Violator

Following the success of the film and soundtrack to '101', the Mode set about its follow-up after some brief side projects (Martin Gore's covers-e.p., Wilder's Recoil project)- the 1989 single 'Personal Jesus' (later covered by Johnny Cash and Marilyn Manson - not at the same time sadly!)being the initial release and a pervy-pop song that blended the devotional and the dirty in a manner as great as Madonna's 'Like a Prayer.''Violator' (a deliberately Spinal Tap style title!) was the conclusion of the Mode's European outlook, the contribution of Francois Kevorkian aligned it to the electronic past of Kraftwerk and Moroder. 'World in My Eyes' (the fourth single released) opens the LP, a minimal electronic pop song that is Andy Fletcher's favourite Mode track. 'Sweetest Perfection' is the first of Martin Gore's lead vocals, blending bluesy guitar with electronics - setting the tone for 'Personal Jesus' and live favourite 'Halo' - the latter is one of Gore's greatest pop-songs and should have been a single (especially with the hilarious promo they shot found on 'Strange Too').Following these highs we shift into the epic electronic ballad 'Waiting for the Night' which finds Gahan alone in an artificial universe until Gore supplies some harmonies: pure machine-soul. The sequencing on 'Black Celebration' and 'Music for the Masses' is advanced on here - the latter four tracks are generally linked together by smaller pieces of music - we move from 'Waiting for the Night' to Top 5 hit 'Enjoy the Silence' - a key song in the Mode's back catalogue and single of the year at the Brits the following year (not that they bothered to turn up!). '...Silence' is followed by 'Policy of Truth' (the third single)- an anthemic track later covered by some grunge band I've forgotten the name of!The album concludes on a darker note, Gore's second lead vocal 'Blue Dress' drifts between a sensitive 'Somebody'-style ballad and something more sinister. The model for later Gore-fronted tracks such as 'Home', 'Comatose', 'Damaged People' and 'Macro.' Finally there is 'Clean', which opens with electronics that recall Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Yellow Magic Orchestra before shifting into a downbeat anthem in which Gahan unconvincingly sings "I'm the cleanest I've been..." - kind of at odds with his infamous addictions and issues that followed...As with the 'Speak & Spell' and 'Music for the Masses' reissues, this is a twin disc set with the album on DVD/A in 5.1 and stereo (my original copy of 'Violator' on CD sounds terrible on my mp3 player...a more than welcome reissue).There is another audio feature (the Mode and co exploiting the possibilities of this new format wonderfully) like the other two reissues and several bonus tracks. These are basically b-sides of the singles - 'Dangerous' is a fair enough pop-song that was the flipside of 'Personal Jesus', while instrumentals 'Memphisto' and 'Sibeling' were on 'Enjoy the Silence.' Another instrumental 'Kaleid' ('Policy of Truth') was used as the intro to the 'World Violation' tour and the final two songs ('Happiest Girl' and 'Sea of Sin') featured on the 'World in My Eyes' single from Autumn 1990. All nice additions, but 'Kaleid' apart nothing as great as the album proper...(& tracks most Mode fans are likely to posess on several formats already!)'Violator' was the Mode's peak I feel - follow-up 'Songs of Faith & Devotion' had a flawed production (sort of grungey-'Achtung Baby!') and the two albums that followed were patchy ('Playing the Angel' is more succesful). 'Violator' was the pinnacle of the Mode's achievment, building on the fine 'Construction Time Again'/'Some Great Reward' and fellow masterpieces 'Black Celebration' and 'Music for the Masses.' What's great here is that the Mode stayed true to themselves and released an LP that was naturally them - no trying to be Alice in Chains or Nirvana here! It's also a great collection of pop-songs that show how great the pop-song was before the return to the 50s style of recent years (though of course Girls Aloud and Sugababes have Mode-elements in their music thanks to Richard X!). 'Violator' is the best Mode album and one of the classic albums of the early 1990s alongside 'Chill Out', 'Heaven or Las Vegas', 'Fear of a Black Planet', 'Loveless', 'Behaviour', 'Blue Lines' & 'Selected Ambient Works I.' What more can I say?

As history shows, Depeche Mode achieved mass critical and public success with the release of Violator. It's success and the road that took the band to the peak of the mountain was the perfect illustration of how allowing a band to grow at their own pace without undue record company pressure (take a bow Daniel Miller) can reap the ultimate reward.The ten years and 6 albums that preceded the release of Violator gave DM the license to experiment and develop their own unique sound and style resulting in this, their crowning glory. As with most artists who get to the top of the mountain, it becomes the proverbial albatross around the neck and as hard as the band have tried they haven't quite scaled those heights again. While the preceding two releases, Black Celebration and Music For the Masses, and the album that followed Violator, Songs of Faith & Devotion, were arguably just as strong, there hasn't been another album release that comes close to the front to back quality of what I consider to be their most creative period.In many ways Violator was the building and coming together of the perfect storm: Martin Gore was at his songwriting best, the prolific and always adventurous Flood came in as producer, remix legend Francois Kevorkian was also on board as engineer and Alan Wilder had taken even greater control in the studio, a key component in cultivating the sound of the album. It's no accident that since Wilder left after the release of SOFAD the band have not produced an album to match the sheer quality of the aforementioned sequence of four gold-class classics. Ultra was still good, just not great, while Exciter was excellent and might have earned the classic status if not for the fact that it was probably two or three songs too long*.[* The CD-era brought with it this fascination of trying to fill the disc with as much music as possible, much of it filler. I wonder what songs would have been made the cut on Exciter if consideration was given to ensuring that the music needed to fit on two sides of the record. Just some food for thought...]This release brings together the original album (remastered), documentary, some film clips and the 5.1 mix of Violator. It's a quality set and if I was being picky I wish they'd included another disc containing the many remixes from the single releases. I'm guessing that will happen for the 30th anniversary release in 2020!There is little more to say that hasn't been said a million times about Violator. If you had to own one Depeche Mode album, this would be the one. (I hope I never have to make that decision as I really would find it hard to live without BC, MFTM and SOFAD). Two of the greatest songs of all time (yes, I'm happy to make that call) reside on this album - Personal Jesus (so good that Johnny Cash recorded his own version) and of course the perfect Enjoy The Silence. World In My Eyes is as good a opening track to any album while Halo is a slow build of rhythmic/synth gorgeousness. There isn't a weak track to be found here - it's a combination of brilliant and excellent - but more importantly the album works well as a whole.Highly recommended (obviously).

Violator is a superb synth-rock album which demonstrates the strong writing ability of Martin Gore. This LP includes a number of stand-out tracks including 'Personal Jesus' and the hypnotic 'Enjoy The Silence'.

This is, obviously, one of the most iconic albums of all time and for me marks the pinnacle of DMs recording career although arguably Ultra comes close. Over 30 years old this still sounds fresh and relevant.I bought this on CD when it was first released and, since I got back into vinyl 3 or 4 years ago, it has always been on my wish list but for some reason I never got around to it.. until now and I'm so glad I did.This is already one of my favourite vinyl albums.. the music itself needs no further comment from me. The recording is pristine and the pressing is one of the best sounding I own.. silent between tracks, deep rich bass, solid presence in the midrange, sparkling highs, delicate decays and lightning fast transients.. this is how it's meant to sound.If that weren't enough the Matt black sleeve oozes quality and the artwork is sublime.I would recommend this to anyone. Even if you don't have a record player!