Life on this Planet: August 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

Ranking Depeche Mode - from 'Speak & Spell' to 'Delta Machine'

Today marks the sixth edition of a special series within my weekly feature, Friday On The Turntable - instead of looking at one album, I am featuring all of Depeche Mode's studio albums from 1981 - 2013 - and ranking them! It was a mammoth task, and proved frustrating when putting albums that I love against other ones that I love. Nonetheless, I've provided a ranked list - from #13 (good) - #1 (the best). I enlisted the help of my friend Jesse, who provides a side-by-side comparative list.

If you would like the short / textual version of the list, please scroll past the video. If you would like to watch my video discussion, check out the embedded video below - and be sure to click 'Subscribe' on my Youtube channel - for immediate access to all of my video posts. As always, I look forward to reading your comments and feedback. Click on any of the album titles if you'd like to purchase them. At the very bottom of this article is a link to a Depeche Mode playlist that I created on Spotify, which features my 3 favorite songs from each album.

And as always, here is a link to my band Audra's Bandcamp Site. Thank you!

Here we go...

The text/pics version is below - don't scroll down yet if you want to enjoy the video.

#13. Delta Machine (2013)

3 Favorite Songs: Broken, Heaven, Alone

#12. Exciter (2001)

3 Favorite Songs: Freelove, When The Body Speaks, I Feel Loved

#11. Construction Time Again (1983)

3 Favorite Songs: Everything Counts, Two Minute Warning, Love In Itself

#10. A Broken Frame (1982)

3 Favorite Songs: The Sun & The Rainfall, Monument, See You

#9. Sounds Of The Universe (2009)

3 Favorite Songs: Fragile Tension, Wrong, Perfect

#8. Speak & Spell (1981)

3 Favorite Songs: New Life, Dreaming Of Me, Just Can't Get Enough

#7. Ultra (1997)

3 Favorite Songs: It's No Good, Useless, Sister Of Night

#6. Playing The Angel (2005)

3 Favorite Songs: Precious, Suffer Well, Nothing's Impossible

#5. Some Great Reward (1984)

3 Favorite Songs: Somebody, Blasphemous Rumours, People Are People

#4, Violator (1990)

3 Favorite Songs: Enjoy The Silence, Policy Of Truth, Halo

#3. Music for the Masses (1987)

3 Favorite Songs: Never Let Me Down Again, The Things You Said, Strangelove

#2. Black Celebration (1986)

3 Favorite Songs: Stripped, Black Celebration, Here Is The House

#1. Songs Of Faith And Devotion (1993)

3 Favorite Songs: In Your Room, Rush, Walking In My Shoes

Listen to our Depeche Mode Spotify Playlist:

If you're a vinyl enthusiast, check out our feature on the Spin Clean Vinyl Record Cleaning Machine (click image below)

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In the age of digital music, we tend to skip through albums, listening to one or two tracks - missing some of the deeper cuts that may be brilliant. I am a big fan of the album format, and love to experience the entire album the way the artist intended. Listening to one or two songs is like randomly reading a few chapters of a book and expecting to understand the completed work. Like any music lover, I love to share what I'm listening to and discover some new things from friends. Here's my playlist for this week. Please put your lists in the comments below, or interact on Facebook or Twitter.