DEPECHE MODE: EXCITER

I love Depeche Mode. So you can imagine my utter glee when, after five years of absolutely nothing but a new song on their greatest hits album and a few instrumental B-sides, lo and behold a new album, Exciter, arrives just in time for a summer of love. Unfortunately, like my love life, this album sucks. I can honestly say that of the measly ten tracks (C’mon, guys, it’s been five years) only two caught my attention. “When the Body Speaks” and “Comatose” are the only tracks worth mentioning, and that’s only because of their sleep-inducing sounds. These differ from the catchy hooks of Depeche Mode’s past efforts. Back in 1990, Mode had a big hit with “Personal Jesus,” incidentally my least favorite of all their tunes. It seems like every album since then has had at least two songs that try to recreate that sound. The victims on their latest album are “Dream On” and “The Dead of Night.” So if you were hanging out at the clubs between 1990 and 1993 and were all about grinding on some hoochie’s thigh to “Personal Jesus,” then these are two songs you can practice “getting your swerve back on” to. As for me, I’ll pass. However, I’m not one to give up on a beloved band. I thought that maybe this album might be another case of Radiohead’s Kid A; an album I wasn’t too happy with the first couple times I heard it, but over repeated listenings grew to love. This however isn’t the case. I found myself skipping between the two songs that I somewhat liked and ignoring the rest. Now I don’t even like those two songs anymore. It’s kind of sad to see one of the true grandfather’s of electronic music going out with a whimper. Hopefully they will redeem themselves before they go away completely. In the meantime, if you’d like to hear what made a fan of Whitesnake and pre-”Enter Sandman” Metallica begin listening to sensitive electronica, light a few candles and check out 1986’s Black Celebration and Violator. Songs like “Blue Dress” and “But Not Tonight” will have you sobbing like a little bitch.