Tracklist Hide Credits
| 1 | Smashing Pumpkins, The – |
Never Let Me Down Again
Engineer [Remix Engineer] – Jeff Moleski Producer – Ted De Bono Remix – Billy Corgan |
4:01 | |
| 2 | God Lives Underwater – |
Fly On The Windscreen
Executive Producer – Gary Richards Producer – Gary Dobbins, God Lives Underwater Recorded By, Mixed By – David Reilly, Jeff Turzo, Master Frequency* |
5:22 | |
| 3 | Failure – |
Enjoy The Silence
Engineer, Mixed By – Ken Andrews Producer – Failure |
4:20 | |
| 4 | Cure, The – |
World In My Eyes
Engineer – Paul Corkett Mastered By – Tony Cousins Mixed By – Paul Corkett, Robert Smith Producer – Robert Smith |
4:51 | |
| 5 | Dishwalla – |
Policy Of Truth
Engineer – Jim Wood Mixed By – David J. Holman Producer – Dishwalla |
3:45 | |
| 6 | Veruca Salt – |
Somebody
Recorded By, Mixed By – Doug McBride |
4:05 | |
| 7 | Meat Beat Manifesto – |
Everything Counts
Producer [Pre-production] – Mark Pistel Producer, Engineer – Jack Dangers |
5:24 | |
| 8 | Hooverphonic – |
Shake The Disease
Mastered By – Uwe* Mixed By – Frank Duchéne* Mixed By [Assistant] – Tim Roggeman Producer, Engineer – Hooverphonic |
3:59 | |
| 9 | Locust – |
Master And Servant
Engineer, Mixed By – Mark Van Hoen |
3:40 | |
| 10 | Self – |
Shame
Engineer – Bobby Dufresne Jr. Mixed By – Joe Baldridge, Matt Mahaffey Producer – Matt Mahaffey |
4:12 | |
| 11 | Monster Magnet – |
Black Celebration
Engineer – Joe Barisi, Matt Hyde Mixed By – Dave Wyndorf, Gary Dobbins, Jeff Turzo Producer – Dave Wyndorf, Jeff Turzo |
4:16 | |
| 12 | Rabbit In The Moon – |
Waiting For The Night
Engineer – C. Hawkes*, Scapegoat Mixed By – C. Hawkes*, Rabbit In The Moon Producer – Confucius, Monk* Vocals [Featuring] – Jacqui Walker |
7:34 | |
| 13 | Apollo Four Forty* – |
I Feel You
Engineer, Mixed By – Howard Gray Producer – Apollo Four Forty* |
5:21 | |
| 14 | Gus Gus – |
Monument
Engineer – Palli Borg* Mixed By – Gus Gus, Palli Borg* Producer – Alfred More, Biggi Veira, Daniel Agust* |
5:21 | |
| 15 | Deftones – |
To Have And To Hold
Mixed By – Terry Date, Ulrich Wild Producer – Deftones, Terry Date |
2:53 | |
| 16 | Rammstein – |
Stripped
Mastered By – Bjorn Engelmann* Mixed By – Ronald Prent Producer – Jacob Hellner, Rammstein |
4:44 |
Credits
- Mastered By – Tom Baker (3) (tracks: 1 to 3, 5 to 7, 9 to 15)
- Written-By – Martin Gore*
Notes
A Depeche Mode tribute album.
Other Versions (Showing 5 of 12) View All
| Title, Format | Label | Cat# | Country | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For The Masses (HDCD, Promo, Comp) | 1500 Records, A&M Records | 540 919-2 ADV, none | UK | 1998 | ||
| For The MASSES (Cass, Comp) | 1500 Records, A&M Records | 31454 0919 4 | US | 1998 | ||
| For The Masses (CD, Comp) | PolyGram South Africa | STARCD 6407 | South Africa | 1998 | ||
| For The Masses (HDCD, Comp) | 1500 Records, PolyGram Discos S.A. | 540 919-2 | Argentina | 1998 | ||
| For The MASSES (Cass, Comp) | 1500 Records, A&M Records | 540 919-4 (44) | Mexico | 1998 |
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▸ show all 3 reviews
Reviews & Discussion
As much as I typically dislike tribute records this one is actually quite good. The tracks by God Lives Underwater, Failure, Dishwalla (surprisingly enough), Hooverphonic, Rabbit In The Moon, and Apollo Four Forty are excellent. The remaining tracks are all listenable with the exception of Rammstein's cover of "Stripped," which is definitely--to put it nicely--subpar.
[r37284]
It couldn't have chosen a better moment for release, as indie-music's rather shaky late 90s time progressed into the rise of trendy nu-metal/quasi-industrial/r'n'b mash up, while more genuine electro-pop that Depeche Mode are naturally initiators and informers of, experienced a certain downfall during that time. Furtherly, it's truly sad that Mute Records and the group themselves never considered "For the Masses" a more genuine concept affair (just look at the example of This Mortal Coil's amazing in-house approach regarding tributes), allowing the results this weak and shallow.
Depeche Mode themselves today are just as washed-down-the-drain institution that finally turned into a rock band. I always like to say that people seeing them in concert during their golden era of 101/Violator/SOFAD tours were the happiest girls and boys witnessing true qualities of this band. The progress DM made with 'Faith and Devotion" onwards, is perfectly reasonable, according to their career circumstances, equally exploring new trends of the era. Still, while they helped making trends and despite their omnipresence stayed fairly aside, DM became aware of how enslaved at the same time their music became by others emulating these trends.
I wish there isn't that much frustration with a DM tribute album, because at a single mention the idea sounds truly promising. However, instead of giving DM a deserved credit and more personal respect, most artists here truly sound like a waste of time. The Cure, Meat Beat Manifesto, Apollo 440 - even Gus Gus (who - despite their interestingly perverse rendition of "Monument" and Daniel Agust's beautiful vocals - managed to stretch their selection into a spineless, over-the-top "Polydistortion-esque" leftover), and not to mention examples like Hooverphonic, Veruca Salt (this is the ultimate death of "Somebody"), Rabbit in the Moon, God Lives Underwater, Monster Magnet (theirs is definitely "black" but no "celebration" at all) or Dishwalla among the chosen "lucky ones", all doing an utterly boring, pointless reminder's job.
But of course my personal listener's dislike, above all, goes towards the work of Rammstein alone, as their established industrial macho-travesty mercilessly devours "Stripped" like a bunch of rednecks, becoming the tasteless norm of it all (the worst result of this is their version is far more popular in clubs these days than the original). In a way, the decision that the very Rammstein were going to force their cliches onto this very song, was as predictable as the evolution of goth culture towards Eurodance.
Covers, let alone this one, should be done with more gut feeling (and here, the only light at the end of a 60-something minute long dreadful tunnel belongs to Smashing Pumpkins ("Never Let Me Down Again") and Locust with their Gainsborroughesque-bossa-nova style rendition of "Master And Servant" and this was years before Nouvelle Vague), than that of simple "target groups" practice. While even the earlier attempt ("I Sometimes Wish I was Famous" anyone?) failed to give a more consistent concept tribute to DM, "For the Masses" sums up one thing most people dislike regarding the original group with a reason - the pretentiousness of their horde of lousy imitators. Luckily for Depeche Mode, years later, Johnny Cash singlehandedly washed off these ugly stains in a true legend style, paying an honest, deserved tribute to the group (a "Personal Jesus" worth believing in - even though Depeche did an acoustic version themselves back in the day).