Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe (2009)

Ok...so I'm going to review a big one...a legend in the music industry...an institution...Depeche Mode. Every band has a bad album in their career and I thought it happened to them with Exciter in 2001, an album that never grew up in me, and it was not that bad to consider it their worst album, I always said Exciter was their weakest album, but then came a very acceptable effort in 2005 (Playing the angel) and I was expecting something similar for their 2009 album...but unfortunately it didn't happen.

I have to face it, they're one of my favourite bands, but Sounds of the Universe is so far away from Depeche Mode. There aren't songs as memorable as Shake the disease, or Enjoy the silence or even those with that Depeche feeling like A pain that I'm used to or even John the Revelator to name two recent examples of DM's songs with that sign in them.

Reading some reviews online some fans blame to Ben Hillier, the producer, but I don't think he's responsable of the poor results. Today's Depeche Mode sounds just different, Martin L. Gore (lyrics, guitars, synths) has now a lot of responsability, writing and arranging the songs it's not an easy job, before 1995 he had Alan Wilder on his side, but now I think that Martin is tired of doing almost all the creative work. The best album recorded by the band with the actual line up is Ultra and that's it, you can't expect a lot from Sounds of the Universe, even when Gore bought a lot of vintage hardware to produce the album.

I hope this is not the last DM album, if there is another album in their plans I hope it would be better than this, and if it is the last just listen to it and you'll know why this was the last DM album.

Songs I liked most: Peace, In Chains, Hole to feed