Question song the second is the furiously paced “A Question Of Time.” This one gives off a race against time vibe as the drums move swiftly and the keyboards provide the ominous sounds of an industrial, synth-based, electric clock ticking away doom’s countdown.
“Stripped” is the song where audio creativity runs wild. The tune opens with the sound of an idling motorbike, producing a wonderful pulse and moves into a starting Porsche. Drums crash and the keyboards continue their dominance by providing more metallic pings, suction sounds, echoes and odd inhaling. The disk rounds out with the nihilistic “World Full Of Nothing,” the piano-filled “Sometimes” with its gospel-choir opening and the eerie, “early horror movie” sounds of “Dressed In Black.”
Disk two is a DVD is good for the hour-long “Depeche Mode: 1985-86,” but the extra songs fall short. It’s not the song quality or song selection by any means. I think the sound is truly awesome; the album proper is presented in 5.1 Stereo so even when the television volume was low I could hear songs loud and clear. The tracks selected are great and some of the alternate versions and B-sides are truly gems.
The problem for me is that I rarely, if ever use my DVD player and television for listening to or playing music. So the excellent bonus tracks and live cuts are pretty much lost on me. I’m sure someday Depeche Mode will put out a kick ass B-sides and rarities box set a-la The Cure’s “Join The Dots.” Overall, the “Black Celebration” re-issue is a good set with one major draw back; then again I am a bit behind the times.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.