Depeche Mode -- Sounds of the Universe

Thread title says it all... Reposting from http://www.thequietus.com/articles/depeche-mode-announce-2009-world-tour

10th May - Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan Stadium
12th May - Athens, Terra Vibe Park
14th May - Istanbul, Santral Istanbul
16th May - Bucharest, Parc Izvor
18th May - Sofia, Vasil Levski Stadium, Tuborg Greenfest
20th May - Belgrade, USCE Park, Tuborg Greenfest
21st May - Zagreb, Arena, Tuborg Greenfest
23rd May - Warsaw, Gwardia Stadium
25th May - Riga, Skonto Stadium
27th May - Vilnius, Zalgirio Stadionas
30th May - London, O2 Arena
2nd June - Hamburg, HSH Nordbank Arena
4th June - Dusseldorf, LTU Arena
7th June - Leipzig, Zentralstadion
10th June - Berlin, Olympiastadion
12th June - Frankfurt, Commerzbank Arena
13th June - Munich, Olympiastadion
16th June - Rome, Stadio Olimpico
18th June - Milan, Stadio San Siro
20th June - Werchter, TW Classic Festival
22nd June - Bratislava, Inter Stadium
23rd June - Budapest, Puskas Ferenc Stadium
25th June - Prague, Slavia Stadium
27th June - Paris, Venue TBC
30th June - Copenhagen, Parken Stadium
2nd July - Bergen, Koengen
3rd July - Arkiva, Arvika Festival
11th July - Porto, Superbock Super Rock Festival

Press conference here:

http://www.livenationinternational.com/depechemode

I'd heard rumors about a new album but it's nice to see all this concrete info. Playing the Angel being so spectacular I have pretty high hopes -- Ben Hillier producing again.

(And a wonderfully random Sarah Palin slam from Dave in that conference!)

heheh

I'm kinda curious about their new album (even more so than the new Cure album). I'm not the biggest DM fan in the world, but I'm that they're still around. As if they suddenly say to themselves... "ahem... it's time now"

Well, the press conference detailed kinda how they work these days in the broad sense -- every so often they get together and say, "So, one more?" It helps that Dave's got the solo career now -- last year's Hourglass was the underrated release of the year from where I sit, and his songwriting continues to improve dramatically -- and that's one of the most relaxed press conferences I've seen from the three of them as well.

Tim Finney, on the Playing the Angel thread I think, identified that one reason why Depeche has gently thrived all this time is that while Martin's songwriting in particular is little changed from all this time before, how the band records and performs their work, especially given the rotating set of producers in recent years, is open to variety. One of Dave's comments I thought was interesting lay in talking about how older equipment was being reworked for this album, as opposed to just simply using that equipment as is -- a minor but telling point. Combined with Dave's near-decade-long run now with his improved singing voice and there ya go.

yeah, count me excited. 'Playing the Angel' is mprbably my fave DM album at this stage.

you can also tell that dave is enjoying it alot more over the last few albums. this has as much to do with the recording process as it does his own songwriting, the use of software allowing him to get far more involved than he was during the alan wilder years.

album: joyous news.

just one UK date? pah. however: june might be an excellent time to go and see my pal in berlin ...

I'm kinda curious about their new album (even more so than the new Cure album). I'm not the biggest DM fan in the world, but I'm that they're still around. As if they suddenly say to themselves... "ahem... it's time now"

When a band has been together for a certain time period, they may as well stay together forever. See Rolling Stones or Status Quo. That is, unless a key member dies. See Four Tops.

If it is going to be anything like "Playing The Angel", it looks good (although a little less Dynamic Range Compression would be nice). "Playing The Angel" was, after all, the best thing they'd done since "Black Celebration".

That is, unless a key member dies

yeh, dave tried that. didn't work out for him, though.

got tix for düsseldorf. never seen 'em before - psyched!

yeh, dave tried that. didn't work out for him, though.

He surely "did his best". Thankfully still around. I doubt they would have gone on without him. Cannot quite imagine Martin being the lead singer on everything although he is on the occasional track.

The details are out:

Depeche Mode have announced the track listing for their eagerly anticipated 12th studio album 'Sounds Of The Universe', released April 20th, on Mute. The release is preceded by their stunning new single ‘Wrong’, out April 6th - the first single to be taken from the album.

'Sounds Of The Universe' marks a reunion between Depeche Mode and Ben Hillier, who previously produced their 2005 album 'Playing The Angel'. Eclectic and energised, the band's new LP was recorded in Santa Barbara and New York.

'Sounds Of The Universe' Track Listing

1. In Chains
2. Hole To Feed
3. Wrong
4. Fragile Tension
5. Little Soul
6. In Sympathy
7. Peace
8. Come Back
9. Spacewalker
10. Perfect
11. Miles Away / The Truth Is
12. Jezebel
13. Corrupt

I have high hopes. Given that the ticket price ended up scuppering a rather jolly plan for me and a load of mates to fuck off over to Berlin in June, I feel Depeche Mode owe me one. Or something.

can't wait

12. Jezebel

Can you believe they've never used this as a title before?

1. In Chains
2. Hole To Feed
3. Wrong
13. Corrupt

And these must be the result of getting Nine Inch Nails fridge magnets for Christmas.

So is "Wrong" available to stream anywhere yet?

North American tour dates!

---

NEW YORK, NY- February 20, 2009—Groundbreaking electro legends Depeche Mode have announced North American cities and dates for their upcoming “Tour Of The Universe,” which will mark the group’s most extensive outing in the region in several years. Kicking off in Toronto on July 24th, the band’s 22-city North American tour will cover both the US and Canada and hit most major markets across the continent (see dates below). Tickets for select markets are set to go on sale on March 13th.

Depeche Mode’s “Tour of the Universe” is happening in conjunction with the release of the group’s twelfth studio album, Sounds Of the Universe (Mute/Capitol/Virgin), which will be released on April 21st. Alongside a standard CD format, Depeche Mode has announced that Sounds Of The Universe will also be released as a Special Edition CD/DVD and a Deluxe Box Set that will include a host of exclusive material:

* Three CDs containing the album, bonus songs and remixes, as well as 14 demos available exclusively-- a career first for Depeche Mode.

* A DVD that will feature three films: Making The Universe, a behind-the scenes documentary about the recording of the album, Usual Thing, Try And Get The Question In The Answer (a conversation with the band discussing recording techniques, intercut with personal archive footage from previous album sessions) and Sounds Of The Universe (a short film featuring track by track with the band). The DVD will also include the promo video for the album’s first single “Wrong” (directed by Patrick Daughters), plus four songs filmed live in the studio in December 2008 and a version of the album the album mixed in DTS 5.1 surround sound
* Two 84-page hardback books, one featuring the lyrics to all the songs from the Sounds Of The Universe sessions, accompanied by exclusive photography by Anton Corbijn. The second book will contain exclusive and candid studio photography by Daniel Miller, Ben Hillier, Luke Smith and Ferg Peterkin.

In addition, the album will also be released as a double vinyl LP (including a Sounds Of The Universe CD) and as a download.

Cities and dates for the group’s 2009 North American concert tour are:

Friday, July 24th Toronto

Saturday, July 25th Montreal

Tuesday, July 28th Washington, DC

Friday, July 31st Boston

Saturday, August 1st Atlantic City

Monday, August 3rd New York

Monday, August 10th Seattle

Wednesday, August 12th San Francisco

Friday, August 14th San Diego

Sunday, August 16th Los Angeles

Monday, August 17th Los Angeles

Thursday, August 20th Santa Barbara

Saturday, August 22nd Las Vegas

Sunday, August 23rd Phoenix

Tuesday, August 25th Salt Lake City

Thursday, August 27th Denver

Saturday, August 29th Dallas

Sunday, August 30th Houston

Tuesday, Sept 1st Atlanta

Friday, Sept 4th Tampa

Saturday, Sept 5th Ft. Lauderdale

Attention Dan, they are playing Boston. Happy?

Yeah, if I'm still living here!

Well now you have a choice list of locations to move to.

TAMPA HERE WE COME

Upper Midwest fans = hosed. (I am a little surprised they're not at least playing Chicago -- then again, maybe a festival date or two?)

lollapalooza?

OTM, actually -- that's August 7th to 9th, smack dab in a hole in their schedule between NYC and Seattle.

BUH. I just saw the tracklisting for the full edition:

---

Deluxe Box Set Edition

CD 1 - Sounds Of The Universe
1. In Chains
2. Hole To Feed
3. Wrong
4. Fragile Tension
5. Little Soul
6. In Sympathy
7. Peace
8. Come Back
9. Spacewalker
10. Perfect
11. Miles Away / The Truth Is
12. Jezebel
13. Corrupt

CD 2
Bonus tracks
1. Light
2. The Sun And The Moon And The Stars
3. Ghost
4. Esque
5. Oh Well

Remixes
6. Corrupt - Efdemin Remix
7. In Chains - Minilogue’s Earth Remix
8. Little Soul - Thomas Fehlman Ambient Mix
9. Jezebel - SixToes Remix
10. Perfect - Electronic Periodic Dark Drone Mix
11. Wrong - Caspa Remix

CD 3
Demos
1. Little 15
2. Clean
3. Sweetest Perfection
4. Walking In My Shoes
5. I Feel You
6. Judas
7. Surrender
8. Only When I Lose Myself
9. Nothing’s Impossible
10. Corrupt
11. Peace
12. Jezebel
13. Come Back
14. In Chains

DVD
Video
Making The Universe / Film (45.23)
Usual Thing, Try And Get The Question In The Answer (55.12)
Sounds Of The Universe [A Short Film] (10.05)
Wrong (promo video - 3.16)
Studio Sessions:
Corrupt (4.08)
Little Soul (3.52)
Stories Of Old (3.24)
Come Back (6.05)

---

Okay, that demos disc alone.

Will download the first 3 tracks off disc 3 and the remixes then never bother with the rest. Interesting release idea though.

Plus for the box set:

Packaging / additional content:
2 piece custom made box with foil blocking.
2 x 84 page hardback books:
The first featuring the lyrics to all the songs from the Sounds Of The Universe sessions accompanied by exclusive photography by Anton Corbijn.
The second featuring exclusive and candid studio photography by Daniel Miller, Ben Hillier, Luke Smith and Ferg Peterkin.
2 exclusive enamel badges
1 poster
5 artcards, sealed in a collectors envelope
1 certificate of authenticity

So probably quite expensive.

2 exclusive enamel badges
1 poster
5 artcards, sealed in a collectors envelope

okay I am not 13, I don't need this shit

Little 13
Why take the badge with the box?

Corbijn books sound v nice, though.

Seeing Corbijn photos seems like it would just drive home how awful the Corbijn-free cover is. It looks like a U2 album, for god's sake.

Where can I see the cover? Also, still no stream of Wrong? I've yet to hear it.

Nkay, saw the album cover. Um...I'm okay with it.

CD 3
Demos

!!!

Wow demos.

hey did all the albums come out in that dvd/cd reissue seies in the end?
anyone get them? anyone get them ALL? what's the MASSES dvd like? saw the VIOLATOR one and
loved it.

hey did all the albums come out in that dvd/cd reissue seies in the end?

Yes.

anyone get them?

Yes.

anyone get them ALL?

Oh yes yes.

what's the MASSES dvd like?

Rules. But my two favorites in terms of interesting/revelatory stuff plus archival footage are the ones for Construction Time Again and Black Celebration.

Is the Playing the Angel audio any good on anything other than the vinyl version? I listened to the cd quite a bit but hated the nasty mastering volume but heard a few songs off vinyl and they didn't screw that one up!

Meantime, "Wrong" got the world premiere tonight over in Germany:

Black Celebration sonics, Gore's blues fetish in full effect, massive vocals on the chorus...on the one hand, no surprises, on the other hand, HOLY shit this is great.

Okay I can't have been the only one here to have heard that by now.

WRONG!

Ah very good.

:)

listened to this many many times now, not much to add other than this is pretty great! solid DM.

bahhh come to australia you old bats.

Very, very pleased.

I like that new song, reminds me sonically of MFTM era tracks but I really can't stand to see Dave's stage antics.

That is absolutely fantastic. Oh, I cannot wait for this album.

I think it would be great to see DM and have them rely less on all of the big hits. Or even do a show of all post-SOFAD material.

I figure there's always five songs they'll play no matter what -- "Never Let Me Down Again," "Personal Jesus," "Enjoy the Silence," "I Feel You," "Walking In My Shoes." After that, whatever they want to do. I was actually surprised at the inclusion of "It's No Good" but not as surprised as seeing how huge a reaction it got, given that Ultra feels like a bit of a lost album due to the lack of tour for it.

Also a little surprising -- the only song from either Exciter or Playing the Angel was "Precious."

I recently rediscovered Ultra and I think it's one of their best: song for song it just works, and given the stress under which it was made that makes it all the more impressive.

Surprised they didn't at least play "Suffer Well".

Anyway, sister of a friend took some *really* good shots at the show.

Great photos, Ned's friend's sister!

I only picked up SotU about a month ago, because my initial listen was so disappointing, especially after the excellent last album. I almost considered making it the first DM album I wouldn't purchase, but I ended up finding it for cheap, and I don't regret buying it. I felt (and still feel) like not a one of these songs sounds like a single; instead they're a compelling group of album tracks with some interesting songwriting here and there. That probably sounds awful to some people, haha. I'd say it's on par with Exciter, but not as high highs and not as low lows.

OH FUCK YES

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63278919

these guys are really winning the "effortlessly disturbing" video stakes

I like how it just keeps getting more...wrong.

lol@mustard kiss

Make-out song of the year?

But really, what am I supposed to make of this video? Ideas?

this fucking album.

<3 eric wareheim's videos.

People better not forget about this album when compiling their end of year list...

saw them live tonight. never really paid attention to them save for three singles. will give this new one a serious listen, then consider what earlier stuff to tackle first.

Grimly Fiendish supposedly caught them tonight as well so I await his thoughts.

Just barely got the deluxe boxset & i'm blown away by the books and remix postcards. Now desperate to collect them all.

Hello:

Alan Wilder's playing piano for the encore. First time he's been on stage with Depeche Mode in 16 years.

Shot of same.

Holy shit.

oh shiiiiiii

Here's hoping for a tour with only Alan Wilder-era stuff being played.

We have video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2umJr_dGpw

Sing-along cameraman?

Only at the start, thankfully.

This concert is going to be up there with the Rose Bowl.

Shot from further back so you can both Alan and Martin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_9EK6BK9ws

(And a different angle, more accurately! The HD focus helps a lot when the closeup section begins.)

I had no idea that Liars' Julian Gross was passenger in the "wrong" video.

Would be great if he'd actually rejoin the band. He's like the great dark horse of the band, and his input in terms of arranging was very important. After he left, their producers have had more power.

Julian Gross was in Depeche Mode?

Does Dave say 'charlie's good tonight' at the end of that clip?

It's kind of heartbreaking how patchy this album is. Half of it approaches career-defining brilliance (first 4 songs, "Come Back", "Corrupt") and the rest is kind of this big pile of anonymous filler that could have been put out by a competent Depeche Mode tribute band.

Which makes it really no different than any Depeche Mode album since, but obviously not including, Violator.

Eh, not really. Both Ultra and Playing the Angel are much stronger.

seconded. Really love Come Back and Miles Away but the rest is just pretty uninteresting. Although to their credit they seem to have tried to go for a different sound, breezier and poppier, but it just isn't a very good one and the songs are mostly kinda meh

I really like this one too, but sure not as good as "Playing The Angel".

What's odd is that some of the B-sides are better than some of album tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyD8xIsUVSo

Here's another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-2wPAMUq3k&feature=related

And the inevitable DVD:

--

Depeche Mode

"Tour of the Universe - Live In Barcelona"

DVD and Blu-ray released November 8th, 2010

Playing 102 shows in 40 countries, Depeche Mode's acclaimed Tour Of
The Universe saw Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew 'Fletch' Fletcher
performing to over 2.7 million people.

Their epic trip across the globe was one of the most successful tours
of recent history and saw them playing a host of stunning material
spanning their impressive 30 year history.

"Tour Of The Universe - Live In Barcelona" contains 21 tracks
recorded over two sold out nights at the Palau St Jordi in Barcelona
on November 20th and 21st 2009, both shows being highlights of the
celebrated tour.

Released on Mute, this spectacular DVD release comes with a host of
bonus content including four bonus tracks recorded across the two
nights, a tour documentary - Inside The Universe - two tracks filmed
at tour rehearsals in New York and Anton Corbijn's specially created
"screen films" for seven tracks plus further bonus montages created
from the on-stage screens.

In addition the four promotional videos from 2009's acclaimed 'Sounds
Of The Universe' album including the Grammy nominated Wrong, directed
by Patrick Daughters, are included.

*"Tour of the Universe - Live In Barcelona" comes in three formats:*

*Super deluxe 4-disc version (2xDVD, 2xCD):*

DVD1 (a 21 track live performance plus four alternate/bonus tracks)

DVD2 (extra bonus content including documentary and promo videos)

2 x CD (audio of the 21 tracks from DVD1)

*Deluxe version (1 x DVD, 2 x CD):*

Contains DVD1 and the two audio CDs

*Blu-ray (2x Blu-ray discs)*

*Depeche Mode - Tour Of The Universe Barcelona 20/21:11:09*

*DVD1*

1. In Chains

2. Wrong

3. Hole To Feed

4. Walking In My Shoes

5. It's No Good

6. A Question Of Time

7. Precious

8. Fly On The Windscreen

9. Jezebel

10. Home

11. Come Back

12. Policy Of Truth

13. In Your Room

14. I Feel You

15. Enjoy The Silence

16. Never Let Me Down Again

17. Dressed In Black

18. Stripped

19. Behind The Wheel

20. Personal Jesus

21. Waiting For The Night

*-Bonus tracks*

World In My Eyes (20th)

Sister Of Night (21st)

Miles Away / The Truth Is (20th)

One Caress (20th)

*DVD2*

-Inside The Universe

Tour documentary with subtitles: English, German, French, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Hungarian and Czech.

*-Tour Of The Universe / Screens*

In Chains

Walking In My Shoes

Precious

Come Back

Policy Of Truth

Enjoy The Silence

Personal Jesus

*-Tour Of The Universe / Rehearsals*

Wrong

Walking In My Shoes

*-Bonus tracks*

Insight

Hole To Feed

Behind The Wheel

Never Let Me Down Again

*-Sounds Of The Universe - Videos*

Wrong

Peace

Hole To Feed

Fragile Tension

"In Chains" has subsumed my life

such a fucking great song

For Immediate Release

Depeche Mode Press Conference
Paris October 23 at 1:30pm

Depeche Mode - Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher – host a press conference in Paris October 23rd where they will be making an exciting announcement.

The press conference will begin promptly at 1:30pm and will be broadcast live online. Please stay tuned to depechemode.com for more details.

Depeche Mode have spent much of this year recording their forthcoming new studio album in Santa Barbara, California and New York City.

I bet it's ... a new album!

or they're adopting a child together

Bouncing baby Dan.

And you're right about "In Chains" of course.

Corrupt (from Sounds of the Universe) lives in my mind constantly.

I can't help thinking of Personal Jesus with that track. Something about the synth loop.