Best "first single" from Depeche Mode's albums

Personal Jesus.

Seconded. But I was the exact right age for that album...

Stripped vs Strangelove vs I Feel You vs Precious

Stripped, probably. Several great ones here, though.

Dream On is desperately, desperately underrated though

Might vote for "Precious" because I had no idea in 2005 they could be this compelling again, i.e. it did what a first single should.

Everything Counts, maybe my fave DM song period.

oh crap, didn 't see Strangelove!

kind of sad that the thread rules knocked "Shake the Disease" out of the running

Great poll idea. Stripped because Black Celebration was such a big leap for them and that single says, "Oh hello, we're a different band now. Really sorry about It's Called a Heart btw." Apparently in this phase they used to have all these sampling ideas that they were too lazy to pursue but Gareth Jones would run off and sort them out, like setting up a fireworks display for Stripped.

Precious is their best song of the 00s. Felt just the same as Alfred when I heard it.

These are all great (haven't heard the new one yet), but I gotta go with Everything Counts.

the new one is terrible, fyi

What no votes for "See You"? :-D

"Dream On" is thoroughly underrated as is that album but I've been down that road before on here.

"Strangelove" is such a headfake for Music for the Masses. Completely different mix on the album for a start.

Everything Counts.

I think of Personal Jesus as a headfake for Violator tbh. It feels more like a SoFaD prototype to me.

I don't know, it fits the bombastic vibe of "Clean" and "Halo" pretty well

and it's much, much faster than most of the SoFaD material

Yeah I don't want to overstate it but in my head Violator is all sleek, black and nocturnal apart from this song and PJ needs the extra minute at the end of the album version in order to fit in.

I don't really see how you get sleek, black and nocturnal from the two songs I mentioned and "Enjoy The Silence"

Oh, that's exactly what I get from Halo and Clean.

Strangelove over Everything Counts.

Yeah I always thought PJ was the least good fit in that album, never analysed it beyond that but DL otm that the last minute (1:40 more like) saves it.

Barrel of a Gun is my favourite song here but I Feel You is such a stormer and it caught me at the right age, so. Personal Jesus a beaut too obviously. They all are, what a great collection of songs.

xp and violator is the sleekest blackest nocturnalist album I could even imagine!

To my ears, half of Violator is growling stadium bombast ("The Sweetest Perfection", "Personal Jesus", "Halo", "Enjoy The Silence", "Clean") and half of it is icy chilliness ("World In My Eyes", "Waiting For The Night", "Policy of Truth", "Blue Dress"). It doesn't really sound to me like any of the songs stick out or don't work well with others.

Man that split makes no sense to me! Clean is totally icy, and I couldn't put a cigarette paper between Sweetest Perfection and Policy of Truth. But it is one of the most coherent albums, PJ sticks out for me but not by much.

Do you know the Pump Mix ledge? Makes me wish Francois Kevorkian had remixed the whole album: Violator In Dub.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivp2f6ONN1I

Could be any of these for me:
Everything Counts
Stripped
Strangelove

And these aren't far behind:
Personal Jesus
Barrel Of A Gun
Dream On

I do think Personal Jesus sticks out on Violator - the only track where the riffs feel bluesy and loose, with more of a guitar based sound (even if the guitars might be samples). Policy of Truth has sampled-guitar riffs too, I suppose, but they feel considerably more mechanized, programmed rather than performed. PJ isn't the only big, stadium-sized production, but it's the one that leans furthest towards a conventional "rock" sound. It felt to me at the time like they were reaching for a bigger US audience -but other tracks fared better on the US charts, so what do I know?

Voting "Everything Counts".

Everything Counts, although I'm used to the live version which is ace

it's between "See You" and "Stripped" for me. probably the latter; it's a pretty powerful song, particularly when that chorus kicks in.

i had no idea they had some many albums after violator

new life. heard it for the first time not six months ago and it blew my mind

Strangelove. wish there was a decent acoustic version after seeing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9bXkRnBeE0

yeah this is easy, "Everything Counts."

Ultra was my first DM album and so I maintain a certain fondness for "Barrel of a Gun".

But in truth it's between "Stripped" and "Personal Jesus" for me: two tunes which feel like genres in and of themselves.

Do you know the Pump Mix ledge? Makes me wish Francois Kevorkian had remixed the whole album: Violator In Dub.

Actually what would be really awesome would be a double-album combining the above with a Dub Celebration along the lines of "Breathing In Fumes".

Wrong

Haha I was about to be like "what are you disagreeing with Raymond?"

Lol I knew that would happen

The video helped guide my vote for sure

Went with "I Feel You" over "New Life," though now I'm worried that one won't get any votes.

worry not

new life.

― the beers for lunch (electricsound)

Do you know the Pump Mix ledge?

not bad but it is basically the album version outro extended by six minutes. i want more less!

ended up voting for stripped, an amazing collage of weird noises. also choon.

Found Gore's quote about the making of Stripped:

Daniel Miller invested in a Synclavier, which at the time was a fortune. It opened up more possibilities. For Stripped we took microphones out and got Dave to rev his car. We went out and let off fireworks. Gareth was very excitable so if we had an idea he’d run around setting up various mics, trying to position them perfectly to catch the trajectory of the fireworks. It’s amazing how much energy Gareth had. If it had been left to us we’d have gone, It sounds like a really good idea but we can’t be bothered to set the mics up!

I love that. It sounds like such a fun way to make a record.

Went with "I Feel You" over "New Life," though now I'm worried that one won't get any votes.

I'm going with 'New Life', just over 'Everything Counts'.

I totally agree with DL's take on 'Personal Jesus'/Violator btw.

Went for "I Feel You" because I remember the first time I heard it, on Annie Nightingale's Radio 1 show. "And here is the first play of the comeback single from Depeche Mode!" she announced and then this SSSSKKKKKRRRRRRRRRROOONNNNNNKKKKKKKK white noise at the beginning - it certainly topped "Ordinary World."

I love that. It sounds like such a fun way to make a record.

The video footage of this on the DVD with the Black Celebration rerelease pretty much confirms that! That said there's also a fair amount of them sitting around the studio pondering. It was the longest they'd spent recording an album to that point.

"I Feel You" is such a massive bludgeon of a song, I love it so much

also it's a blast to sing

That version from the 2005 KROQ Christmas show they did, at least once they got it going after a couple of false starts, just plain slays.

xp I have a similar memory of hearing I Feel You for the first time. It was the perfect post-Violator return: a great we're-huge-now-bring-it-in vibe.

really all of these songs are spectacular except for "See You" and "Heaven"

But like a lot of people I did wonder why he was singing about Allah.

or Alan

This is the leaving of Alan

I remember my dad (who is also a Mode fan) buying the cassette single of 'I Feel You', looking at the picture of Dave Gahan in the inlay and saying something along the lines of "look at the state of him! what the hell is he on!?". I guess he was closer to the truth than he realised at the time... hehehehehehe!

The video footage of this on the DVD with the Black Celebration rerelease pretty much confirms that! That said there's also a fair amount of them sitting around the studio pondering. It was the longest they'd spent recording an album to that point.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, February 1, 2013 3:11 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I particularly like the story about Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller trying to mix the album at the end of the session (in sequence), and taking so long and being so indecisive over it that the band had to step in and tell 'em to get a move on!

I cannot even imagine my dad, in 1992, buying a Depeche Mode cassette single. Even assuming he'd heard of Depeche Mode and knew there were such things as cassette singles.

Though lol! You've reminded me that he did buy a car a few years before in which the seller had left Erasure's The Innocents. That got played to death: "are they a kind-of Christian band?"

My former father-in-law, watching the video for "Walking In My Shoes" on TOTP, said to the image of Mr Gahan: "Get off, c**t."

That was on totp?! It's a little disturbing as I recall, certainly not obvious family viewing.

(xp) sounds like a man after my own heart

I cannot even imagine my dad, in 1992, buying a Depeche Mode cassette single. Even assuming he'd heard of Depeche Mode and knew there were such things as cassette singles.

Though lol! You've reminded me that he did buy a car a few years before in which the seller had left Erasure's The Innocents. That got played to death: "are they a kind-of Christian band?"

― Ismael Klata, Friday, February 1, 2013 4:07 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He was at the Paris gigs filmed for the One Night In Paris DVD on the Exciter tour!

I do know that he doesn't really like Exciter all that much, and Playing The Angel took a while to grow on him (it was only after he'd seen the Live In Milan DVD that he really started to open up to the album)... he didn't like Sounds Of The Universe at all. Haven't got around to asking him what he thinks of the new Depeche track, mind... in fact, I don't think he's even heard it yet.

Stripped, Everything Counts and I Feel You are my favorites of that bunch. For some reason, though, I think Everything Counts and Strangelove have this weird "second or third single" vibe about them, like the sorts of songs that just when you think the album cycle is over are released and blow up bigger than everything that came before. Like U2's "One" or NIN's "Closer" or something.

i have to recommend the bonus DVD discs on the reissues from a few years ago in case anyone hasn't seen these; easily the best in-house docus i've ever seen by a band.
for some reason the Black Celebration DVD disc is an hour long; much longer than the rest and honestly its a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

True but the bonus tracks being on DVD is maddening. You still can't even buy them digitally.

I recently came to adore "Strangelove", it's one of their most singable singles

I haven't voted yet, because in all honesty I'm struggling to choose... I'm very surprised that 'People Are People' hasn't cropped up in the discussion yet, though. I find 'People Are People' to be an interesting one, actually... a constant staple of their live set throughout the mid-to-late '80s, and pre-Violator one of their best known and loved songs. Nowadays, the band aren't too keen on it anymore, it never gets played live anymore and it also seems to have fallen out of favour with some of the fans too. In fact, it's probably the biggest hit of the Alan Wilder-era that they don't play anymore. Weird.

Why should it be?

True but the bonus tracks being on DVD is maddening. You still can't even buy them digitally.

― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, February 1, 2013 4:33 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, I definitely agree with this. I don't really know why they did that.

I recently came to adore "Strangelove", it's one of their most singable singles

― Ima R.A.E.D. (DJP), Friday, February 1, 2013 4:34 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love the way the intro on the live version from 101 sounds as if it's going to burst into 'Word Up' by Cameo, but then 'Strangelove' happens!

Why should it be?

― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, February 1, 2013 4:37 PM (48 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Witty retort aside; because it's ace!

Have we had a remix poll? We should have a remix poll.

I'd go for the Kruder & Dorfmeister Session version of 'Useless' immediately and without hesitation. One of the only times I've ever preferred a remix of a Depeche Mode track to the original!

DJ Shadow's mix of Painkiller came up on my iPod yesterday and sounded fantastic. I'd totally forgotten it existed. Took me ages to ID it.

the Orb remix of "Happiest Girl" is one of the greatest songs in the history of ever

just make the poll already!

I'll do it next week. It could be nicely unpredictable - I'm not even sure what I'll vote for.

it would have to be a ballot poll, there are way way way too many remixes

but to reiterate, this pwns http://youtu.be/WiPfJnDoMGQ

can we even make a poll with enough options? there are a loooooot of remixes

lol, xp

I was going to do a simple poll of Remixes 81-04 just to make it manageable. Not sure I have it in me to run a ballot poll.

I have those On-U Sound remixes of 'People Are People'... er... they're "interesting" to say the least...

As for the Slow Mix of 'It's Called A Heart'... well...

I love 80s remixes for that sound of people who weren't quite sure what they were doing, before you got the house version, the techno version, the trip hop version, etc.

Yeah, I kinda agree... a lot of those '80s remixes have this kinda thrown-together charm to them, like you really don't know what's going to happen next. They sorta fluctuate between inspired, great moments, and moments which leave you scratching your head.

Went with 'People Are People', because it just sounds massive. Could easily have been 'Stripped' though, which is one of my favourite Depeche Mode songs of all time.

The massiveness of that track is one of my favorite bits of the attendant making-of: blasting the drums at top volume over a PA, and then recording that. Whenever I hear the sound of those drums going ooooomph, I flash back to the image of the room they were piped out to.

Yeah "People Are People" is a classic example of an utterly flawless arrangement matched with lyrics that should be taken out and shot (how appropriate, really). Released the same year as Culture Club's "The War Song" now that I think about it!

The massiveness of that track is one of my favorite bits of the attendant making-of: blasting the drums at top volume over a PA, and then recording that. Whenever I hear the sound of those drums going ooooomph, I flash back to the image of the room they were piped out to.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, February 2, 2013 7:50 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's freaky, I get EXACTLY the same thing whenever listening to the track since I watched the making-of on the Some Great Reward DVD... I wish they'd captured more studio footage for the other albums, because the stuff they put together for Some Great Reward and Black Celebration is so enjoyable to watch. Especially Black Celebration...

...the bit where they empty the contents of Gore's pockets onto the studio floor has just come to mind now: "girls phone numbers... block of dope..."

Hey I'm glad they captured any footage at all, really!

Oh, absolutely! I'm thinking about funny moments from Depeche Mode studio footage, now... one that's come to mind immediately is part of the footage for Sounds Of The Universe where Dave is going "Jezebel, you slag!" through a vocoder... hehehehe...

So many great singles, here. I went with "Stripped," but could just easily and justifiably have chosen like five others.

Everything Counts - by a mile, but would still like to tip my hat to Precious & Wrong. both are amazing songs which stand toe to toe w/ the other great singles of their earlier years.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Everything Counts. I think the first Depeche Mode song I heard?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Interesting!

Kinda expected 'I Feel You' and 'People Are People' to get more votes, but can't complain with any of the top three. No votes for the new single, either.

Top three is correct.

WTF at anyone thinking "Dream On" is the best first single.

WTF at anyone thinking 'Dream On' is better than 'See You', 'Precious' or 'Wrong'!

"Dream On" is absolutely better than "See You"

Yay! Someone else voted for "See you" as well as me!