks. The first two tracks on this album illustrate this dichotomy perfectly. "Arena" is a slice of satisfying dance music that is redolent of Daft Punk and "Battlecry" is a catchy indie-pop song with a distinctive chorus. I can just imagine the third track "Go Time" being played in a tent at Glastonbury with bucket hat wearing young men singing along in appreciation - not somewhere I long to be. "Utopia" continues the pattern of schizophrenic style swapping and is an arpeggio driven EDM creation. The hook on "Destination Breakdown" doesn't quite deliver for me and the whole thing is a little too noisy, but "Open Waters" is much more successful.

I regard the two part, twelve minute opus that is the title track as the zenith of this album. When "Mirage, Pt, 1" opens you could be forgiven for thinking some sort of fault had occurred as the synths burble and pulsate erratically. As more layers are added the sound becomes mesmerising until our reverie is broken by a pounding kick drum. The finale of the track sees us gently lowered into the melodic introduction of Part Two, which then evolves into a slightly more beat driven piece. "Indigo Skies" and "The Ism" are rare misfires that are best forgotten but "Dynamo" moves outside of the usual Digitalism formula with more success. As the album plays out there is a fine slice of  French House courtesy of "No Cash". which pounds away like its 1997 all over again. A slight less rewarding experience that some of the band's other albums but there are some fine moments. 4/5

One record at a time: 80. Digitalism - I Love You, Dude

Whilst I bought Digitalism's first album in 2007 on CD, I didn't have the foresight to buy it on LP. As a consequence, their second album, "I Love You, Dude", is the first I own on vinyl.

According to Discogs my copy of the album is from 2011, but I'm not sure that is accurate as I didn't buy it from Amazon until 2019. Interestingly, this is one of few records I own that came with a plastic credit card containing the download code rather than a piece of paper.

As I listen to this album, I seem to be forced to compare each song to someone else's work. There's a strong influence of Daft Punk running throughout and I hear elements of contemporaries, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice and AIR to name but a few. That's not to say these aren't original songs and nearly all of them are very good, it's just that some sound highly derivative.

Broadly speaking, Digitalism songs seem to fit in two different camps: house stompers and indie-tinged electronic pop. Whilst the latter style is where Digitalism are at their most original, this is where I find them least interesting.

"Stratosphere" is an impressive slice of electronic dance music with a strong French house feel. The second track "2 Hearts" drops the pounding dance beats and is more like a traditional pop song replete with vocal. "Circles" is another more conventional song with strong Tomcraft vibes and another nice vocal from Jens. My favourite track is house stomper "Blitz". This track is nothing short of genius with its stuttering riffs and a great trance arpeggio played on what sounds like an FM synth.

"Forrest Gump" has good verses but the chorus annoys me a little. We flip back to more dance orientated material with "Reeperbahn" and "Antibiotics" before diving off into AIR territory with "Just Gazin'". "Miami Showdown" is Daft Punk by numbers but "Encore" is a more considered piece of electronic music. "Blade" is pounding club track that is probably the hardest thing on here. This is a bit of a schizophrenic album but I enjoy it a lot. 4/5

One record at a time: 79. Depeche Mode - Spirit

After what seems like an eternity, we reach the last Depeche Mode vinyl in my collection. "Spirit" was released in 2017 and I will be playing the European double vinyl.

As a fan of Simian Mobile Disco, I was excited to hear what James Ford would deliver on this record. I was hoping for something a little purer and possibly less 'rock' than recent albums. Alas nothing substantial changed and, as good as the production is, it isn't a million miles away from what Ben Hillier delivered on the three previous albums.

Opening track "Going Backwards" is a promising introduction that manages to skirt on the right side of the distorted guitar versus melodic synthesizer battle. I have about 12 remixes of this song on my hard drive and none of them quite hit the mark.

As the album progresses, everything is run-of-the-mill until we hit "You Move" which is a rare Gore/Gahan co-write. This song shines out like a synthpop beacon in a sea of mediocrity. "Cover Me" is another quality track that drips with atmosphere until half way through when a glorious synth arpeggio and kick drum take it into the stratosphere. 

I'm not impressed by the mournful "Eternal" which seems to conform to the blueprint of meandering blues tracks that Martin churns out recently. "So Much Love" has a pulse but doesn't inspire. The remaining three tracks are instantly forgettable and they come and go to my complete apathy. As much as I have enjoyed the music of Depeche Mode over the years, I didn't buy "Spirits In The Forest" and after this outing, I will debate purchasing a new studio album should one emerge. 2/5

One of our records is missing.....

So. I don't have the biggest record collection in the world, but it is sufficiently large for me to find them difficult to keep track of. As a consequence of my disorganisation/confusion, I now realise that I have missed out a record that should have constituted entry number 6. 

You see, I tend to keep my box sets and special editions separately from my 'standard' records and I have inadvertently missed AIR "Twentyyears" as I worked my way though the shelves of vinyl.

I knew this day would come, but now it is here, I am not sure how to remedy it. I might just have to renumber the vast majority of entries and add a 'retrospective' review for "Twentyears" out of sequence.

One record at a time: 78. Depeche Mode - Delta Machine

I'll be honest, I can't find much to like in this album. I don't even like the artwork. I own the 2016 repress of the 180g double vinyl and it has never been played.

Once opening track "Welcome to my World" gets going it sounds great and develops into a stirring composition - but things go downhill fast from here. "Angel" sounds like a blues song executed on distorted synthesisers and single "Heaven" leaves me scratching my head.

The first trace of innovation is heard on "My Little Universe" which threatens to build into an acid tinged wig out before suddenly collapsing. We are subjected to more blues guitar on the awful "Slow" and I am beginning to lose the resolve to finish listening to this album.

"Broken" has a nice melody and repairs some of the damage but the lacklustre "The Child inside" kills off any hope of a turn around for the album. "Should Be Higher" is a good song that demonstrates how good a songwriter Dave becoming at this time. In fact, you could argue that Dave's contributions were more consistent than Martin's on this album. Things peter out with seventies rock pastiche "Soothe My Soul", the disappointing "Alone" and the rather cliched blues nonsense of "Goodbye". Not my favourite album. 1/5

One record at a time: 77. Depeche Mode - Sound of the Universe

"Sounds of the Universe" brings us to the end of the second shelf of vinyl in my collection and another step closer to ending the marathon of Depeche Mode releases. This album was released in 2009 and here I am playing the double 180g vinyl version. I also have a box set containing extra CDs, a poster, books, badges etc. somewhere.

Once the incredibly annoying into for "In Chains" passes a rather nice and surprisingly catchy song begins to emerge. I once heard this track used during a private demonstration for some very expensive amplifiers at a high end hi-fi shop. When the track finished another one of the potential clients said, "Yeah I like that eighties type stuff". This comment mystified me as the song doesn't sound very eighties to me. Yes, it has a CR-78 beat and some analogue synths, but that hardly makes it "Just Can't Get Enough".

The next track "Hole To Feed" is a mix of electronics, acoustic toms and guitar that doesn't hold together too well for me. The first single for the album "Wrong" follows and is surprisingly electronic in execution. I remember there being a good video for this song and some of the remixes were excellent. There's something about "Fragile Tension" that I can't warm to despite its relatively frugal use of guitar, but the next track "Little Soul" is much better.

It has taken me over ten years to realise just how electronic this album is. A prime example "In Sympathy" which features a prominent analogue beat and some nice synth programming. The Roland CR-78 is resurrected for single "Peace" which is a bit of an odd track as the verses are sublime but the chorus is a bit of a disappointment. 

"Come Back" is a great song but clearly someone got itchy fingers and turned the distortion up on almost everything associated with the backing track and ruined it. There is another version of this song floating about on the internet that is often labelled as an "early version" or "alternative take" which is superior to the released mix by some distance. Judging by comments on YouTube, I'm not the only one with this opinion. 

There's short instrumental track called "Spacewalker" before we hear my favourite track on the album "Perfect". I love the melody on this track and the pulsating synths give it an energy that I find irresistible. Like the rest of this album this song employs analogue synthesisers but I'm sure I can here a JV-1080 preset in there somewhere. This song made the biggest impression on me but I think I must have neglected it recently as hearing it now has instantly transported me back to 2009. 

"Miles Away" is a bit of a guitar driven dirge that gives way to "Jezebel" which sounds like it was transported to us from seventies LA. The last track is "Corrupt" which is an uptempo and catchy number that makes you want to go back and start the album again. Surprisingly the 'hidden track' "Interlude #5" is also included on the vinyl after 3 minutes silence. This album gains lots of points for "In Chains" and "Perfect" but loses almost as many for the wasted opportunity of "Come Back". Still, this is miles better than what is about to come. 3/5

One record at a time: 76. Depehce Mode - Playing the Angel

This is Depeche Mode's eleventh album which was released in 2005. Here I am playing the reissued double vinyl from 2017 as I only bought the CD/DVD when it was originally released.

Whilst I like a lot of songs on this album, I am not too keen on the production. Depeche Mode seem determined to turn their backs on any element of synth-pop and use distortion as an enabler for credibility. It drives me to distraction.

The album starts with "A Pain That I'm Used To" which has a really annoying intro but develops into an an amazing song with some great electronic instrumentation. Whilst there is plenty of Martin's guitar present, I don't believe that Andy Fletcher played the bass on the song for one second (no matter what Wikipedia might say). I know the next track "John the Revelator" has its fans but I am not one of them: it's just too noisy for me. "Suffer Well" is another obvious single with its infectious groove with a great chorus but could do with some of the guitar removing.

This album was the first in many years where the lead single had been spectacular. "Precious" is a heartbreaking pop song that has a slight whiff of the "Violator" era about it. For my money this is probably the best song the band have produced since 1993; I can't think of much else that would top it. Things get a bit soggy in the middle with "Macro" and Dave's composition, "I Want It All". Dave's other joint writing credit is for "Nothing's Impossible" which is slightly monotone and doesn't really develop enough for me. Martin takes over vocal duties for the disappointing "Damaged People" before Dave returns for another good track "Lilian".

When I first heard the album I dismissed "The Darkest Hour" as it leans towards the more soulful side of Martin's writing that I don't always warm to. As the years have gone by I appreciate the song more and it makes more sense when heard in the intended running order that vinyl enforces upon us. "Free" seems to resurrect some of the more "industrial" elements of the bands early sound but there are enough contemporary touches to ensure it isn't as good as anything from "Black Celebration". 4/5

One record at a time: 75. Depeche Mode - Exciter

Having been only mildly impressed lead single "Dream On", I wasn't expecting much from parent album "Exciter". The album was released in 2001 but here will be playing the re-issued double vinyl from 2007. 

Despite some initial misgivings, I have grown to appreciate this album over the years. After twenty years of listening, I can now hear that this record is much more electronic than I initially thought and in some respects, it isn't a million miles away from the sound of the band at their commercial peak ten years before.

Producer Mark Bell does a good job in realising Martin's compositions with original arrangements that avoid the more avant-garde techniques he employed with Bjork. The drums on the second track "Shine" are pretty conventional and I can almost hear the beat trying to break free of its restraints and descend into a crazed distorted breakbeat. Even the electronic percussion and discordant guitar of "The Sweetest Condition" aren't allowed to dominate the mix and are constrained in a way that signals a concession to commerciality. Unfortunately guitars do begin to dominate on "When The Body Speaks" and the disappointment continues with "The Dead of Night".

Like many Depeche Mode albums of the era, this album moves between highs and lows. "Freelove" is a superb track that sounds much better here than the muddled single version. This peak contrasts with the dubious "Comatose" which sounds like it was found at the bottom of the songwriting barrel. The amazing "I Feel Loved" comes next which really found legs with the Danny Tenaglia "Labour of Love" mixes. I remember sitting listening to the radio when those mixes first hit and was blown away. Whilst the album version lacks the pumping rhythm of the Tenaglia mixes, it remains a brilliant track. 

"Breathe" is one of those uplifting songs that Martin sings with such conviction that you can't help be carried along by it. Shame it has loads of guitar on it. "I am You" is a bit nondescript and repetitive but the shimmering beauty of "Goodnight Lovers" leaves us with a warm feeling inside as the album ends. This is a much better album than I remember. 4/5

One record at a time: 74. Depeche Mode - Ultra

Having survived losing a member of the band once, Depeche Mode decided to try it again. Alan Wilder had become increasingly significant in shaping the sound of the band and his production skills were seemingly the perfect match for Martin's songs.

However, Alan was never given much credit for his contribution, and considering Andy Fletcher was getting paid the same amount for simply being Martin's mate, it's no wonder he decided to leave.

So 1997's "Ultra" sees Depeche Mode emerging from a hiatus as a trio with producer (and self confessed fan) Tim Simenon attempting to steer the band through the fog.

As with the previous album, I wasn't impressed by the lead single. "Barrel of a Gun" is a stuttering and confused track that barely registers a melody. There are three or four sections but none of them are identifiable as a chorus and the whole things is bathed in light distortion. 

Second track "The Love Thieves" is another strange one that sounds like it is building to a climax that never arrives. Just as you begin to think you are sinking into a sea of mediocrity, the epic single "Home" comes along to make you think again. This song is so good it can even survive a guitar solo. 

The turn around continues with "It's No Good" which, despite a good groove and melody, still suffers slightly from the same, "distortion equals atmosphere" philosophy that has ruined several of Depeche Mode's more recent records. The only other track of note is "Useless" which soars through highs and lows much like this album does. 3/5