Track Listing

1. Black Celebration
2. Fly On The Windscreen (Final)
3. Question Of Lust
4. Sometimes
5. It Doesn't Matter
6. Question Of Time
7. Stripped
8. Here Is The House
9. World Full Of Nothing
10. Dressed In Black
11. New Dress
12. But Not Tonight
13. Breathing In Fumes
14. Black Day

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76994 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks

Amazon.co.uk Review
Depeche Mode's most foreboding album, leaning toward the gothic, is DM at their most bleak, black-armband and nihilistic--no doubt played over and over by countless self-loathing teens as they dyed their hair black behind locked bedroom doors. The tracks are tastefully minimalist, yet the few sounds that dominate each song have a consuming, even overwhelming feel--like a big, heavy black cloud that descends upon and surrounds listeners until their knees buckle from the weight. Rhythmically, songs like "A Question of Time" are driven with moderately paced 16th notes pounded out on synths filling out the low end. Other tracks follow the path of "Stripped", an all-out lamentfest powered by David Gahan's overproduced baritone. -- Beth Bessmer

CD Description
BLACK CELEBRATION, Depeche Mode's fifth album not counting compilations, is one of their best. Martin Gore's lyrics areless strident and more personal--even the politicised "New Dress" is couched in humanistic detail instead of slogans--and his mostly minor-key melodies have a certain dark majesty.
The production and arrangements move further into the atmospheric, somewhat industrial realm first tentatively explored on the preceding SOME GREAT REWARD, with more impressive results. "Fly On the Windscreen", a song previewed in a much different arrangement on the singles compilation CATCHINGUP WITH DEPECHE MODE, sounds more convincing in this form, and it's one of the band's best-ever efforts. As a whole, BLACK CELEBRATION is one of the better Goth-pop records of itstime.

Customer Reviews

Get The US CD Instead
Black Celebration is one of the finest Depeche Mode albums ever to have been released (Second only to Violator in my opinion). But one of the biggest debates is which version is better? The original UK LP ends with "New Dress", a very dark and bleak song that takes stabs at societies vanities as well as the many sick and twisted shortcomings we evoke amongst ourselves (i.e. murder, famine, ect.).

After listening to the entire album and having it end with this song, you can't help but fall into a state of melancholy (or "depressed mode" as it were), which is fine if that's where you want to go. But the US version of Black Celebration offers a different solution. Unlike the UK version, the US release ends with "But Not Tonight", a song about hope and redemption. Purists will of course scoff that it was never intended to become the final track on the album, and was only recorded as the b-side to Stripped. Many also view it as too "positive" a song, that doesn't fit with the rest of the album ideology (kind of like the theatrical cut of Blade Runner with the tacked on happy ending).

While we're all entitled to our own opinions, I gotta say that there is merit in having this track included at the end. It really comes down to how you want to feel after you've listened to the whole album. For me, "But Not Tonight" is like a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. While life may seem hopeless and out of control at times, there is still some good in this world to look forward to. When you listen to that song after experiencing all of the darkness and pain that comes before it, you can't help but feel a sense of calming relief. A sense of hope for the future. Pessimists will dismiss all of this to be sure, but it still won't change the fact that this is a very strong and powerful song that many still admire to this day.

Now the UK CD of Black Celebration does include some bonus tracks, including the Extended Remix of "But Not Tonight". This version doesn't quite have the same impact the version on the US CD has, which is along the lines of the original 7" single mix, but with a cleaner, thinner sound & less reverb. Those simple changes make all the difference in the world and are worth having, plus, aside from Canada, Mexico, Brazil & South Africa, the US is the only place you can find it recorded this way officially (If you really want a version that has no bonus tracks and ends with "New Dress", seek out the CD from Italy CDOR 9212). Other subtle differences include the loud "click" at the beginning of "Stripped", which is not heard on the US version, & the opening riff from "A Question Of Time" is played twice instead of just once like on the UK edition.

Again, it all comes down to your own personal tastes. Black Celebration is still a tremendous and powerful experience nonetheless. It's just up to you to decide whether the journey ends on a positive note...or a dark one.

Black Celebration - A Masterpiece.

"A Brief...Period...Of Rejoicing" - Daniel Miller

Songs Of Love, Death, The Universe, And Everything
1986 proved to be a defining year for Depche Mode. Martin Gore started wearing leather dresses, which seemed to suit his muse fine; Dave Gahan's voice matured and sounded better than ever; Alan Wilder's musical talents came into a light of their own; and Andrew Fletcher clapped his hands a few times. But together Depeche Mode managed to produce an album that would mark a turning point in their career.

Though the music is sparse and minimalist, and the mood dark and brooding there is a feeling of love and desire as well as of decay running through this album. Gahan sings on the title track 'Take me in your arms/Forgetting all you couldn't do today'. On "Stripped" he pleads: 'Let me hear you speaking just for me'. On the beautiful "A Question Of Lust" Gore reassures us that: 'It's a question of not letting/What we've built up/Crumble to dust'. The highlight of this album though must be the tense "Fly On The Windscreen" which from the start proclaims that 'Death is everywhere', and builds up franticly before ending in near sensual desperation.

There is not one superfluous track on here. You are in fact left wanting more. The bonus tracks are worthwhile just for the fabulous "But Not Tonight". "Black Celebration" not only changed the career of Depeche Mode but it's influential sound also spawned many imitators in the process.

Black Day at Basildon Rock, turns out fine as it happens....
Depeche Mode changed forever with the release of their classic 1986 release, Black Celebration. Keyboard virtuoso Alan Wilder has his classically-trained imprint written all over this album while Martin Gore's lyrics are as cutting as ever and David Gahan's vocals, while perhaps a little overproduced, are the icing on the Black Forest Gateau. Oh, and Andrew Fletcher probably made some very nice cups of tea.

This was also one of the first albums which took the art of sound sampling to an extreme, creating broad cinematic audio vistas and superbly sculpted thematic landscapes, with each track blending effortlessly into the next. You'll also find some of the weirdest sounds ever heard on a mainstream album, although to categorise Black Celebration as 'mainstream' would be pushing a point. That's not to say there are no great songs or tunes onboard. Every track is a classic and as different from one another as they can possibly be, but highlights must be the sweeping Here Is The House, the epic Stripped, the breakneck Question of Time, the poignant pop of New Dress, the supercharged title track and of course the live favourite, Fly On The Windscreen. However, it would be best to stick to the original version of this album, ie, the version without the bonus tracks, which are at best pretty second-rate (But Not Tonight is like something from their poppy 1982 offering A Broken Frame and thus is totally out of context with the rest of the album).

This is not an album for the faint-hearted and upon first inspection it may sound a tad, well, depressing. However, upon repeated listenings, the sheer uplifting and unnerving power of this album shines through, an album which has influenced more bands than I can care to mention here.

From here-on-in, DM were treated with a lot more respect by the music press, although it has to be said that much of their domestic fanbase lost interest while at the same time the US and Europe really began to jump onboard (although they were always a force in Europe), culminating with stadium rock-god status towards the end of the MFTM tour in 1988 and for several years thereafter.

Longtime fans differ as to what their favourite Mode album is. Violator, Songs of Faith & Devotion, Music For The Masses are all fabulous albums in their own right, but none of these can equal the sheer quality and intensity that is Black Celebration, the album that really 'made' Depeche Mode, their finest work to date and one of the finest albums of the last 15 years.