violator

Depeche Mode beckoned us to reach out and enjoy the silence with this sleek gothic blues.  Building on the triumph of 'Music for the Masses' the foursome of Andy Fletcher, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Alan Wilder began working with producer Flood (Mark Ellis) on sessions that would take them to Logic Studios in Milan; Puk Studios in Denmark; The Church and Master Rock Studios in London; and Axis in New York City.  


Wilder reveals:  “Usually we begin the making of a record by having extensive pre-production meetings where we decide what the record will actually sound like, then go into a programming studio. This time we decided to keep all pre-production to a minimum. We were beginning to have a problem with boredom in that we all felt we’d reached a certain level of achievement in doing things in a certain way.”


Gore says:  “We called it ‘Violator’ as a joke. We wanted to come up with the most extreme, ridiculously Heavy Metal title that we could. I’ll be surprised if people will get the joke. However, when we called an album ‘Music For The Masses’, we were accused of being patronising and arrogant. In fact it was a joke on the uncommerciality of it. It was anything but music for the masses!...Over the last five years I think we’d perfected a formula: my demos, a month in a programming studio, etc, etc. We decided that our first record of the ’90s ought to be different. We knew it was bound to still be Depeche Mode because my writing style is so characteristic and inherent to the songs.”

Gahan opines:  "What really drove me was, first of all, to prove to you and everybody else that we were a force to be reckoned with,  That we were important and had just as much right to be here as your U2's or whoever were the critics darlings at the time. I think we always felt we were somehow slighted in that way. When we were making Violator, even though we had no idea what the success of that album was going to be after we released it, there was definitely a feeling of breaking new ground. Alan Wilde had really come into his own as far as being a part of the band. There were all of these different elements. Plus we were younger and we went to all these different places to record and we hung out together all the time, went out together, you know, had a lot of fun. And most of all, we worked as a team. I think that happened with this record as well. It seemed to me everybody showed up to get the job done and to give their all in the time we had to make this record. That doesn't always happen. You really don't know until halfway through the record. Sometimes it's because you're exploring something new with somebody new and you're not quite sure where you want to take the sound. Sometimes it's because outside personal things are going on that distract you."

'Violator' became Depeche Mode's greatest success, going to number forty-two in Australia; seventeen in the Netherlands; seven in the US; six in Sweden; five in Italy;  four in Austria;  two in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK;  and number one in France.  Fletcher considers:   "Before this, we'd been going along quite nicely.  Then when it came to Violator we inexplicably went huge. It was just incredible, and in many ways we never really recovered from that. After that, we just felt like we wanted to muck it up a bit."







http://www.depechemode.com/








"Enjoy the Silence"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0AKJMGxwpE




"Personal Jesus"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nVr4Ys8zKM





'Violator' 
full album:




all songs written by Martin Gore


"World in My Eyes" – 4:26
"Sweetest Perfection" – 4:43
"Personal Jesus" – 4:56
"Halo" – 4:30
"Waiting for the Night" – 6:07
"Enjoy the Silence" – 6:12
"Crucified" – 1:52 (hidden track starting at 4:21)
"Policy of Truth" – 4:55
"Blue Dress" – 5:41
"Interlude" – 1:23 (hidden track starting at 4:18)
"Clean" – 5:32