Black – artistic nom de plume of British singer Colin Verncombe – while not particularly successful in the worldwide music scene, scored a success, when his song, Wonderful Life, became a hit in the late eighties.   

Beginning his career several years previously, initially Black was a real band, consisting of Verncombe and other musicians. Then, Verncombe formed a partnership with another musician, signing with a promising record label. Soon after, they started to gain international projection, scoring a hit, having television airplay and setting a foot in the music industry. 

Unfortunately, their rising road to stardom was cut short, when they were dropped from the record label. By virtue of this unexpected turn of events, with several other problems occurring in his personal life, Verncombe wrote the song “Wonderful Life”, an ironic play on his troubled and chaotic life.

Ironically as it is, the song caught the attention of a major label, that released it, and the piece became an international hit. Verncombe’s status as an unknown musician was over. Wonderful Life scored high in several countries – especially in Ireland and the UK –, and in 1987, an album of the same name was released.  

Verncombe ably capitalized on his success. Wonderful Life, as well as subsequent albums, sold very well, in excess of millions of copies. Nevertheless, he never was able to repeat the success of his most notorious song, and in a few years, he was inevitably overseen by the music industry and the audience alike as a one hit wonder. As a matter of fact, this was his only song to be known by the general public. 

Despite his ephemeral success, Verncombe never went inactive. He has had a long and prolific career, always releasing albums, under the Black moniker, as well as under his own name. Much of the time he was seen on the spotlight in his later career, though, was by the grace of his famous hit, that he constantly sang in live performances and television shows. In late 2015, Verncombe even recorded a version of the song in the Catalan language.    

Although displaying a considerable degree of musical abilities, it’s a shame that Verncombe never had the means or the opportunities to solidify a career. He will always be remembered by his only hit.     

Verncombe died in January 2016, in a traffic collision in Ireland. He was 53 years old.    
  


Wagner

Depeche Mode is a band that doesn’t need any introductions or explanations (but I’ll do it anyway), especially if you are an avid electro pop music enthusiast. One of the greatest musical acts of all time, Depeche Mode is active since the late seventies. With fourteen studio albums – being the most recent, Spirit, released in the past month –, besides a huge number of singles, compilations, remixes and live albums, Depeche Mode has sold approximately 100 million records worldwide. With an almost forty years career, they have managed to be on the crest of the wave – despite some turbulent periods of ups and downs –, in the worldwide mainstream music scene, with highly acclaimed tours, and an unimaginable degree of success, that has placed them among the most notorious musical acts of all time. Well, who doesn’t like Depeche Mode, anyway?

But, with such a long and extensive journey, the band – having experimented with several distinct genres and styles in the course of its history –, has witnessed a career marked by a lot of different musical periods, perspectives and moments.   

So I have decided to write it down some appointments and commentaries about my favorite Depeche Mode albums.

Although I really like the albums Some Great Reward (1984), and Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) (and Songs of Faith and Devotion Live as well, [as the name suggests, a record with live versions from the namesake album, released about the same time], but I don’t like it as much as the studio version), they really don’t fit the unconscious level of necessary requirements to incorporate them into the personal category of my favorite Depeche Mode albums. Don’t get me wrong: I really like these albums very much, and acknowledge their outstanding qualities (probably, I will write about them in another occasion), but, for the time being, I do not love them, at least, not in the same intensity that I love the albums that I chose as my favorites. 

My favorite DM albums are Violator (1990), and especially Ultra (1997) and Exciter (2001). And I also like very much two compilations, The Singles 81>85 (originally The Singles 81→85), The Singles 86>98, and their most famous live album, 101. 

Violator, released in 1990, together with Black Celebration (1986) and Music for the Masses (1987), can be considered an unofficial trilogy that cemented Depeche Mode’s status as one of the greatest worldwide electro and synth pop acts of all time. With the maturity of a truly evolved, fantastic, dark, sober and serious sound, that was reasonably well developed – in radical juxtaposition to the more ingenious, boyish, naïve, simple and college happier synth sound of their early days, that endured from the beginning of their career until the mid-eighties –, Violator represented a gigantic step of musical development, that standardized Depeche Mode as one of the most promising British musical acts of all time. The album was widely praised upon its release by critics, fans, enthusiasts and bands alike. Fellow British colleagues from electro pop duo Pet Shop Boys declared they became “quite jealous” of it. Violator is, indeed, a formidable and fantastic record. An album that has some of the most wonderful and well known songs of Depeche Mode’s career. 

Ultra, released in 1997, came after a turbulent period for the band, upon which the three remaining members (Alan Wilder, that used to execute the functions of keyboardist, technician, instrumentalist and sound engineer has left the band in 1995, in virtue of severely personal dissatisfactions) – Dave Gahan, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore – had endured each one their own doses of personal problems, that almost drove the band to an end. Dave Gahan had fought a battle against a heroin addiction, upon which he severely overdosed, and almost died. Gahan’s history with drug and substance abuse – which was quite long – had achieved a peak on this period, severely affecting his relationship with the other band members, and his ability to competently fulfill his duties as the band’s singer. He also spent a time in a rehabilitation clinic. Martin Gore’s life was also plagued by personal problems. He was trying to overcome his alcoholism, while Andy Fletcher was fighting a severe depression.

The recording sessions for the album were so turbulent, difficult and tempestuous that Martin Gore considered breaking up the band, and releasing the material he had written as a solo album. Nonetheless, the band has managed to successfully overcome this dark period of their career, and Ultra was finally released, in April 14, 1997 (exactly twenty years ago), to an enormous and vibrating critical acclaim. The band chose not to tour for this album. Only two small concerts – named Ultra Parties – were held for promotional efforts, one in London and another in Los Angeles. 

Ultra has proved itself to be a formidable record. A little different from other Depeche Mode releases, Ultra displays a singular collection of songs, permeated by a lugubrious tenderness and a soft melancholy, as well as an easier and more ponderable darkness, with beautiful quasi-ballads and prominently slow melodies. Almost all tracks are remarkable, and have its unique identity and formidable peculiarities. Martin Gore – always criticized for usually singing two songs in every Depeche Mode album [being almost unanimous among music critics and fans alike the fact that Martin should let Dave to handle the vocals entirely] – on this album sings the third and the tenth track, Home and The Bottom Line, respectively. The Bottom Line, as incredible as it seems, is quite good, actually.

Exciter, released in 2001 – when I was eighteen years old –, is probably my favorite Depeche Mode album, the most emotionally significant to me and, if I am not wrong, it was probably the first DM album that I have heard, the first one that I bought, the one that made me a fan of the band, and the one that made me buy all the other Depeche Mode albums that I have. 

Exciter put the band on a touring schedule again – although they have toured for The Singles 86>98, a compilation album that was released three years earlier – and cemented their habit, almost a religious ritual, if your prefer, that started with Songs of Faith and Devotion, to release an album every four years, then tour for almost a year to promote the album, and to release a DVD with a performance recorded during the tour. Exactly on this order. 

Exciter is a remarkably versatile album. With the poignantly poetic and incisively vibrating Dream On opening the record, Exciter has sweet tender styled melancholic serenades, like Shine and Freelove, conspicuously sinister and almost ecstatic oversized electro goth tunes, like The Sweetest Condition, Comatose and The Dead of Night, romantically flavored sentimental cantilenas, like I Am You and Goodnight Lovers, and intensely vibrating free-flowing electronic beats, like the song I Feel Loved, that became a minor club hit. Each and every time that I heard this album I also felt – and still feel – the first three tracks as perfectly complementing each other. Although these are very different songs in shape, feeling, atmosphere and style, they naively appear to be the perfect continuation of one another. Maybe this sensation is obviously inserted into the listener’s mind given the fact that there is no silence in between the tracks, so this fact gives a psychological and delusional sense of continuation between the songs. From this album, Dream On, Freelove, I Feel Loved and Goodnight Lovers were all released as singles.

Nonetheless, I always had ambiguous issues concerning this record. While I like Exciter very much, I cannot ignore the fact that some songs are vehemently ecstatic, and at certain points seems to be almost frozen, with an obviously simpleton and conventional appeal. And although the album is technically well arranged and well produced, the structure of the songs in general seems to be quite simple, and exceedingly common, even for the musical standards of Depeche Mode, that always had very simple and ordinary musical dynamics and song structures, and too sentimental and ordinary lyrics too. But ignoring this too exacerbated simplicity, and overwhelming lack of audacity and creativity, it’s also impossible to ignore the fact that this album is expressively good.

Upon releasing Exciter, Depeche Mode embarked on the Exciter Tour, one of the most successful of the band’s career. The next year, the band released a two disc DVD titled One Night in Paris, featuring a live concert from the Exciter Tour. This was the beginning of a remarkable Depeche Mode habit: from this point onwards, the band would always release a DVD featuring a concert from their tours. One Night in Paris is a formidable DVD, containing a marvelous spectacle, excitingly vibrating and marvelously fascinating, plus a great deal of additional material (like all of their DVD releases). I have watched it several times, some of them along with my mother, that also became a fan of the band. I have also two other Depeche Mode live concert DVD’s: the Touring the Angel, released in 2006, featuring a live concert in Italy shot during Depeche Mode’s tour of Playing the Angel, and Devotional, that features live concerts Depeche Mode performed in 1993 in France, Germany and Spain during their tour to promote the album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 2004 in DVD, and originally, in 1993 in VHS. But from all of these, One Night in Paris is the best, and of course, my favorite (although Devotional is also quite different, unexpected and exciting, but probably, this is attributable to the fact that it was a very different time for Depeche Mode, musically and stylistically, and the primarily nostalgic elements are enduringly fascinating).  

Albums that I do not love, but I like very much: 

The Singles 81>85 is a very good compilation. Containing songs from all their previous albums, besides non-album singles, it’s remarkable mostly for the differences in sound, compared to what Depeche Mode posteriorly evolved itself to be. While here we have a cruder and amateurish band, some songs are quite beautiful, and appellative for their naïve, young, adolescent and charming presence.  Although it’s not a remarkable compilation, it was already announcing the potential hidden within the band, and what they would be able to achieve. 

The Singles 86>98 is a double album. Containing songs from Black Celebration to Ultra, plus an additional new song, Only when I lose myself, this is a formidable compilation album, that was prominently featured in mainstream music magazines lists, and became a bestselling record. The Singles 86>98 also marked the first time the band had toured in four years, given the fact that, for their previous release, Ultra, the band had decided not to tour. 

Released in 1989, 101 is probably the most notorious and successful live album of Depeche Mode’s career. Recorded during the American leg of their Music for the Masses Tour, the songs featured were played during a concert in the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California. 

This was an important period – a transactional period – for Depeche Mode. They had started to leave behind them the adorable teenagers and flavored sugar pop boy band image that the musical establishment, with the deliberate support from the band and the record company, has cultivated concerning their image during the first half of the eighties. Nevertheless, several aspects of this characteristic were still present, mainly, in the dressing style of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, and the fact that impeccable and sugar friendly songs like People are People, Everything Counts and Just Can’t Get Enough – a song written by Vince Clarke, the leader in the early days of Depeche Mode, that quit the band after the first album, Speak and Spell, was released, responsible for giving them fame in their early days (and that in 1985 partnered with singer Andy Bell to form the greatly successful synthpop duo Erasure) – were still present on their setlist.       

Another important aspect of this period was the fact that Depeche Mode was ceasing to be just a notorious band, to slowly become a worldwide musical phenomenon. This was registered in the eponymous 101, a documentary directed by renowned filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. An intelligent, wise and curious movie about the tour, the concert, and the fact that the fame and notoriety of the group was becoming higher and higher in the US, Depeche Mode was already considered the probable exponent of the second British invasion that was about to take the United States by storm. Another Depeche Mode DVD that I have, I’ve seen this documentary several times. Although some passages are quite monotonous, this is a vigorous, sensible and valuable registration of a major period in the band’s history, that captured precisely a focal point in their career, having recorded exactly when they were ceasing to be just a synth pop band, to become one of the greatest electronic acts in the worldwide mainstream musical scene.       

In what concerns the album, despite the fact that it’s not an overwhelming record, it features the most amazing songs from this period in the band’s career, and they were all executed brilliantly, with a sonorous fidelity that closely resembles their respective studio versions, with some exceptions. 

My relationship concerning Depeche Mode’s music today: 

After Playing the Angel was released in 2005, I have ceased to accompany Depeche Mode’s career, having lost interest in their new material. Since this album, they have been losing themselves in a dead and ridiculously ordinary creative limbo, writing, playing and producing only variations of the same album. No innovations, no audacity, no experiments. There is a total absence of fresh new elements. Depeche Mode is imprisoned in a lethargic, conventional, ordinary and tedious comfort zone, full of commonalities. Since Exciter, they haven’t done anything truly remarkable, impressive, overwhelming or interesting. 

I have listened to the single of their new album, Where’s the Revolution. Not impressed. I chose to appreciate their old albums, thank you very much. Especially, my favorites.    


Wagner