Music For The Masses
by Depeche Mode

Album
Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-09-28
Overall rank: 465th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 626 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1987 (8th)
Award Top 100 albums of of the 1980s (69th)
Award Top 500 albums of all time (465th)

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Depeche Mode bestography

Music For The Masses is ranked 2nd best out of 47 albums by Depeche Mode on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Depeche Mode is Violator which is ranked number 93 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 12,066.

Depeche Mode album bestography « Higher ranked (93rd)
Violator This album (465th)
Music For The Masses Lower ranked (621st) »
Black Celebration

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Music For The Masses track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Track pick (890 - 225 votes)
Never Let Me Down Again
Average Rating: 89 (225 votes)Comments: View 4
#Sponsored
2.
The Things You Said
Average Rating: 82 (141 votes)Comments: View 0
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3.
Track pick (870 - 196 votes)
Strangelove
Average Rating: 87 (196 votes)Comments: View 3
#Sponsored
4.
Sacred
Average Rating: 80 (131 votes)Comments: View 0
#Sponsored
5.
Little 15
Average Rating: 80 (141 votes)Comments: View 0
#Sponsored
6.
Behind The Wheel
Average Rating: 85 (170 votes)Comments: View 0
#Sponsored
7.
I Want You Now
Average Rating: 77 (133 votes)Comments: View 0
#Sponsored
8.
To Have And To Hold
Average Rating: 76 (126 votes)Comments: View 0
#Sponsored
9.
Nothing
Average Rating: 81 (129 votes)Comments: View 1
#Sponsored
10.
Pimpf
Average Rating: 76 (126 votes)Comments: View 1
#Sponsored

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Music For The Masses rankings

Music For The Masses rankings summary
Overall rank: 465th | 1980s rank: 69th | 1987 rank: 8th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)

Music For The Masses collection

Music For The Masses ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 626 votes)
  Ratings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 626 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
100/100
 !		10/27/2026 08:36 christosbakas  Ratings distribution  41199/100
 
80/100
 !		10/21/2026 00:14 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  16,81470/100
 
80/100
 !		09/28/2026 20:50 luukvdschepop  Ratings distribution  79875/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.5/100, a mean average of 78.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.0.


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Music For The Masses favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 104 members

Exist-en-ciel
filidaw
Jemegra
byuzak
NYAndreas
Iglou2981
dukeboxkool
rubens
tim0505
oliojr98

Music For The Masses forum mentions

This album has been referenced 95 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 5 days ago in Monthly Overall Chart Movements - October 2026
“The is ever on 1st January 2020 affecting the scoring of overall charts). SINCE LAST MONTH OVERALL CHART MOVEMENTS TOP 100 CHANGES Top 100 Biggest Climbers: (Rank today: 47 | Last month: 50 | +3 places) (Rank today: 70 | Last month: 73 | +3 places) (Rank today: 92 | Last month: 95 | +3 places)…”
(45 mentions across Monthly Overall Chart Movements topics)
View latest topic →

From BestEverAlbums 10/28/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5479): By Rhyner
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by Rhyner () 1. by (1988) 2. by (1983) 3. by (1986) 5. (1984) 6. by (1985) 7. by (1980) 8. by (1986) 9. (1989) 11. by (1985) 12. (1980) 13. by (1985) 14. by (1989) 15. (1986) 16. by (1982) 17. by (1984) 18. by (1988) 19. by (1988) 20.…”
(5 mentions across Chart of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

From Purplepash 02/20/2026 12:42 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View topic (8 mentions) →

View all forum mentions

Music For The Masses comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 33 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
95/100
From 01/02/2012 19:08 | #34223 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
DM's best album and the one that saw them finally enter stadium land. Tough and uncompromising, Masses was a further evolution of their sound - revisiting some of their favourite themes i.e. love, sex, death, and religion.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
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Rating:  
85/100
From 11/06/2021 23:45 | #275940 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This is a very compact album that has a lot of great cuts. The opening track really kicks the record off in style and it really sets the mood for the rest of the record. This atmosphere is then maintained throughout the rest of the record and is a real high point of the music. This was their first truly dark album and you can see all the potential for the brilliant synth led music that they would create. I love the vocal performance as well with it being consistently gloomy and deeper than their other works. However, there are a few tracks which do dip in quality with some of them not really grabbing my attention. This album laid the amazing groundwork for what would be Violator in my opinion but it doesn't reach the same levels that album does. Overall, this is a great album and one I love to listen too but it is a close second in terms of greatest Depeche Mode albums. (Edited)
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Rating:  
100/100
From 05/21/2012 15:53 | #42845 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
One of my top 10 favorite albums of all time. Highlights include Never Let Me Down Again, Strangelove, Behind the Wheel, Little 15.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 3
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Rating:  
85/100
From 01/12/2012 18:40 | #35090 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Depeche Mode stretches out their sound dropping samples for synthesizers. The songs are grand, dark and cold, with complex storylines for "dance pop". (See "little fifteen" or "strangelove".) The roots of what made "violator" dark and cool and fun have large roots in "music for the masses".
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Rating:  
95/100
From 10/06/2013 21:11 | #87729 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
My 2nd favourite DM album.
Best tracks: Never Let Me Down Again, Behind the Wheel, Strangelove, Little 15.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 3
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Best Albums of  1987
1. The Joshua Tree by U2
2. Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses
3. Sign "O" The Times by Prince
4. Strangeways, Here We Come by The Smiths
5. You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur
6. Document by R.E.M.
7. Bad by Michael Jackson
8. Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode
9. Sister by Sonic Youth
10. Substance by New Order