To follow their smash-hit Violator <\/i>with the startlingly experimental Songs Of Faith And Devotion<\/i> might have seemed a career debacle for Depeche Mode. After all, the band risked alienating a newly extended family of fan base — reaped from Violator\u2019s<\/i> wide reach — with a move so extreme. But like every great band that\u2019s always reinventing itself to stay relevant, DM went with the sign of the times and created their very first rock album.<\/p>\n
In the angst-ridden grunge period of the \u201890s, there was no room for \u201880s merriment. And for someone like DM, whose music was getting darker and more inaccessible to begin with, the dramatic shift in the moors of popular music was a perfect catalyst to take their music to a whole new dimension. The singles \u201cI Feel You\u201d and \u201cWalking In My Shoes,\u201d with their grimy guitar-dominated sound, are nothing like DM had ever recorded, and they fit perfectly with the rest of unkempt flannel-clad anarchist music that was being played on MTV in 1993.<\/p>\n
But DM didn\u2019t transform into a rock band. They just used the guitar to the fullest extent without turning into one. At the same time, DM was also not going for the barmy dance-rock sound of EMF or Jesus Jones that was so popular at the time. This was an ambitious project. Songs Of Faith<\/i> is an intense record, with the music relying entirely on guitars and drums. The production is dense and the mood is bleak at its cheerful best. But beneath the surface the equation hasn\u2019t changed. The album is still blessed with Martin Gore\u2019s superb songwriting and his ability to write great melodic songs. So instead of turning into a grim industrial-rock noise-fest, Songs Of Faith<\/i> ends up a classy pop record shimmering with beautiful ineligible guitar noises and driven by machine-like rhythms that can still be danced to.<\/p>\n
Songs Of Faith<\/i> is difficult if only because of the lack of synth-pop. Otherwise, it is still very much like a traditional DM record, full of catchy sophisticated pop songs. In addition to cuts like \u201cI Feel You,\u201d \u201cIn Your Room,\u201d and \u201cRush,\u201d which make the very first encounter with this shocking record pleasant and even enjoyable, the more eccentric ones, too, like the gospel-tinged \u201cCondemnation,\u201d the Uilleann pipe-flavored \u201cJudas,\u201d or the strings-infused \u201cOne Caress,\u201d all turn out pretty easy sells.<\/p>\n
Songs Of Faith<\/i> might not be remembered as dearly as DM\u2019s albums from their \u201880s era. But for its sheer boldness and visionary brilliance, this is record is clearly DM\u2019s greatest achievement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":29712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6979],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41315","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-depeche-mode","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41315"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}