Spirit (studio album) by Depeche Mode

From santropez 03/09/2019 16:06

Best track: "Going Backwards"
Weakest track: "Eternal"

Spirit is a lopsided work. Some quality instrumentals are mixed with strong handed political commentary or vice versa. There are however occasional successes such as cover me.

the construction time again of 2k17. good for an band in their thirties. not their best work, either musically or lyrically, but pretty decent for a band growing old.

From RoundTheBend 11/18/2017 06:12

Ouch - harsh ratings. I think someone else said it already, but I agree. This is easily on par with a lot of music out of 2017, but I think people expect something amazing from an artist like Depeche Mode.

I'm into the heavy lyrics - poignant for our times. For me the music is good, but the balls to the wall aspect of this album really is the lyrics in my opinion. Musically nothing really got me - nothing bad, just nothing like WOW.

Second listen review.

Another, what I would say competent album from Depeche Mode, although, again, unspectacular. As with most DM albums it starts to run out of steam towards the end. 10 tracks instead of 12 would have been better. The other problem with latter day Depeche Mode is the lack of that killer song. They had so many great singles in the eighties and nineties but since the turn of the century those songs seemed to have disappeared. Still, Spirit, is good, and like, Delta machine, is a huge improvement on, Sounds of the universe, but let's be honest here, Depeche Mode are past their best. They may release these sort of, 'not bad but not as good as they used to be' albums like U2 do and REM did towards the end of their career but you know in your heart of hearts that the glory days are well and truly over. The initial 'positive' reaction as always, but it will soon be forgotten. I still like this record but we're never going to get a, Personal Jesus, again.

No one could call me the biggest fan of Depeche Mode, so perhaps I'm being a bit a philistein here. However, this sounded a little like the rehashing of old ideas. Sure, in the context of 2017, this may be one of the best albums of the year so far, but its bang average when compared to anything else.

From craola 03/21/2017 05:23

I went in this expecting to hate it, but I quite liked it. True, it lacks subtlety and is too heavy-handed lyrically for my liking, but the music is great. 10/10 would listen again.

From serpico 03/19/2017 02:52

Realmente soy fan de Depeche Mode , una de mis 5 bandas favoritas de todos los tiempos, y evidentemente desde la salida de Alan Wilder tuvieron que modificar su sonido, su primer esfuerzo fue Ultra, un disco notable que con el paso de los años va adquiriendo matiz de clásico, luego siguió Exciter que a muchos no les gustó, fue producido por Mark Bell que previamente había trabajado con Björk y el resultado fue un disco más "delicado y suave" con arreglos de cuerdas. Playing The Angel vino a ser un regreso a su sonido más industrial desde la época de Some Great Reward y además contenía el último gran clásico de Depeche Mode en el nuevo siglo: Precious, una joya por sí sola. Playing The Angel marca su primera colaboración con el productor Ben Hillier, que después produjo los subsecuentes Sounds Of The Universe y Delta Machine, quizás los discos más débiles de esta trilogía, creo que su debilidad se debe más que nada a la repetición de una formula, al repetir con el mismo productor por tres álbumes consecutivos. Spirit es un disco refrescante, producido por James Ford. El sonido quizás sea un poco más calmado en su mayoría pero contiene buenos momentos de energía. Se nota también el crecimiento de Dave Gahan como compositor, destaco "Cover Me" y "Poison Heart", me encantaron dichas canciones. Me gusta el mensaje de las canciones, creo que suenan honestos. El mejor disco desde Playing The Angel.

From lleon79 03/18/2017 02:20

I listened to this without expecting too much. Never been a very big fan of Depeche Mode but I decided to give this a try.

This album was much better than I imagined it to be. It's weak at certain points, but overall it's very enjoyable. The last songs on the album leave you wishing it were longer.

Best songs: Going Backwards, Where's the Revolution, No More (This Is the Last Time)

From johnner 03/17/2017 17:27

Do we really need another bunch of rich pop stars lecturing us about the worlds ills? Probably not and the critics are going to have a field day with this latest sermon from the pulpit on how the world is going to hell in a go-kart. But hey, they do it really well and it's their best since Playing The Angel.