Track Listing

1. I Feel You
2. Walking In My Shoes
3. Condemnation
4. Mercy In You
5. In Your Room
6. Get Right With Me
7. Rush
8. One Caress
9. Higher Love
10. Judas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10253 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
People are so predictable in their Greatest Albums list--nominating Pet Sounds and What's Goin' On?, and neglecting Depeche Mode. But if you had to spend the rest of your life listening to either a) some boring old classic soul or b) four boys from Basildon making sleazy stadium electro-goth-rawk, stomping all over the place in leather trousers and stetsons, and berating God in no uncertain terms for condemning them to a life of rock, who would you choose? Well yes: that's why you'll be wanting to buy a second copy of Songs of Love and Devotion, now your first one's worn out. And in under a week you'll be vibrating with pleasure again as "Walking In My Shoes" dooms it's way to a gulag-sized chorus, and "In Your Room" comes across like a smack-Queen punching you repeatedly in the face with the biggest bass-line they could find. Sigh. --Caitlan Moran

CD Description
Depeche Mode's tenth album, SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION, finds the band reinventing itself somewhat. Not that it'd beenexactly treading water, but its last several albums had explored and refined a particular aesthetic of dark lyrical themes and minor-key synthesizer atmospherics.
However, in 1993's grunge era, lyrical mopeyness was endemic and keyboards were rapidly becoming out of date. Wisely, Depeche Mode sought to change both elements of its music, not just one. Incorporating guitars--most notably on the oddly blues-derived "I Feel You"--and other instruments into its songs was a canny move, but the stroke of genius is in Martin Gore's lyrics, which largely abandon the bleakness of the band's more recent work in favour of cautious optimism and spiritual questions. In an age of irony, the real surprise was that this album's title was not particularly ironic.

Customer Reviews

Simply amazing....
Now seems an ideal time to take a new look at this mighty album. How does it sound thirteen years on? At the time it came at the end of a run of three classic albums (with its two predecessors Music for the Masses and Violator).
With Violator Depeche Mode had taken the familiar electronics about as far as they could go. They had also gathered their biggest world wide audience so far. SOFAD represented a complete rethink of the DM ethos. From the opening I Feel You you are aware that this represented something new, the only real precusor to this album being Personal Jesus. But SOFAD took everything further, harder, richer. There are more guitars, there is a wider musical pallette. Whilst not quite as commercial as Violator, Martin Gore's songwriting peaked on this album. What we have here is a collection of ten classics. From the blues inflected I Feel You right through to the spiritual Higher Love. The single versions of Condemnation and In Your Room were good, but the album versions are better.
I would put this just ahead of Violator as my favourite DM album. It contains the best meeting of Gore's songwriting skills and Alan Wilder's arrangements. It takes a few plays to really sink in, but time has not blunted its greatness...

Spiritual Deconstruction
On the first listen, the average Mode fan can be forgiven for thinking that Depeche have abandoned their electronic foundations, but repeated plays reveal a different story. Songs of Faith and Devotion is a unique and powerful album. A succesful blend that includes gospel with lush orchestral arrangements. The added touch of hard techno on tracks such as Rush, gives the album added depth. The blues feel to some of the tracks is a suprising yet welcomed move forward. Producers Flood and Alan Wilder really pushed the recording techniques with this album, and the result is melodic grunge without the distortion! The entire album has an epic sound which can be hard to define in one media friendly soundbite, but Gore's songs remain as powerful as ever. Song's captured something very dark and memorable. Gahan's heartfelt vocals are so powerful on this album, it can hardly get better than this. Many of us remember how powerful these songs were live during 1993's Devotional tour, and the album catches the power of these tracks. Walking in My Shoes has become an all time Mode classic, but it's the album tracks such as One Caress and Higher Love which leave a lasting impression. An album to treasure.

Not an immediate hit, but you can't deny good songwriting
When I first heard 'I feel you' I was amazed and impressed by their change in sound, however when first hearing this album I was hugely disappointed. It seemed such a departure from the Depeche Mode albums I had grown up with. They seemed to be trying to fit in with the grunge sounds that Dave Gahan was so in love with at the time. One of the songs even sounded like a church hymn, what the hell was going on! I went back to listening to 'Music for the Masses' and stopped playing 'Songs..'.

About a year later I still found the songs playing in my head so I decided to give it another listen. The songs seemed to have grown and the sound was so developed and warm. I don't know if it was my tastes changing or just that whatever the style you can't deny a good song, and this album is full of them.

It's nearly 10 years later now and I keep going back to this album, more so than any of their other albums. I don't like having a favourite album as your tastes do change and grow and good new music is coming out all the time (it might not be obvious but it is out there!), but if I had to pick out one absolute must from my CD collection it would be this album. If you like Depeche Mode but don't have this album, then go out and get it now (the singles version of 'In your room' lacks all of the power of the album version), if you never particularly liked DM then go out and buy it anyway and give it a few listens, you might be surprised by it's warmth and deepth, not something often associated with electronic music.

This album along with Leftfield's 'Leftism' will probably remain the most played in my collection for many years to come.