POO: Best Depeche Mode song

I'm going with "Everything Counts".

Leave in Silence, Get the Balance Right, Everything Counts, Something to Do, Pipeline, Shame, Told You So, The Landscape is Changing, Stripped, Behind the Wheel, Black Celebration, Blasphemous Rumours, Strangelove, Shake The Disease, The Happiest Girl, Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth, World Full of Nothing, Never Let Me Down Again, Question of Lust ...

Bah on wimping out! I have stated my case and I will stick with it!

Not sure why - perhaps because of the guitar that comes in halfway through.

Watched the 86-98 DVD last night. Shame it has the worst quality stereo sound of ANY DVD I have ever heard.

in fact, in no particular order (cause it's too hard)

* halo * question of time (phil harding extended mix) * strangelove (single version) * higher love * enjoy the silence * personal jesus * stripped (101 version) * never let me down again * world in my eyes * shake the disease * love thieves

and 'dangerous' / 'but not tonight' tying for best b. side.

but I can't change my answer from "Somebody" because I sang the first verse to my wife when I proposed to her

MP3 PLZ !!!!!!!!!!

:)

After that, "It's No Good," "Policy of Truth."

What do you think of the version of "Clean" on the Playing the Angel DVD? Really nice 'new' take, especially given the change in Dave's singing.

"Everything Counts" is definitely up there. Great stuff going on melodically/harmonically in that song.

such a great album. and "blasphemous rumours" as the payoff is just sublime. i always forget about it but yeah that is maybe my favourite dm songs and one of martin's best choruses

xp

sigh. that would be in the "not buying any more of their records" period that followed my angry reaction to songs and love and devotion we talked about on another thread. so i dont know. xpost to ned

sigh. that would be in the "not buying any more of their records" period that followed my angry reaction to songs and love and devotion we talked about on another thread. so i dont know

You need to fix that.

angry fan is angry

hahahaha yeah i know

Did we ever do a fave Depeche B-side thread (non-remix)? "Happiest Girl" would probably take it in a walk but beyond that I really like "In Your Memory."

Playing the Angel is more pleasant to listen to than Violator

xp "SET ME FREE (REMOTIVATE ME)"

I love "Happiest Girl" so much, it's terrifying.

"Shout" and "Ice Machine" are pretty great, too.

(And w/r/t newer B-sides I finally heard "Newborn" the other day, good stuff. There's another Playing the Angel B-side I need to track down but iTunes doesn't have it, thanks guys.)

xpost haha totally forgot about "Set Me Free," love that one.

"Shout" is really lovely for that moaning wordless part in the break, I think it was the first full hint of how they would use similar in the future. Big echoing feeling on the beat is completely proto-warehouse rave.

oh shit I forgot "Shout!" was a B-Side. Come to think of it that might be my POO for this thread, so it would also be my favorite B-side.

it was a direction I wish they'd explored more

A complete B-side list, apparently:

---

# Ice Machine

# Shout

# Now This Is Fun

# Oberkorn (It's A Small Town)

# The Great Outdoors!

# Work Hard

# Fools

# In Your Memory

# (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me

# Flexible

# But Not Tonight

# Christmas Island

# Stjarna

# Sonata NO. 14 C # m Moonlight Sonata

# Agent Orange

# Pleasure Little Treasure

# Route 66

# Dangerous

# Memphisto

# Sibeling

# Kaleid

# Sea of Sin

# Happiest Girl

# My Joy

# Painkiller

# Slowblow

# Headstar

# Surrender

# Dirt

# Zenstation

# Newborn

# Free

# Better Days

(Setting aside alternate takes, 'full' versions, etc., though I suppose "Painkiller" sneaks in under the wire there.)

ok, would pick "but not tonight" or "pleasure little treasure" from that list. i think.

yeah this is still a tossup between "Sea of Sin" and "Happiest Girl" for me

or "ice machine"

aaarrghhhh

I just love the random Beethoven in there. "Oh yeah BTW Alan was messing around one night..."

The live version of "Pleasure Little Treasure" from 101 = one of their best moments. The studio take's understated approach is entrancing but wow, how well they were able to turn it into a complete barnburner in concert.

haha i just included "set me free (remotivate me)" in my entry for the ilm mix competition!

"shout" is so ridiculously ahead of its time, especially the rio mix, where everything strips away apart from that metallic beat and then this huge salsa bassline drops in!

i really like "dangerous" (sensual mix) from the "personal jesus" 12", it has this great acid bass line, and one of gahan's sexiest vocals

but my favourite is "now this is fun", the perfect mix of early depeche melancholy and just sick sick programming

xxxxxposts

btw John I still find it baffling that you hate "I Feel You"

I just want to send a special shout out to "Flexible" which is always underrated. also the synths that come after the vocal line remind me of donkey kong country.

To answer the thread question, my gut instinct is "But Not Tonight", but oh man I could easily change my mind in a million directions...

Got my tickets for the Toronto show yesterday!

Good on yer.

Today's choice, "Here is the House," with the killer touch being that wordless descending harmony Martin adds with the final chorus.

I like "Here is the House" fine but I'd never place it anywhere near the top of my list

the songs immediately preceding & following it on the album are amazing tho - "Stripped" and "World Full of Nothing"

yes! one of my favourite dave/martin dual vocals - just after dave sings "where it all happened" martin does that gorgeous "here is the how-ow-se" inflection. that final chorus should loop forever

xp

I've muttered it on here before but one of the best live moments I've ever seen with Depeche was Dodger Stadium in 1990, Martin solo with guitar on stage, doing a wonderful version of "Here is the House" and the *whole stadium* singing along. The bootleg of the show I have confirms that -- an astonishing moment.

Today: "I Want You Now." I talk more about it here along with the whole album but I just cannot get over the perfect construction of rhythms out of wheezing accordions and gasps -- totally proto-Timbaland, still.

no-one gonna rep for PIPELINE?

"Never Let Me Down Again," because it has all the life-or-death stakes that a good DM song needs, but in the context of all that "best friend" stuff. Or "Behind The Wheel." Both songs are great all-night-bender songs.

And with a weekend break, "Blue Dress" because of the way those guitars sound queasy as hell when they come in after the first chorus and because of the way Martin sings "Belieeeeve" before another classically portentous Alan Wilder piano figure.

I have had "Sea of Sin" wandering around my head since last week.

Yesterday was "The Mercy in You" and today was "Insight." And I am still really, really pissed that they've never done "Insight" live to my knowledge because that secretly IS their best song of all time, in my head.

"insight" is great, though i prefer the verses to the big bombastic choruses. but "sister of night" is better.

I love "Sister of Night" for a technical reason, namely the fact that Dave's vocal was patched together from about twenty different takes!

When "Insight" hits those harmonies on the verses, yes, and when that one extended backing wail from Martin on "The fire still burns" hits, it's all over.

actually the best bit about "insight" is that weird detuned tabla during the verses

xp

in a way, although "sister of night" is my favourite song from ultra, i think martin's voice may have suited it better. like alot of the songs on ultra i'm way more into the production than the vocals and lyrics. that synthesized wailing at the end of "sister of night" is sublime

actually the best bit about "insight" is that weird detuned tabla during the verses

I was just noticing that a bit when I was listening to it (not specifically that it was a detuned tabla but more 'wait, had I heard that before?').

"now, this is fun (extended version"

"Never Let Me Down Again"

"Question of Lust"

Actually the best bit of 'Insight' is when Martin comes in on the right channel only, just for the line 'lead me on' (at 2:25), closer and more intimately than all of his other lines in the song.

I'll go with that.

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