I mean, who would've thought back then in 1988 that Depeche Mode hadn't reached their peak yet. Anyone would assume that it can't get any higher than a successful World Tour and selling over 60,000 seats at the Rose Bowl after releasing "Music for the Masses". They thought, well I guess it's downhill from here.
But then they released "Violator".
Shame Violator and the Violation Tour was so poorly documented. No live albums, no video/dvds whereas the 101 is constantly hyped up.
shareViolator is their best. Just P-E-R-F-E-C-T album. My all time favourite.
shareI think Violator is superior to Music For The Masses but Songs Of Faith & Devotion is superior to both.
shareAgreed. Violator is strong, but a little slick IMO. Music for the Masses still has a lot of the earlier DM industrial vibe on it, which I think suited their music well. Songs of Faith & Devotion, though, is a really under-rated album with a lot of spontaneity relative to electronic music. Too bad Wilder left at this point. His ideas were really taking them in an interesting direction.
shareBlack Celebration was perfection. I agree that I really do wish that the this came out during the Violator days.
I prefer the Some Great Reward through Masses era, Gore's writing at it's best when he was the proverbial "angry young man". Black Celebration and Masses really were the height of their work. I'm a metalhead but I love that stuff, his lyrics on those are just so freaking dark. Who can not like Pimpf?
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I still think that Violator is better balanced than all the other albums. Black celebration is rougher... I like it, a lot, but... World in my eyes is my favourite... so... Let me take you on a trip is a magical sentence to start an album.
shareViolator is a strong album. It marked an evolution for the band and defined what a '90s Depeche Mode could be. However, I grew up with this band in the '80s and that is the golden era for Depeche Mode in my opinion. The magic arc of their perfect trilogy consisting of Some Great Reward, Black Celebration and Music For The Masses... culminating in the triumphant 101 concert at the Rose Bowl is quite simply, Legendary. For an electronic band to achieve what they did even in that era is stunning. Nobody thought they could sell out the Rose Bowl, especially not a band like that and not in those days. 60,000 people showed up to hear those '80s Depeche Mode songs and thank goodness it's documented for all time. The only friend of mine from that era who considers Violator to be their very best was never a big fan. It always struck me that he was judging only on a technical level. It is slick and creative and marks a shift for the band and that's great... but Violator never broke my heart like the three albums that came before it.
shareIt´s all about taste man, it's all about taste ...
shareIn a way, 101 paved the way for Violator's success. 101 allowed Depeche Mode to really get noticed, so when Violator came out, people were ready for it. More than ready, they were eager for it. That's why they flooded the signing event at the Violator release and caused a riot when it was cut short.
Of course, after the Rose Bowl show, they thought that was the peak, and with good reason - it usually doesn't get much bigger than playing the Rose Bowl. But again, they couldn't have anticipated the success of Violator. And probably after having put as much as they did with the MftM tour, they probably weren't ready to put all that in for the World Violation tour.
Come SoFaD, though...
I was really glad their popularity increased even more during the Violator era, especially in the States with Violator being their first Top 10 charting album, I remember Depeche Mode was very big in 1990 and I thought that was the band at their peak, my Top 3 favorite DM albums are "Violator", "Music For The Masses" and "Songs Of Faith And Devotion".
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