Some Great Reward - Depeche Mode > Reviews > Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Some almost sublime tracks
Disadvantages:	And some pretty average ones

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Together with the follow up album, Black Celebration, this album provides the connection between the original Depeche Mode sound (alas as most people remember them even today - all plinky synths and twee pop songs) and the later darker, semi-gothic stuff that sold millions of albums and still fills stadiums on hundred plus date tours throughout the world.

The album opens with Something To Do which fair romps along with a nice driving percussion & drum track and evidence of Dave Gahan starting to find his new voice. It has lots of nice industrial noises and there's plenty going on. It has also aged less badly than some other tracks here.

Lie to Me is a mix of the old and new - Gahan's breathy vocals plead 'Come on and Lie to me, Tell me you love me' over a reasonable backing tune but it's all a bit average and to my ears sounds like an out take from an earlier album.

People are People comes next. A nice idea - a sort of rant against hatred, racism and intollerance but with rather naive lyrics 'I cant understand what makes a man Hate another man, Help me understand'. A fairly rocking track otherwise with a good solid lead line and lots of interesting noises. I'd really like to like this more as it has a lot going for it but I can't help but imagine some spotty 14yo boy penning the lyrics immedietely after a 'why do nice girls hate me' poem.

It Doesn't Matter slows it down but despite sporting an oriental feeling backing with some nice pad sounds over the top, it's a bit average and usually gets the next track button when I listen to it.

Stories of Old is equally uninspiring about nothing in particular over and above the title, something to do with princesses but really just too dull for me to listen too.

Happily, things take a huge leap forward with the next track Somebody. Another of Gore's painfully revealing songs and sung by the man himself as he describes his dream partner over a sparse yet gorgeous piano line. 'I want somebody to share, Share the rest of my life, Share my innermost thoughts,
Know my intimate details'. Of course, being a Depeche Mode song, it has twists but it's still a moving song that really hits the spot. A beautiful if unconventional song.

Things ramp up tempo wise with the cracking Master & Servant. It's not often you get to hear songs about S&M on Top of The Pops so it can't be all bad. Again, plenty of metallic sounds, driving bass lines and an early example of Gore's 'pervy' lyrics that pervaded the next few albums. At the time this was a fun track but it's dated rather badly as it tries a bit too hard to explain what S&M is all about and sounds a bit like a teenager trying very hard to offend. These days people have a better idea of what S&M entails compared to 1984 so forget the words and enjoy the music!

'If You Want To' has some rather dated metallic samples that sound like they've been used for the sake of it rather than adding anything to the tune. The vocal style also lends itself more to the older work than the tortured raawwk God that Gahan later became.

The album finishes with Blasphemous Rumours. A classic and for me, the best track on the album. Probably not popular with people with strong Christian beliefs, it describes a young girl disillusioned with life, trying to commit suicide, failing, finding God and then getting hit by a car and killed. The song berates God's part in this with 'I don't want to start any Blasphemous rumours, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour'. The track has great lyrics, delivered with real feeling and some superb sonic elements adding real emotion to accentuate the words. A good one to crank up load and sing along to and a fine end to the album.

Ciao's listing mentions 3 other tracks, Pipeline, Everything Counts and Two Minute Warning which aren't on my CD so I can't comment on those.

Unlike the later Black Celebration which was a more cohesive album, this one is rather patchy and despite the excellence of Blasphemous Rumours and Somebody, on the whole it's not a great album and so I can't really recommend it which is a pity as you can never have too many Depeche Mode fans.