Depeche Mode - The Best of Depeche Mode, Volume 1

Depeche Mode
The Best of Depeche Mode, Volume 1
Sire Records
Grade: A-

This extended eighteen-song best of from Depeche Mode serves as only one of several reissues and compilations discs recently releases by the band and various labels. And with a quick listen to these now classic tracks it totally makes sense to do this commercial onslaught now. I had completely forgotten how damn new wave Depeche Mode was and how so many of these current punk-dance bands have simply ripped off the band. Some of the cribbing of riffs and sequences by today’s bands will make you want to throw up. Combining 18 of Depeche Mode’s 500 or so singles stretching from the early 1980s until today (2005’s “Precious”), the songs that will make you reminisce, dance, cry, and sing annoying loud include “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence,” “Everything Counts,” “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Master and Servant,” the secretly hot “Shake the Disease,” “Strangelove,” “People Are People,” and the closer “Never Let Me Down Again.” An interesting, lengthy narrative by Paul Morley in the linear notes helps create a web of connection between the songs and changes in the band. Besides from the late 80s and early 90s uber-hits, the songs that really get you going are the band’s early material. Most of the material from this millennium can’t really be characterized as ‘best of.’