Track Listing
1. Black Celebration
2. Fly on the Windscreen, A
3. Question of Lust, A
4. Sometimes
5. It Doesn't Matter Two
6. Question of Time, A
7. Stripped
8. Here Is the House
9. World Full of Nothing
10. Dressed in Black
11. New Dress
12. But Not Tonight
| Details | | Playing Time: | 46 min. | | Producer: | Daniel Miller, Gareth Jones | | Distributor: | WEA (Distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Depeche Mode: Martin Gore (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, keyboards); David Gahan (vocals); Alan Wilder, Andrew Fletcher (synthesizer, keyboards, background vocals).
Recorded at Westside, London, England and Hansa, Berlin, Germany.
BLACK CELEBRATION, Depeche Mode's fifth album not counting compilations, reflects a band coming into its own, exploring new sounds yet staying true to the electronic New Wave that catapulted the foursome to icon status. The production and arrangements move further into the atmospheric, somewhat industrial realm first tentatively explored on the preceding SOME GREAT REWARD, with more impressive results. "Fly On the Windscreen," a song previewed in a much different arrangement on the singles compilation CATCHING UP WITH DEPECHE MODE, sounds more convincing in this form, and it's one of the band's best-ever efforts.
As a whole, BLACK CELEBRATION is a landmark Goth-pop album. Martin Gore's lyrics are less strident and more personal--even the politicized "New Dress" is couched in humanistic detail instead of slogans--and his mostly minor-key melodies have a certain dark majesty. David Gahan's unearthly vocals lend borderline-orperatic songs like "A Question of Lust" and the title track a Weill-esque sinister undertone. In the middle of it all lies "Stripped," a haunting pop track straddling the line of love and control, an apt harbinger for what was to come, both from the band itself and from goth-industrial in general.
Editorial Reviews
3 Stars - Good - ...show[s] how distant from their chart peers Depeche Mode were becoming.
Q (07/01/1995)
7 (out of 10) - ...Mephisto...advised Depeche Mode to make BLACK CELEBRATION, and what they created was an eerie thing somewhere between the pop songs of A BROKEN FRAME and the full-on goth pop of VIOLATOR...
NME (07/01/1995)
4.5 stars out of 5 -- [A]n instant classic for the band's fans...
Rolling Stone
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
