Depeche Mode ‎– Black Celebration

This was one of the big records of my teenage years. You probably know about growing up in the 80s, dressing all in black, sniffing mama's nail polisher while reading Baudelaire, cultivating world-weary melancholy...
Listening to it again after all those years not only do i surprise myself by still knowing all the lyrics by heart but the music is still holding up too. Some of the stuff i can appreciate even more today: the amazing arrangements, the great harmony singing (check out the Beach Boyish vocals in "Sometimes"!), the blend of proto-techno electronic sounds and very traditional songwriting skills (there's even a few acoustic guitars hidden in the mix!)...i can't think of another band that could do all this and still be so incredibly catchy. I mean, they were posterboys of "Bravo" (the leading german teenie mag) back then.
Thematically it's all sex & death of course (the two great attractions of puberty) plus a rather harmless dose of social criticism ("Princess Di is wearing a new dress").
"Black Celebration" is a great album without a single weak song. It all fits together, the music, the grey vinyl, the classy cover design...self-contained perfection.
A shame they had to go to California and become fake rockers soon after that.

Truly a masterpiece! And the Depeche Mode album with the most Martin Gore-sung songs on it - 5!

Just got this vinyl and found yet another version on the matrix. It reads:

side one: STUMM - 26 - A4 A CLASSIC CASE OF OVER FOCUSING
side two: STUMM 26 B4 SO MUCH FOR THE MINIMAL ALBUM

On side one there are dashes between STUMM and the numbers, on side two they are not there. Also, on side two there was a short word which has been scratched away. Might have been M P O, but not sure. Somebody an idea or am I in the wrong discographie? Thanks!

One of those creative peaks by the group, when you find yourself in a dead end street, unable to choose which one you like best. 'Black Celebration' marks the somewhat more explicitly dark phase of the band - although that part was not as sensational for they already established their trademark with two previous albums... however, this is the boiling point at which Depeche Mode persisted on pushing forward with sonic experimentation against melodic balladry.

And 'Black Celebration' is once more a fully established, mature album with pop elements included merely as a means of 'necessary evil'. As such, it remains one of their strongest efforts in terms of songs that perfectly blend and compliment one another - the opening title-track once again brings weird introduction into the mix; this is very probably the closest they ever got to Alistair Crowley's black mass...

By 1986 the gothic-factor stretched itself out into the meainstream music scene and 'Black Celebration' immediately found itself ideal for practicing some naive 'black magic' ritual in that respect. The group now use found, spoken-word tapes ('Fly on the Windscreen') - the practice more evident with EBM practitioners, to which Depeche were always as close as they were actually a little away from. Lyrically on the other hand, the group started marking a slow path towards cliches, remaining a little too pathetic on occasion (phrases like 'my little one' or 'my weaknesses' should give a hint or two).

'Stripped' which starts with menacing engine sounds, remains a standout track, inviting us to dive ourselves further into the everlasting, now fully-established 'black' of the very music (it definitely should have been the album's opening track). Dance grooves exist but they are not the priority - 'Question of Time' and 'New Dress' (which makes a sly political commentary) are undoubtedly dance floor killers, but more space is given to the haunting beauty of songs like 'World Full of Nothing', 'Question of Time', 'Sometimes' and especially 'Dressed In Black' - darker, slower pieces with ultimate emotional appeal - comforting in their cold, distant tone.

No matter how annoying or irresistible, depending on individual likes or dislikes of the group, but Dave and Martin do sing with such unpretentious beauty, many others could never match this kind of duel.

This was my Favorite DM album for years, until their new one 'Sounds Of The Universe'. But this one is right up there. Classic. Listen to it all the way through.

THIS is the seminal Depeche Mode album. The apex din.

This is the sound that plays over a dark horizon, where hope and despair (and love and lust) crest and blur and, with an explosive CLAP(!), burst thick clouds that whet parched spirits. This is the soundtrack to the lump in your throat, the pang in your heart and the stir in your loins.

It is the perfect amalgam- where feeling and execution bear manna. From Martin Gore's beautifully mesmerizing melodies, counter-melodies and tenor, to Dave Gahan's seductively mellifluous baritone, to Alan Wilder's superior production and musicianship, to Andrew Fletcher's... er... loop triggering.

Every track on this release is great by itself, but the sum of all eclipses the parts. This album is meant to be heard from beginning to end, and then on repeat.

Stand out tracks are:
Black Celebration, Fly On the Windscreen (Final), A Question Of Lust, Sometimes, Stripped, New Dress, Here Is the House and Dressed In Black (the last two vacillating as my personal favorite).

Black Celebration is both a touchstone and watershed in Depeche Mode's career, as well as my life.

In retrospect, compared to all the darkest music in the world I've heard since I was fifteen, Black Celebration is one of the darkest recordings of all. "Let's have a BLACK celebration, to celebrate the FACT that we've seen the BACK of another black day." Perfectly black. Cross out another page. I find it's actually in a Joy Division place, my favourite darkness. Described by Ian Curtis, shall we say, as: "We knocked at the door of hell's darker chamber. Open and shut, slammed in our face". It kills me. Why not? Play it again!

This is much better than Violator, and I can't understand why everyone always overrates that album - it's usually just because of the instrumentals that you don't hear in the singles of Personal Jesus and Enjoy The Silence, ironically their most popular songs too.
It's a good album, but this album is much better in comparison, alongside the bonus tracks. It's got a clear formula that keeps the album together but there are many surprises and twists like Music for the Masses.

Both Music for the Masses and Black Celebration are far better than Violator, but if you're new you should go to Violator.

It's hard to disagree with Depeche Mode fans when they say this is the best album they ever did. The only issue I have with it is that playing it once through doesn't have the smoothness of and the cohesiveness of Violator. What should definitely be noted is Daniel Miller's production techniques and Anton Corbijn's visual debuts are featured on this album. Those two artists (perhaps later with Flood and Kevorkian also) really helped Depeche Mode get to that success that they so deserved. "Question of Lust" could quite be the most beautiful Depeche Mode song of their entire discography. Then, combined with seminal favorite's "Black Celebration", perhaps my two favorite pre 1987 DM songs "Fly on the Windscreen" & "Stripped", again, you can't really argue with someone when they say this is the best Depeche Mode album. Don't sleep on "New Dress" & "Dressed in Black", they are terrific btw.

One of the greatest albums ever gets a makeover. By far this is my fave Depeche record and the remaster is fully justified. "It Doesn't Matter two" and "A Question Of Time" sound excellent in the new version. Vocals are stronger and clearer and of course the record contains "Stripped", possibly the best Depeche single.
And the documentary is good also and at 45 minutes long, it makes this remaster the best of the bunch in my opinion.

No matter what you think about Synthpop, "Black Celebration" is the evidence of a more mature perspective on Depeche Mode's career. It doesn't mean that their older albums weren't great, on the contrary, they were absolutely impressive and essential, but it's like their artistic perspective reached a level of sophistication never attained before.
Lucky of those that had the privilege to be present in the Black Celebration Tour made of so deep, intense and emotional tunes. I really wish I could be there. The vocals were explored to their full potential in this album (for example when Dave Gahan sings "Stripped" and "Fly In The Windscreen"), in a way that no other electronic band did at that time. Thanks to Dave, but also Martin Gore, the mainly composer and the more delicate & smoother voice of the band (he was the singer of "Here Is The House" and "World Full Of Nothing", two of the greatest tracks of this LP which, as long as I know, didn't come out on any single).
Every single tune had Depeche Mode's own signature in it, but it's impossible to deny that every new step was higher than the ones before. At least until 1990.