Depeche Mode: Black Celebration era

The album. The singles. The songs. The tour.


Stripped

The first single from the album, February 1986.
A true Depeche Mode classic, atmospheric, full of interesting sounds and great melodies, a firm band- and fan favourite to this very day.
The 12" version was created by Flood, his first collaboration with DM. The band themselves made a more radical rework, and named it "Breathing In Fumes", but despite the different title, it's not a different song, just a remix (its inclusion on a remix compilation 25 years later is not by mistake).
The single was accompanied by the 3rd and last video directed by Peter Care for the band, and it's quite good.

But Not Tonight

A surprisingly poppy song from this era on the B-side, quite popular with the fans, and especially with the US record company. They added it to the album tracklist, and thought that it would do better on radio than "Stripped", so they released this (in slightly remixed form) as the A-side, much to the band's dismay, who spent about a week with just mixing the masterpiece (and ages sampling and recording before), while threw this one together completely from scratch in one day (as a refreshing experiment). Despite even placing But Not Tonight on a movie soundtrack to get a wider audience, it wasn't a hit, but the song made a surprise live debut with Martin on lead vocals only accompanied by a piano in 2013, and it grew into one of the highlights of the tour, ending in a huge crowd singalong.

Black Day

Another slightly confusing track - the lyrics are taken from "Black Celebration", but it's clear to me that this isn't a version of that song, it's an entirely separate track: different lead singer, different vocal melody, completely different backing track, and the songwriting credits for this one include Daniel Miller and Alan Wilder as well as Martin. A very weird studio experiment, it's unlike anything else in the DM catalogue, and since it gave me a headache on the first listen, I very rarely listen to it. It's still kind of cool that they did a song as unusual as this though.

BLACK CELEBRATION

March, 1986.
The closing one from the "Berlin trilogy", an absolutely incredible album. They moved away a bit from the catchier tunes in favour of atmospherics (which resulted in lower placings on the UK singles chart), but their overall popularity didn't suffer at all. Their sound became more mature and more sophisticated (still lots of samples, but less metal bashing). Although I wouldn't call it a concept album, quite a few of the songs are dealing with an unpleasant outside world and personal emotions as an escape from it. This is probably the oldest album that the band still really like, they don't only perform the singles quite regularly but even album tracks (and as mentioned above, a B-side) return to the live set from time to time.

Black Celebration

Probably the quintessential Depeche Mode song for me, definitely one of my top 3 of all time (besides Never Let Me Down Again, and, as you may have guessed it, In Your Room). If I had to demonstrate the DM sound through one song only, I would probably go for this one. I just love every single moment of it, the mysterious opening, the slow build, the up tempo verses, the slow break before the chorus, the chorus itself, the instrumental break, the closing section - everything. I could barely contain myself when I heard it live again on the Delta Machine Tour - although the slower pace meant it wasn't as perfect as it used to be, it was still a wonderful version and a clear highlight.

Fly On The Windscreen - Final

The song already released as B-side the previous year was slightly reworked for the album (the "final" version), incorporating elements from the death mix created by Gareth Jones. Another great song and band favourite, which returned to the live set in 1993 and in 2009.

A Question Of Lust

This song ends the opening 3-song suege and starts another row of 3 with Martin on lead vocals. Beautiful melody, it's no wonder that this became the first Martin song to be released as a standolne single (Somebody was part of a doble A-side release), and although I prefer the original arrangement, it works just as well as a piano ballad as demonstrated first in 1998 on KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas, then on Martin's solo tour in 2003, and then during Tour Of The Universe and the Delta Machine Tour.

Sometimes

Probably the first song on the album which is not that perfect, but it's still a nice and very short song.

It Doesn't Matter Two

A very nice and intimate song, and probably one of Martin's favourites as it keeps returning to the live set in different forms: the original arrangement was performed in 1986, then a piano version in 2001, and then a guitar-bass-drums version in 2006.

A Question Of Time

Side 2 kicks off with a faster song with a driving rhythm, a catchy lead melody and great singing, probably the most accessible single from the album. The song in its studio version, and especially the even better live version on 101, is one of my favourites, but the recent live versions are quite disappointing. Luckily, the original is included here.

Stripped

The wonderful first single is slightly longer here than on the 7", yet another highlight on the album.

Here Is The House

A great song, one of my sister's favourites, and one of the more up-tempo ones on this album, it wouldn't have been shocking to see this released as a single. For some reason, it disappeared from the live set very quickly (the only known performance was on the 2nd show of the tour), making a surprising but welcome return 4 years later, performed by Martin alone with his acoustic guitar.

World Full Of Nothing

The only song sung by Martin on the second side, but just as beautiful and touching as the earlier ones. This one debuted live in 1990 with Martin playing it alone with his guitar, and a piano version was given a one-off airing on the last show of the Exciter Tour in 2001.

Dressed In Black

A slightly less memorable track (still not bad though), a soft tune with Dave on lead vocals for a change. If you listen closely, you can spot that despite the fade out, the song actually has a cold ending. It was first played live 15 years after its release (with Martin singing over a piano backing) with only 3 performances throughout the whole Exciter Tour. This piano version returned in 2009, and became quite memorable with a great singalong ending.

New Dress

A fairly surprising closing track with pounding drums and hard hitting political lyrics, it doesn't necessarily fit the tone of the album. The song closes with a single acoustic guitar chord, echoing the opening of Stripped.

*

A Question Of Lust

Second single, April 1986
A beautiful song which didn't do particularly well on the charts (their lowest placing in the UK since the very first single). The limited edition maxi - including a remix by Flood and some live tracks from the previous tour - was released as a cassette single instead of the usual 12" in the UK. The video was their last one with director Clive Richardson.

Christmas Island

This quite hard sounding instrumental is the last Depeche Mode song with writing credits for Alan Wilder, it worked well as an intro on the tour.

A Question Of Time

Third single,  August 1986
It may have been a bit confusing to release 2 songs in a row with very similar titles. This song was remixed for the single (quite well, though the fade ending was not the best idea). Of course, it's also famous for its video, the first one to be directed by Anton Corbijn (and their first one in black and white as well). With the album's title track on the B-side (recorded live), it's a very strong pairing, and the extended remix of the single plus the black tulip mix of Black Celebration are also really good, I'm not that fond of the live tracks and the other remix of A Question Of Time.


Black Celebration Tour
Christmas Island
Black Celebration
A Question Of Time
Fly On The Windscreen
Shake The Disease
Leave In Silence
It's Called A Heart
Everything Counts
It Doesn't Matter Two
A Question Of Lust
Blasphemous Rumours
New Dress
Stripped
Something To Do
Master And Servant
Photographic
People Are People

Boys Say Go!

Just Can't Get Enough
More Than A Party

March - May 1986 (UK & Europe)
June - July 1986 (North America & Japan)
August 1986 (Europe)

Despite the spectacular new album and a good selection of older songs in the main set, a slightly disappointing setlist for me. Two early classics are gone for good: New Life and See You, not bad songs, but it was the right time to retire them. The opening is very strong - it's pretty much perfect up to Leave In Silence -, It's Called A Heart is not their strongest track, but it was an understandable inclusion as a recent single, and Everything Counts is placed a bit odd, with its big singalong ending directly followed the quiet section of the show, 2 songs with Martin on lead vocals (on the last show, Somebody was played instead of It Doesn't Matter Two). On the second (and probably the first) date of the tour, Here Is The House was played after A Question Of Lust, but then it was dropped from the set. Blasphemous Rumours works very well following the Martin section with its slow build and anthemic chorus, Stripped is presented in an extended version with extra percussion. Something To Do is a nice inclusion from the previous album (despite not being a single), but closing the main set with Master And Servant followed by Photographic and then the big hit from the previous album is very familiar from the previous tour, and the new version of Photographic - a cross between the Some Bizzare and the album version with some new sounds thrown in - is not as good as the versions played between 1983-1985. But the real horror comes in the first encore - why, oh why did they choose to reintroduce one of their worst songs which didn't fit with the new ones at all? I'll never be able to get my head around that. Just Can't Get Enough is fine there - with a shorter ending compared to earlier live versions - and More Than A Party is another slightly weird choice as last encore song, a not particularly stand out album track, but with its fast pace speeding up even more into a frenzy at the end makes it somewhat fitting. I would have kept Here Is The House in the set, skipped Boys Say Go!, placed People Are People in its place as the first encore, and probably switched the order of Photographic and Master And Servant, making the latter closing the main set. Apart from the setlist, I'm too fond of the overall sound of the tour - there are 5 songs from the Birmingham show on the A Question Of Time single, 7 more songs were included in radio broadcasts (2 versions, as usual) from the same concert, and there are some pro-shot videos from the tour floating around (London, Hamburg, Stuttgart), so I don't have to make a judgement based purely on bootleg recordings, but all of these sound a bit too raw for me, and despite the majority of the set made up of good versions of great songs, it doesn't have a particularly good flow. Still, I can very easily imagine the actual experience being very enjoyable and memorable for those lucky enough to be there.