I remember buying Some Great Reward on vinyl from Woolworths and putting it on and first track Something to do , Bang !!! I thought this is amazing, back in the day you tended to just buy the album and hope for the best as you had no way of hearing it beforehand unless someone you knew had it or you had a copy on tape. I never heard any early DM album before I bought it so it was always buy the album and then get excited to get home and play it for the first time
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I just can’t
I could however pull songs from albums and make an ultimate album…
But ranking albums is tricky, violator has 2 of my all time favourite songs but the entire album, as an album doesn’t rank favourite…its a mine field and to much brain hurt to weigh up a back catalogue like this…
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Did you actually go the 101 show or another one on that tour, watched this video recently which I’d never seen of OMD on stage before Depeche came on at the 101 show at the Rose Bowl
…nope…was not at the rose bowl tour end and climax…
…i saw that very same tour, one year earlier, when they started it…
can’t remember their support back then…was not omd, that much is for sure…
i guess, it was this german dp variant, that one hit wonder band from germany with their “hit”…the great commandment…
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It’s amazing how no two lists would be the same; a testament to DM’s creative arc over the decades. I too wouldn’t be comfortable ranking the albums as a whole. Some songs, I’ll listen to on repeat 10 times in a row. (Lie to Me, Clean, PJesus Pump Mix) Others, I will skip past every time. (Blue Dress, Sacred, most of the more recent stuff)
But definitely, if the B sides could be considered an album, that would be my number one. So many amazing production and songwriting experiments.
Speaking of nostalgia, I found their 2019 live film “Spirits in the Forest” surprisingly moving, in a personal, retro way somehow. It’s only partly a live film, the rest is an intimate documentary of several modern fans; a brutally grown-up variation on the kids in 101. Seeing DM’s impact on others around the world was good therapy for a lifelong reluctant fan, even if I had to sit through some of the new stuff. And of course, Anton Corbijn can’t shoot a bad picture. It made me a fan again.
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new album momento mori,. some nice stripped down analog drums but only a few tracks sounded like i’d return to them
i quickly went back to ultra.(deluxe) edition. i think tim simenon /doug wimbush / keith leblanc had a huge impact on that album… some tracks sounds like their tracks…such a lot of depth on some of those tracks…
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The production on Ultra is also a personal favorite.
Just glowing, MDMA buzzing liquid blooms of harmonic joy.
Anyone know of a good interview about
the production there? If there was a SoundOnSound one, it probably didn’t get into enough detail for me 
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Music for the Masses, Black Celebration, Violator, Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra were their best albums. The others not so much to me.
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really no offense to anyone but I always find it funny when people ranking albums and/or saying “I like the old stuff but not the new stuff, new stuff is meh and I miss their old sound”
first of all album usually is mood, sometimes I can listen to Ultra or Exciter for a month on repeat and sometimes I crave Playing the Angel… every day is different and it’s just depends on mood.
as for new stuff /old stuff, for me personally I love seeing artists do new styles and new stuff, this shows (to me) that they are trying to stray out of their success and do new things, this is what true artists do, no? they innovate within themselves? I personally admire that quality in a band…
I don’t like when artists ride the same wave for years, that’s just boring to me.
DM changed a lot, but they are still out there with new music every time, I love it! I truly thought they would stop after Andy’s departure…
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Wow. If I’m being completely honest I’m not sure if I’m well versed enough to even speak on the topic but the people in this thread who have participated and submitted their picks have made me realize that I need to listen to a few DM albums and see if a deep dive is in order. Thanks to all for this resource.
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Haven’t bought Memento Mori yet as the price for the vinyl is 52€ (!) here in Finland. That’s a shitload of money for a single album with no download code or any extras. I’d happily pay 35-37€, but 52€ is just way too steep.
I listened to the album once at my shop and it seemed quite good. Hopefully someone will get bored of it soon and sell theirs to my shop. (Got Delta Machine on vinyl earlier this week from a customer.)
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I agree that listening to anything is often mood , I would also include genre and many other aspects that draw me to a particular track … sounding original or derivative etc
With longer running acts I find it interesting how their sound can change so much because of non band members / new producers / engineers or writing partners. … plus the development of new tech
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Yes! This is why I love Metallica’s 90s albums, because they clearly didn’t give a fuck that they were alienating their original thrash purist fanbase.
I think another aspect (and most likely relates to why I love those Metallica albums) is which albums you were exposed to at key moments of your life. I also have it with NIN’s pre-With Teeth albums (though WT is now catching up for me).
For DM, it’s Black Celebration to Exciter that were the key albums for me. I remember Sounds of the Universe sounding pretty great, but I haven’t had the benefit of it being an album that I discovered when I was an emotional teenager etc etc. I should listen to it again… and the new one!
In other news, apparently they’re announcing an Australian tour soon. They haven’t toured here since 1994!
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Haven’t really listened to the album but the songs they played off MM went down REALLY well with the crowd tonight (just saw an early tour date)
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I’m loving the new album, it’s a definite return to form, clean production, uncluttered, less guitar and distortion of the last few albums and some great tracks and it’s had some 10/10 reviews. It’s definitely a grower once you’ve played it a few times, and ‘people are good’ is amazing. Dave Gahan seems to have gone back in time, his voice and vocal performance could have been lifted from any of the classic albums. Also soma pulsar was used on cosmos is mine apparently.
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1: ultra
#2: song of faith and devotion
#3 exciter (maybe it is just that first song)
#4: memento mori
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Lucky you, I tried to get tickets here but they were over $150 a piece. Might attempt to go the day of the show and see if I can get two from the venue as according to my friend they always hold back tickets to screw scalpers.
Correct answer
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This thread pushed me into a DM deep dive. Always liked Speak & Spell (because Vince Clarke monosynth layering), never paid much attention to the rest of the DM canon.
I’ve been listening to Masses, Ultra and Violator, but also liking stuff less mentioned here, like Broken Frame and Playing the Angel.
Main takeaway so far is the sheer amount of quality work they’ve done. It’s a real achievement to keep creating across so many albums without settling for one style and sound. The fact that different people here prefer different albums kind of proves that.
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Agreed - I think part of the secret to their success is having one of the great songwriters of the last few decades (even Vince Clarke called Gore a genius), and also that sonically they never really settled on a sound, they specifically tried to change things up even track to track on the same album - they didn’t like to re-use sounds and were really adamant about that way of working. They may have an overall aesthetic but there is certainly a lot of variety.
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