Rock & Pop > 1990 to 1999 Rock & Pop > Synth Pop

Depeche mode... Because?

Advantages: brilliant, entertaining
Disadvantages: none

Well, i can say this brings music to my ears, a person jesus to me if you like, something most people would dislike nowadays, but for me, I love them, all over and all around, Depeche mode are a brilliant band for your entertainment and theyre fair in all aspects, unlike some bands, I think due to depeche mode being around a lot longer then some other bands, this is the gears to my ears, keeps me happy when i get down... I hope you all like this ...

sansboy 28.12.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: not helpful
Review of 101 [SACD] - Depeche Mode

There is no alternative...

Advantages: Unique, great songs
Disadvantages: --

...the singles from that album, Alternative was released. This was the one that I had been waiting for. Alternative is a two-CD set, produced originally as a special edition with a holographic front, and later press runs having a more conventional covering. All press runs, however, have contained the special book which includes an extensive interview with the Pet Shop Boys in which they talk about each of the 30 songs on these CDs in turn, discussing ...
...of the Pet Shop Boys, Alternative serves to show another side, side-by-side, with the more popular front of the Pet Shop Boys. These are the songs that were released with the hits. These songs also show the development of musical tone and complexity, technical as well as lyrical, over the course of the first decade of the Pet Shop Boys' career. 'You could say that these 30 songs embody the changing nature of music software, as the seven-inch and ...

frkurt 12.03.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Alternative - Pet Shop Boys

Pop Personified!

Advantages: Great songs, especially for dancing
Disadvantages: Very 80s. Wait, is that a disadvantage?

Vince Clarke was formerly with Depeche Mode, another band that relied heavily on electronic music, synthesizers and enigmatic types of lyrics. Clarke wanted to journey out from Depeche Mode's darker tendency to a much more pop-oriented and dance-oriented sound of his own. He recruited Andy Bell after auditioning many vocalists to front the band Erasure, and after turning out dance music throughout the 80s and 90s, has become one of the better-known ...
...America, although they did have a string of top 40 hits, some one which made it into the top 10 for brief stints depending upon what Billboard chart you were looking at. Yet at every dance club even to this day you can put on a remix of "Sometime" or "Chains of Love" and the floor will be filled. Maybe one thing Vince Clarke didn't count on, being a straight man, was how identified the group he just created would be with the .. world. Yet it didn't ...

sutherland1 11.08.2003 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Pop - The First 20 Hits - Erasure

Stripped down classic from synth duo.

Advantages: Autumnal electropop for rainy afternoons
Disadvantages: Only lasts for one pot of tea!

...than Gary Barlow these days, Chorus is as relavent as ever. Its 1991 release coincided with a great time in my life and therefore became a soundtrack to that; living in halls of residence at university and then moving to Holland for a year. It was six years into Vince Clarke and Andy Bell’s Erasure, a long time for Vince, who had a history of setting up and then leaving bands at the height of their success (ie Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly) ...
...this to practice! Why Chorus stood the test of time compared to icontemporaries is it still sounds so fresh. Martyn Philips’ low-fi techno production is sparse and economical, with thudding electobeats and strings used to effect rather than engulf. The subject matter is classic Erasure, love turning to anger and frustration and back again, Amsterdam streets, sirens singing and romantic quasi-religious imagery. People seem to reject Erasure as ...

mark_allen71 18.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Chorus - Erasure

Songs of Faith and Devotion

Advantages: Great melodic pop songs
Disadvantages: A few duff tracks

...others are really quite ordinary. Songs of faith and Devotion definitely falls into the former camp, but it could have been even better. Songs on this album such as "Condemnation" and "Judas" somehow drag and plod their way along without ever really kicking in, but elsewhere there are some very good tracks indeed. The highlight of the album is "In Your Room", a swirling, thrilling pop song with a fantastic bass and groove to it, which ought to have ...
...a plaintive beauty to them, such as "Higher Love" which somehow still sends shivers down my spine. "Rush" also has a synthetic kick and groove to it which shows more clearly than any other song on the album how Depeche Mode influenced the new breed of electro-industrial bans that were springing up at that time, such as Nine Inch Nails. That said, as Depeche Mode were also fans of Nine Inch Nails it's a toss-up as to who was apeing who on that particular ...

bagoproverbial 02.12.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Songs Of Faith And Devotion - Depeche Mode