INYIM Media “Back To The Future” Edition: Thee 14th Anniversary Of Classic
Album ‘Violator’ By Depeche Mode!
“Depeche Mode’s seventh studio album was a game changer for the band,
not only in terms of how they went about recording it, but also how it
would position them as a global band. The Essex boys from Basildon had
been making music for a decade when they set about recording Violator,
their pivotal album of 1990. Ever since their breakthrough album of
1981, Speak And Spell, Depeche Mode had, according to 1982 recruit Alan
Wilder, been making their albums following a very similar sequence on
each occasion. For Violator, and to mark the dawning of a new decade,
Depeche Mode decided to do change things up. There was less preparation,
fewer preconceived ideas and more spontaneity.
Linchpin of the band, Martin Gore said, “Over the last five years I
think we’d perfected a formula. We decided that our first record of the
’90s ought to be different.” Different it was, and so too were the
results of that difference. Violator gave rise to four huge singles, one
of which, Enjoy Silence gave them a number one in many countries around
the world including Denmark and Poland. The album enjoyed massive
success topping out at number one in Greece, Spain, France and Belgium
as well as reaching number two in the UK. Significantly Violator also
reached number seven in the US on the main Billboard chart, their
previous album, Music For The Masses, had only managed to peak at number
35 with a quite lowly year end position of 90th.
The band’s second single from Violator was arguably bigger than the
first and has been covered by just as many artists, including Tori Amos,
Keane and…. Su-Bo! Enjoy The Silence may not have the immediacy of
Personal Jesus but it is a classic Depeche Mode song. The moody and more
gothically charged nature of the band’s music comes to the fore on Enjoy
The Silence helping to reposition the band and open up a wider market.
World In My Eyes, the final single lifted from the album, and Policy Of
Truth, the band’s May single, further cemented the shift in sound that
Depeche Mode had delivered on Violator. Music For The Masses had set the
ground work for the band to shift up a gear and embrace a new era of
success. They had already started to attract a bigger audience and were
opening up possibilities in numerous new territories and with the
release of their seventh album they were able to capitalise on those
opportunities. Depeche Mode’s nine track album gave up four singles but
delivered up an entire record of individually creative songs. From the
string arrangements on Sweetest Perfection, through to the elegantly
warped electro loops of Halo and the sci-fi brilliance of the close out
track Clean, Violator is a revelatory joy produced by a band at their
creative best. .” – Contactmusic.com
