Black Celebration

Black Celebration is the fith album of Depeche Mode and it's the first one that shows the potential of the band. Of course Music for the Masses, Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, but these are submitted already (though Faith and Devotion just now). The album has great songs in "Black Celebration", "A Question of Lust", "A Question of Time" and "Stripped". Also the Martin Gore sung ballads "Sometimes", "It Doesn't Matter Two", "World Full of Nothing" are there, worth to be skipped asap. All in all it's a bit inballanced, but gives a good impression of great things to come.

I didn’t really get on board with Depeche Mode until Violator several years after this one was released. While I never added this to my music library I did hear it fairly regularly through college when my friends were playing music. Great album that I think I like even more today. While if limited to 1001 albums I’d have chosen Violator, having an ever-expanding user list means there is plenty of room for this too!

Listened to this album numerous times in the 80s. The fact that they just use one of their greatest songs from that period (But Not Tonight) as a b-side says it all.

Rating: 10/10

The ordeal of artists going through a rough patch ironically often yields great results. After half a decade releasing stellar hit singles in the field of synth pop (albeit ones also extracted from middling or half-baked LPs), Depeche Mode felt exhausted when they reached the mid-eighties, and they also found themselves facing a pivotal crossroads: should they keep on being the whizz kids / wonder boys making British dissipated youths forget everything on the dancefloor, one hit single after the next? Or should they aim at *more* than this, and thus instill some extra substance and layering within their artistry, so as to finally create something truly valuable in the album format? And also, as they did so, should they embrace their 'darker angels' so to speak -- even at the risk of rocking a boat that was already quite unstable on a mental balance and relationship level? *Black Celebration* is the answer to those queries, and listening to it, it does not take a seer to understand which road on the fork the four British lads decided to go through. The long recording sessions for this fifth studio album were said to be quite an unpleasant affair, but the result were worth it, and the band probably learned a ton of things at the time. To be fair, the dark streak found in this record had always been a part of Depeche Mode's output, even for their infamous, extravagant and bouncy early hit singles. But here said darkness is targeted with an unforgiving focus that *did* open a brand new world of songwriting and production possibilities, as the two next Depeche Mode albums would prove. Never again would the band be accused of merely indulging in pastiche. And it all started with this one record. That transition was anything but abrupt, by the way. Take the title track and opener, for instance: there's a wide-eyed quality to the 'Let's have a black celebration" vocal hook at its center that still yields some very naive charms in retrospect. "Fly On The Windscreen" pushes the gloom further, though, just as Eros and Thanatos french kiss on an abandoned dancefloor ("Death Is everywheeeeeere!!!"). Poignant Martin Gore trademark chord progressions aptly hammer the initial idea home here: we are going to celebrate all things black in this record, as later highlights such as the Philip Glass-inspired "It Doesn't Matter Two" or the sleazy and morbid "Stripped" would prove. "Here Is The House" might pause for a more welcomed tender moment during the course of the tracklist -- but the ominous patches in the ambient "World Full Of Nothing", the weird cabaret waltzing of "Dressed In Black", or the cold reading of depressing news headlines over spiky basslines and driven drum machines in "New Dress" (prematurely dissecting the mechanics of fake news broadcasting) speak volumes about Depeche Mode's newfound attachment on near-"gothic" shenanigans for *Black Celebration*. Bobbing through the despondent surface, you finally have two absolutely iconic cuts, both raising existential "questions" mirroring one another, which is fitting for the whole album's overall thematic goal. One of those iconic cuts is the touching ballad "A Question Of Lust", and the other is the synth-pop banger "A Question Of Time" , with a main instrumental hook that is as infectious as a STD. Depeche Mode would always be progenitors of catchy hits, no matter what dark path they found themselves on. The promise of *Black Celebration* was thus twofold: keep on making people dance, but also making them brood at the same time. And this is how the four lads broadened their long-lasting influence even more. Few tracks admittedly reach the sheer effectiveness of the two "Question" songs in *Black Celebration*. Yet there is still not a dud to be found in this LP. In all honesty, I might have given a 4/5 grade to this album, just to differentiate it from the 'more perfect' marks I have given to *Music For The Masses* and *Violator*. But given my quite harsh grading of *Speak & Spell* in this users list -- for reasons I indirectly stated at the start of this review, and need not repeat here -- I'm gonna push for a 4.5 - 5/5 mark, if only because *Black Celebration* was one of the ten best albums of 1986 anyway. You can't have all the Depeche Mode LPs in a list such as this one, but you need to have the ones that matter, at least. Besides raising questions such the 'question of lust' or the 'question of time', life's also a question of choices, ultimately. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5/5 for the musicianship and production values + 4.5/5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 98 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 112 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 233 --- Hey Émile, j'ai répondu sous Demon Days ET ta sélection pour la users list ! 🙂

🖤 Depeche Mode

Solid new wave, but not Depeche Mode's best. Still, solid music Favourite songs: New Dress, Breathing in Fumes, Fly on the Windscreen, Stripped, A Question of Time, Black Celebration Least favourite songs: It Doesn't Matter Two, World Full of Nothing, Black Day 4/5

Not a patch on the later albums. Inconsistent in quality. Some lame lyrics But 👍for DM

Typical Depeche Mode sound

I like it - not sure I'd heard this one, being released while I was in my prog metal youth so I absolutely would have kicked it at the time. There's a pervasive mysterious gloom throughout the album that really hits me now. Feels like a full piece of music rather than individual songs. A little long but again it feels right to sit this one through in one go. Preferably in a darkened room. Definitely coming back to this one. 8/10 4 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? Not sure we needed another D Mode album in the book so no.

This was a new album for me and all new songs for me from a group that had a profound influence on my music listening two albums later on Violator. Not great, but good, with some very good songs.

I want to like Depeche Mode more than I do. There is high talent and execution at play no doubt. Their palette is a little too monochrome to my ears though, and it's lyrically smart but never really sticks with me, beyond a general sense of emo angst.

Depeche mode are cold

Depeche Mode more like Sleep mode am I right

I actively disliked Depeche Mode back in the 80s, but my views have mellowed over time. I don't hate this, I can sort of appreciate that they were trying to do something different. Still don't love it, but it's an interesting listen nonetheless. 3 stars.

It was fine

Nothing to write home about.

Overly earnest bad singer bloke sings over his Casio keyboard demo tunes.

Synth-pop, industrial, post-punk. Demasiado lento para mi gusto. Un 2.

Usually a Depeche Mode fan, but this LP felt much more plodding and uninspired than their usual output. Though the tempo picks up in the back half, the album is still saturated with lethargic ballads that kill any momentum it might have had. Just feels a bit long and bloated for what it is, the band clearly learned some lessons on this one before making Violator a few years later.

I have nothing against Depeche Mode but their output all seems interchangeable to me

1 na

I genuinely liked Depeche mode when they were a bright-eyed Synth pop band with Vince at the helm. As time went on they moved over to the States and moulded their sound to suit the market. The lyrics are embarassing and pop-tempos so 80s. This is the same. It staggers me how popular they.