Open Web Player
Fans of Depeche Mode have a second collection of remixes for their listening pleasure, and there is much to recommend it. I listened to these three discs pretty much nonstop last summer while on the road going from one work-related location to another, and I quickly developed some preferences that have held up over time.
The first two discs are, as far as I can tell, all remixes that have been released on previous singles. I was already very familiar with most of them. (So, why the purchase? Disc 3, the all-new remixes, which I will get to soon.) If you are a pretty serious Depeche Mode fan and don't have many of the singles, then that is probably a good enough reason by itself to pick up this 3-disc compilation. It's not that every remix is great--some of them are actually kind of awful--but many of these have been, for me anyway, DM staples that I have enjoyed just as much as their album counterparts.
Consider the club thumpers, of which there are quite a few. The Bushwacka mix of "Dream On," the Jacques Lu Cont revision of "A Pain That I'm Used to," and Le Weekend's take on "Ghost" are all cool dance-ready tracks. Most of the slightly weirder stuff works well too: The Orb's smooth reconstruction of "Happiest Girl" is a must, as well as the mixes of "Walking in My Shoes," "Barrel of a Gun," and "In Chains." And Dan the Automator's trip-hop imprint on "Only When I Lose Myself" is very nearly a perfect example of what a re-mix ought to do: change the song not just for the sake of change, but to actually improve on it. These outstanding tracks are good enough to help us forgive the occasional mediocre or outright bad remix (if anyone actually listened to all of the Digitalism remix of "Never Let Me Down" from start to finish, I would be astonished).
But disc 3 is really where it's at for the die-hards, and it delivers the goods. Having former DM members do a remix each is a tantalizing prospect. Vince Clarke's rendition of "Behind the Wheel" reinvents the song as an all-electronic microhouse affair, with minimalist beats and just the right mix of dark textures to complement Dave Gahan's morbid vocal. Alan Wilder does him one better, putting "In Chains" through a thorough overhaul and settling on what could easily be a lost Recoil track from
Unsound Methods
. Wilder's beatless intro puts Gahan's recently refined singing voice center stage, then delves into a traditionally breathy and sample-heavy Wilder atmosphere, escalating finally to a reverberating apex that leaves you wanting more--very cool.
Yet most of the other new remixes are also outstanding, in some cases because they emphasize something important but neglected in the original song. Royksopp finds the sweet innocence in "Puppets" and makes a radio-ready party anthem out of it. "Leave In Silence" also becomes something modern and new, a melancholy wash of synth and a few artsy ambient techno touches, so appropriate to the mood of the lyrics that it has made me forget what the original sounded like in the first place. And the pulsing electronics of "I Want It All" pound like a migraine, conveying the urgency and helplessness of addiction that Gahan's lyrics had suggested in the original with much more focus and purpose.
When I saw a total of three (!) remixes of "Personal Jesus" in this collection, I rolled my eyes. But DM saved the best of the three for last: the Sie Medway Smith remix. It uses a deceptively simple beat under sea-sick chants in the verse. But at the chorus it lifts off, rediscovering the joy of being understood always explicitly declared by the lyrics, a profoundly important confession every other version of the song (save Johnny Cash's flawed but intriguing cover) has cast aside in favor of the low-hanging fruit of sex. This has become my favorite version of "Personal Jesus," and on some level, it may be the version that best channels what the song is really about.
This second compilation of remixes is not perfect by any means; I always skip about half the tracks on disc 2. But if you're OK with a ratio of about 2:1 good:bad, this is definitely a worthwhile purchase for the DM fan.
(Or you can just purchase the following tracks individually:
Disc 1--1,4,5,6,8,10,11,13
Disc 2--5,6,8,10,11,12
Disc 3--2,3,4,5,6,7,10,12)
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2012
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2011
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Anthony Phillips
This is not the 3-disc version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2021Verified Purchase
Tom Tronbjerg
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2016Verified Purchase
elkintopoder
Para la colección
Reviewed in Mexico on October 15, 2019Verified Purchase
Daniel Brandes
Three Stars
Reviewed in Canada on December 3, 2016Verified Purchase
Michael Spiegelhalter
Depeche Mode
Reviewed in Germany on August 27, 2020Verified Purchase
