I got the new David Gahan record a couple of weeks ago and ended up scribbling down notes while I listened to it, which is just plain awful and pretentious of me, ain't it?
Of all the turds in the toilet that is Depeche Mode's state of late, this Paper Monsters record looked to be the smelliest. Dave's never really been a huge musical force within the band (and even bitched to NME about not having a bigger part in how songs were written and developed). The opener didn't do anything to dissuade me from this view - "Dirty Sticky Floors" sounds, well, awful. A dirge-rock number (imagine "The Dead Of Night" off of Exciter minus the singalong chorus bit), it induced me to size up the contents of the cutlery drawer, hoping to find something to rip out the relevent veins and take me away from it. It ends, blissfully, and then something happens.
There's electronic noises. They're soft. They're quiet. Hi, little guys. I'm your new daddy. "Hold On" is a really nice piece of work - minimal enough to focus on the fact that yes, Gahan can sing a tune quite well, while cradling you in its loving arms. It's followed by an even nicer little ditty called "A Little Piece" that makes your hopes rise. Too bad they're about to get their brains bashed out like a baby dropped into an empty swimming pool.
Cliche alert - there's a song about boozing and it says nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times. I can only think of one song that makes drinking sound as fun as it actually can be ("Tubthumping") and it's shit like this that ruins alcohol's good name in the communities that haven't been pushed onto reservations. Christ, Dave. Yeah, you got shitfaced - poorly, I might add. We know that. Thank you, next topic.
And when the next topic is an even more awful track called "Black and Blue Again" that is basically a repeat of "Dirty Sticky Floors" with a button labeled "More Dirge" being slapped a little more often.
The album shows signs of turning itself around in the next two songs (both of which lacking heavy guitar parts, not at all coincidentally, I suspect) "Stay" and "I Need You." In "Stay," she's walking out the door, having obviously gotten tired of his drinking and caterwauling. He's tenderly asking her to come back. "I Need You" is an interesting inversion of things done by Depeche Mode in the past - it harkens to "I Feel Loved" dubbed-out a bit with a refrain that catches the listener unaware - "You'll always need me more; I need you." May well be the best track on the album, that one.
I'm a sucker for strings and beats put together, so I actually like "Bitter Apple" more than it deserves. As fruit metaphors are as dead as Peter Cetera's career, this one should be long past its sell date. I wish this had been instrumental, really.
The penultimate "Hidden Houses" irks the hell out of me. Dave's voice is spot on, the lyrics are better than anticipated, but the awful backing and the inappropriate WALL OF FEEDBACKKCKCKCKBBBAAABBCC make me wince in pain.
Finally, you hit "Goodbye" (really original, Dave) and it's basically "Dream On" in the chorus, scary-white-guy-wants-to-fuck-you love shit on the verse bits.
"Disappointing" is the word that sums up my feelings on both Paper Monsters and Martin Gore's "Counterfeit2." (Don't talk to me about Recoil. Great sounds, bad end result on the last couple releases.) Depeche Mode were my favorite band for a long time, but the solo releases seem determined to prove that as of Exciter, they are no longer relevant, and that depresses me.
Of all the turds in the toilet that is Depeche Mode's state of late, this Paper Monsters record looked to be the smelliest. Dave's never really been a huge musical force within the band (and even bitched to NME about not having a bigger part in how songs were written and developed). The opener didn't do anything to dissuade me from this view - "Dirty Sticky Floors" sounds, well, awful. A dirge-rock number (imagine "The Dead Of Night" off of Exciter minus the singalong chorus bit), it induced me to size up the contents of the cutlery drawer, hoping to find something to rip out the relevent veins and take me away from it. It ends, blissfully, and then something happens.
There's electronic noises. They're soft. They're quiet. Hi, little guys. I'm your new daddy. "Hold On" is a really nice piece of work - minimal enough to focus on the fact that yes, Gahan can sing a tune quite well, while cradling you in its loving arms. It's followed by an even nicer little ditty called "A Little Piece" that makes your hopes rise. Too bad they're about to get their brains bashed out like a baby dropped into an empty swimming pool.
Cliche alert - there's a song about boozing and it says nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times. I can only think of one song that makes drinking sound as fun as it actually can be ("Tubthumping") and it's shit like this that ruins alcohol's good name in the communities that haven't been pushed onto reservations. Christ, Dave. Yeah, you got shitfaced - poorly, I might add. We know that. Thank you, next topic.
And when the next topic is an even more awful track called "Black and Blue Again" that is basically a repeat of "Dirty Sticky Floors" with a button labeled "More Dirge" being slapped a little more often.
The album shows signs of turning itself around in the next two songs (both of which lacking heavy guitar parts, not at all coincidentally, I suspect) "Stay" and "I Need You." In "Stay," she's walking out the door, having obviously gotten tired of his drinking and caterwauling. He's tenderly asking her to come back. "I Need You" is an interesting inversion of things done by Depeche Mode in the past - it harkens to "I Feel Loved" dubbed-out a bit with a refrain that catches the listener unaware - "You'll always need me more; I need you." May well be the best track on the album, that one.
I'm a sucker for strings and beats put together, so I actually like "Bitter Apple" more than it deserves. As fruit metaphors are as dead as Peter Cetera's career, this one should be long past its sell date. I wish this had been instrumental, really.
The penultimate "Hidden Houses" irks the hell out of me. Dave's voice is spot on, the lyrics are better than anticipated, but the awful backing and the inappropriate WALL OF FEEDBACKKCKCKCKBBBAAABBCC make me wince in pain.
Finally, you hit "Goodbye" (really original, Dave) and it's basically "Dream On" in the chorus, scary-white-guy-wants-to-fuck-you love shit on the verse bits.
"Disappointing" is the word that sums up my feelings on both Paper Monsters and Martin Gore's "Counterfeit2." (Don't talk to me about Recoil. Great sounds, bad end result on the last couple releases.) Depeche Mode were my favorite band for a long time, but the solo releases seem determined to prove that as of Exciter, they are no longer relevant, and that depresses me.
