FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
DEPECHE MODE
Ultra
Warner / Reprise· First album of new material in four years from '80s synth-pop kings.
· Ultra-dull, mega-boring and super-bleak.
Hey, did you hear the one about the junkie, the epileptic and the manic depressive?
Okay, there're these three guys: a smack head, a guy who has seizures and another guy who tried to kill himself. And these three guys plus another guy who had gallstones were one of the most well-known synthesizer bands of the 1980s. Starting out as a fairly dated pop and fluff dance act, they transformed into a thoughtful and brooding - but still sometimes dancey - group that, along with New Order and the Cure, would define a genre.
And then the '90s came and these guys managed to stay relevant with a couple of not-bad albums and a tough-guy makeover for the junkie. Musically, nothing too different from the direction they'd been heading all along, but still fairly good, darkened electro-pop.
And then came 1997. The three guys kicked the gallstone guy out of the band and put out another album. Except this album sounded like the tired sum of every one of the 17 years these chuckle-heads had been together. Dreary, uninspired and so mired down in self-pity, this new album was so dull.... This album was so dull that.... Wait a second... I forgot the punchline. Oh well, it's not that funny anyway.
2/5
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