After the 4 years of silence, England’s electronic band are back with their 12th studio album, Sounds of the Universe. Like everybody else, before listening to this album, my expectations were not really high, for a couple of reasons;
In the late 90’s, Depeche Mode didn’t really deliver what was expected. They weren’t able to surprise us much like they used to do in the 80’s and early 90’s. It is like they got stuck in the same waters of the monotonous 90’s commercial pop culture. Though with the release of their 11th studio album, Playing the Angel, finally they delivered what was expected and much awaited from their fans. So after such a great album, it is quite hard to expect a lot from them. Few bands managed to release a back to back master piece.
Though with the release of Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode took another evolutionary step, far and far away from today’s radio played dance and commercial pop music, and surprised us again. They dug deeper into their adolescence dark electronica. Finally, it’s like they went back in time to some Gothic age, and found themselves again in the Black Celebration era.
Don’t let yourself be influenced by the non commercial success of this album; e.g. their first single “Wrong” only made it up to number 24 in the UK single charts, or Rolling Stones album review, where Sounds of the Universe scored only 2.5 out of 5. Maybe Rolling Stones are more into promoting new commercial artists like Lady Gaga, then masters like Depeche Mode. After all they want to find a way how to sell their magazine, no? Not making a commercial success means something. As I said above, Depeche Mode ran away from the commercial music genre that today’s generic public likes, and got back to their roots. Therefore in 2009, Depeche Mode are still able to release an album which can be enjoyed from any real hardcore Depeche Mode and electronica fan.
