Depeche Mode: Violator era

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



Personal Jesus

First single, August 1989
Probably the most shocking release in the band's history.
After almost a decade of making completely synth-orientated music, and following the longest gap between studio releases, they returned with a track driven by a bluesy guitar-riff (and a hint of country with a slide guitar bit that probably wasn't an actual slide guitar performance), and a pounding drumbeat (actually samples of the band "playing" on suitcases). It didn't sound like anything they'd done before, yet quickly became one of their signature songs, later covered by Johnny Cash and Marilyn Manson (among countless others), heavily sampled by Jamelia (Beware Of The Dog) and Hillary Duff (Reach Out) and remixed by the likes of Stargate and Eric Prydz in 2011.
Certain formats of the single release included a completely acoustic take of the song, and the remixes started to move beyond simply extending the songs or just adding a more dancable beat to it - from this bunch, I find the pump mix the most interesting.

Dangerous

A quite popular B-side (I vaguely recall it topping some fan poll of B-sides), and with its completely electronic instrumentation, probably more acceptable to the core fanbase at the time. While I do like the song, it never was a particular favourite for me, and I agree with the decision of not including it on the album.

Enjoy The Silence

Second single, February 1990
There isn't much of a chance of writing anything groundbreaking about the biggest hit of the band, but I promised no such thing anyway. I still see it worth mentioning that the single version cuts off before the title is sung, and the video version - with its far superiour intro in my opinion - is unavailable as an audio-only release to this very day.
Sidenote: it's understandable to include the single version on a chronological compilation called "Singles" - 86>98 in this instance -, but I think they should have put the video version on the 2006 release "The Best Of Depeche Mode, volume 1".
Back to the song, it can't get much more iconic than this: their only top 10 hot on the Billboard Hot 100, it earned them their only Brit Award to this very day (through public vote...), and made the UK top 10 twice (first the original release in 1990, and then the very Linkin Park-sounding Mike Shinoda remix in 2004), it was covered by pretty much anyone and everyone (including Susan Boyle), with Coldplay even covering the equally iconic video (as an alternate version for their track "Viva La Vida", shot by the original DM video director Anton Corbijn in his home town).
I have to confess that I find the original studio version of the song a bit too smooth for my taste (which probably contributed to its success), but the live versions are utterly irresistible, always a highlight of their shows.
This was the first time for the band to release 3 different 12" and CD singles. The first one (with blue sleeve) included the single version, 2 very enjoyable remixes (with the overall sound staying quite faithful to the original, but one of them having very little vocals, both edited for the UK CD single), and an additional instrumental B-side (Sibeling).
The second one (with yellow sleeve) included two more radically reworked versions (turning out not really my cup of tea), plus a very interesting version called harmonium - reprising Martin's original demo, with him on vocals and just a few chords on an organ-like instrument, which may or may not be a harmonium -, and the other instrumental B-side (Memphisto) also found on the 7".
The third one (with black sleeve) only had one version, which was actually a megamix of several different sections remixed by various artists, the most notable being the symphonic bit in the middle.

Memphisto

An interesting instrumental built around a piano motif and adding more and more layers throughout, it's a bit like a slightly less threatening rework of Pimpf. The title is a mashup of the words Memphis and Mephisto, and I can't help but wonder if it has in any way influenced Bono's MacPhisto persona introduced a few years later.

Sibeling

Another piano-led instrumental, but a much calmer one, the main melody reminds me of folk songs for some reason. A very nice song with another weird title, created from the words Sibelius and sibling.

VIOLATOR

March, 1990
It isn't hard to see why this album is considered a masterpiece, it's a truly magnificent collection of songs, the band at their creative and commercial peak. I'm not sure it's even possible to find any weak point in it, which perversely might be the reason why I never felt as attached to it emotionally as to some other DM albums.
For me, it's musically the starting point of the '90s, its influence is unmeasurable, heavily inspiring Achtung Baby for example (another very influential album of the era), and paving the way for bands like Nine Inch Nails. Co-producer Flood also joined the A-league with his brilliant work on this album, and even the impact of the visuals was enormous - Anton Corbijn went on to work with artists like Bon Jovi, Metallica, Nirvana and Henry Rollins afterwards, and Bono specifically asked him to provide images for the Achtung Baby sleeve that were reminiscent of his artwork for singles of this era. All this was accomplished without sacrificing anything from their desire to move forward, make new sounds and without succumbing to recent trends.
Although this album is a permanent fixture on "best ever" lists (usually placed way lower than it should be), it still hasn't got the appreciation it deserves, but at least it's a step forward from the staggering ignorance from the establishment at the time (see examples here).

World In My Eyes

Despite being the same band, you won't find too many similarities between this album and "A Broken Frame", but one such thing is that both albums are "framed" by the 2 best tracks. This track is a flawless opening, an updated version of the all-electronic Depeche Mode.

Sweetest Perfection

On previous albums, tracks with Martin on lead vocals were usually very emotional ballads (not all of them though, see Pipeline for example), but this is not one of those. A terrific song dealing with addiction, it really steps up a gear halfway through, with a somewhat surprising role reversal (Dave singing backup to Martin) at the end. Oh how I envy those lucky few who managed to witness the updated live version on Martin's solo tour in 2003!

Personal Jesus

The album version of this legendary track is even better than the single version, borrowing the more electronic extended closing section from the holier than thou approach version. The vinyl release (and all formats of the Mute Czechoslovakia releases amongst others) includes a slightly edited outro.

Halo

The song that should have been a single, a firm fan- and live-favourite, with an absolutely hillarious video (only found on the VHS release Strange Too) featuring the actress Jenna Elfman as one of the dancers.

Waiting For The Night

This breathtaking quiet song - the word "ambient" comes to mind - closes side 1, a beautiful duet between Dave and Martin. Another song that keeps returning to the live set in different incarnations (Martin sung it without Dave but with the female backing vocalists a few times in 1994, and the band played the bare version in 2009), it's always a pleasure to hear.

Enjoy The Silence

This enourmous hit starts the second half of the album. It's pretty much the same as the single version, but it does include Dave singing the title at the very end, and segues into an almost completely instrumental interlude (only Andy Fletcher's distorted voice saying "crucified" can be heard as "vocals").

Policy Of Truth

I'm starting to sound a bit repetitive, but yet another great track. It took me a while to get used to it, it's not the most immediate kind of song. Despite being a staple in tour setlists with the exception of the Exciter Tour, it wasn't a particularly memorable live song for quite a while, but I think they really got the hang of it during Touring The Angel, and it really shines ever since.

Blue Dress

Probably the least memorable song on the album, but still very good, Martin takes the lead on this one. Performed live only a handful of times, it was a nice surprise to catch it in the latter stages of the Delta Machine Tour. The song on the album segues into another interlude, which then turns into...

Clean

...the closing masterpiece. Just like World In My Eyes, another one of my all time favourites. From the hipnotic bassline (heavily inspired by Pink Floyd) to the pounding drums, from the incredible vocal performance to the sweeping synths, it has everything you can hope for in a Depeche Mode song. The lyrics seem a bit like a follow up to To Have And To Hold from the previous album, once again forshadowing what Dave went through years later. In a similar case to Halo, despite not being a single, they shot a video for this song, and it also featured on the Strange Too VHS release.
After the World Violation Tour, the song briefly returned to the live set in 1994, and was featured on all but 7 shows during the Exciter Tour in 2001. For some reason (and I still can't get over it completely to this very day), this is the only song that was performed during the 2 Paris dates which were filmed for the ironically titled One Night In Paris live video that didn't make it on the release. The song was beautifully reworked in a "bare" versions during the Playing The Angel sessions in 2005, and Martin once performed it acoustically in 2009 during Tour Of The Universe. Here's hoping for its return to the live set some time in the future.

*
Policy Of Truth

Third single, May 1990
A slightly surprising choice for a single, not because it's not good enough, but probably Halo would have been a more obvious choice.
This is the only single in the band's catalogue that charted higher in the US (#15) than in the UK (#16), probably thanks their Stateside popularity peaking and the US leg of the tour starting around the time of its release. As usual for this era, the first 12" and CD single included longer versions that are similar in sound to the original, and the second ones featured more radical reworks of the song. They're all quite good, beat box is my particular favourite among them.
This single is also unique for the 7" version being longer than the album version, and while most Depeche Mode videos use the single version as their soundtrack, this one uses the radio edit, otherwise available on promo releases only. All formats had unique sleeves.

Kaleid

This instrumental B-side is very different from the ones on the previous single, a pulsing electronic track.

World In My Eyes

Fourth single, September 1990
The opening track from the album served as the final single of this era, and with the band being on tour, it's not too surprising that video mostly contains footage from the live shows. The song was edited for the single release, but the video contains the full length album version and have 2 different edits. The original intro (with no music playing underneath) shows Dave driving into a drive-in cinema accompanied by a woman, and there are shots of the couple sitting in the car throughout the song. For the Strange Too video release, they shot the four band members in a car arriving at the same cinema and "watch" the six music videos made for the Violator album, with World In My Eyes being the last one. This version does not feature the female guest seen in the original video.
There were several different remixes released across several formats (this time, the vinyl and CD releases had quite different tracklists and mostly different artwork), most of them are very enjoyable, but some of them were clearly of their time (the house piano on mode to joy and mayhem mode being an obvious example).

Happiest Girl

A bit unexptedly, the last single featured 2 brand new vocal B-sides. All versions were labeled with mix names, suggesting they were not the original versions. This is the more prominent one of the two, with 6 different versions altogether - a single version named jack mix, an extended version called kiss-a-mix which was edited for the UK CD release, and 3 variations (vocal, instrumental, full length instrumental) of a remix created by The Orb.
This song has some interesting experimental beats (hinting at what was to come in 90's electronic music) and a nice middle bit, but overall it's not one of my favourites.

Sea Of Sin

The second B-side features an unusually dance-orientated beat, and while being very far from bad, somehow I'm not too keen on this one either.

World Violation Tour
Kaleid
World In My Eyes
Halo
Shake The Disease
Everything Counts
Master And Servant
Never Let Me Down Again
Waiting For The Night
I Want You Now / Here Is The House / Little 15
World Full Of Nothing / Sweetest Perfection / Blue Dress
Clean
Stripped
Policy Of Truth
Strangelove
Personal Jesus

Black Celebration
A Question Of Time

Behind The Wheel
Route 66

May - August 1990 (North America)
August - September (Australia & Japan)
September - November (Europe)

Knowing how popular they were at the time, a surprisingly short tour including some stadium gigs in the US, only 6 UK dates (in only 2 cities), no shows in Eastern Europe, but at least they made it to Australia for the first time - for 1 concert.
Quite a few things worth mentioning about the setlist. Most of the songs from Some Great Reward, that were staples up to this point (Something To Do, Blasphemous Rumours, People Are People) are gone, the emphasis is very much on the last 3 albums. The 1981-1985 era is only represented by 2 or 3 songs depending on your point of view - although originally released in 1983, Everything Counts was re-released as a single from the live album "101" in 1989, and the version played on this tour is created from the Tim Simenon/Mark Saunders remix found on the re-release.
The band usually put the "oldies" in the encore or late in the main set, but here they are played quite early on. Shake The Disease and Master And Servant both featured a new intro.
Kaleid was significantly reworked for the intro, and contained elements from the "Crucified" interlude at its beginning and end. Never Let Me Down Again featured the intro from the split mix and the additional melody from the aggro mix during the extended bit.
After Waiting For The Night, Martin stayed alone on the stage, performing his usual 2-song bit in the middle of the set solo with an acoustic guitar. His choices were quite unusual: on most occasions he played 1 song each from the 2 previous albums, which hadn't been played live before. Whenever they played multiple nights at a venue, he switched to Here Is The House (only played once or twice in its original form, which had Dave on lead vocals!) and one of the new songs, Sweetest Perfection. On very few (probably 2) occasions, he played Little 15 (another older song originally sung by Dave and never played live before) and Blue Dress. There's only one known occasion where he paired the songs differently: on 18 June in New York City, he played Little 15 and Here Is The House.
Enjoy The Silence was heavily extended, incorporating elements from the "bass line" remix, resulting in my least favourite live version of the song, Strangelove had a reworked intro, and main set closer Personal Jesus also had a slightly modified start and extended ending.
After skipping quite a few massive hits, encore opener Black Celebration - never released as a single - was a slight surprise in the set, while A Question Of Time sounded a bit more raw than on the previous tour.
The second encore opened with Behind The Wheel, which segued into an unusual choice as set closer: Route 66, with its instrumentation based on the Beatmasters remix, and the only occasion in the band's career so far, when Dave sings lead on a song originally recorded with Martin as lead vocalist.
A very good setlist overall with a few new versions and unexpected songs thrown in (especially by Martin), and the first time the band used film projections on stage (created by Anton Corbijn, obviously), but somehow I'm not that keen on this tour. Needless to say, it's completely different for those lucky enough to have actually seen it there and then.

*

1991 was the least active year in the band's career up to that point, after working solidly for a whole decade, they decided to take a break. While the 3 founding members concentrated on their private lives, Alan did some side-projects - co-producing Nitzer Ebb and recording his first album under the Recoil moniker to include (guest) vocalists - and compiled material from the archives for 2 releases. The first one was only released in Japan and consisted of 2 sets of 4 CDs (X1 and X2) containing remixes, B-sides and live tracks (with some of them being slightly different from the original releases). The other one, first released for the UK/European market and followed by the US version in 1992, was 18 singles on CD divided into 3 sets of 6. The singles in question were the first 17 (from Dreaming Of Me to A Question Of Time), plus Little 15. These were not originally released on CD - although the band's (West) German record company, Intercord did start to release some of them around 1987.
Although these box sets were a fantastic way to catch up, they weren't complete, usually omtting material from the original limited edition 12" releases.

*

Death's Door

This song doesn't really belong to the Violator era, but it's the next thing chronologically, and it's definitely not the kind of thing that started the next album's era, so I'd rather include it here. Sometime during their break, some of the band members entered the studio to record a song for an upcoming Wim Wenders movie. It's safe to say that Alan, who usually took a lion's share in the studio work, and Martin, who sings on the track were there, and I could imagine Andy being present, but they didn't see Dave - who divorced, moved to the US, married again and went through a quite dramatic transformation - too much around then.
Anyway, the song - which, interestingly enough, would fit sonically on Ultra quite nicely I think - is a nice little ballad with a hint of Twin Peaks vibe. The original version is still unique to the soundtrack, a longer version called jazz mix was first released on flexi disc with the band's official fan club magazine Bong in 1992, and was later included on the Condemnation single and appeared as an extra track on the 2006 CD+DVD re-release of the next album. The song (with piano backing only) even found its way into the live set in 1993.

*

I have a habit of getting into bands when they're not very active, an obvious example being Depeche Mode becoming my favourite band in 1991.
I do remember hearing songs like Master And Servant and A Question Of Time on the radio as a child, even liking them a bit without recognizing who the performers were. I became fully aware of them as a band around 1987. I was quite fascinated by the magnificent Never Let Me Down Again and the beautifully melancholic Little 15 - on the other hand, Behind The Wheel didn't impress me too much at the time. I also liked the live version of Everything Counts, but Personal Jesus was way too weird for my child-like pop taste then. Enjoy The Silence was OK, Policy Of Truth was once again too weird, but World In My Eyes was another early favourite. So, the signs were there, and during the summer of '91, I really dived into discovering them, fell completely in love, and after 25 years, it's safe to say there's never going to be another band this important to me.