Soundtrack of Your Life: Depeche Mode - The Bottom Line

DEPECHE MODE - THE BOTTOM LINE from their 1997 album, "Ultra"

"Ultra" saw Depeche Mode at a low point in their career after the 1995 departure of keyboardist and songwriter Alan Wilder (who was a DM founding member and, later, Erasure founding member Vince Clarke's replacement after his departure in 1981) for his own project Recoil. He was acknowledged by fans and critics to be an important (if not lower-profile) contributor to the evolution of DM's sound. Dave Gahan also managed to live through a suicide attempt in 1995 and a drug overdose that landed him in Cedars-Sinai in 1996. This did not bode well for a new album of the superlative quality that was expected of them.

Unfortunately, to my ears, "Ultra" somewhat under-performed as feared. Though I had a hard time choosing either "Sister of Night" or "The Bottom Line" for this post, I found many of the songs on this record to be rather slow and dreary. "The Bottom Line" always stuck in my head, however, because it was connected to the first time that, as a young, wild innocent, I had to meet the M-word face-to-face. No, not mortality. Marriage.

A high school friend of mine made what seemed to be a poorly thought-out decision to get engaged to her boyfriend. We were all about 17 or 18 at the time. Though I liked both sides of the equation and wished them well, I could not fathom what in the Sam Hell could compel them to make this momentous, earth-shattering decision at our jobless, directionless age. Then I went to their engagement party, and their song, "The Bottom Line" played as they swayed in formalwear on the dance floor; practice for the real thing, I guess.

This song almost made it possible to believe that these two were doing the right thing. The lyrics may help you understand this intense song of loyalty and slavish devotion, once again sung by the angel Martin Gore:

Like a cat
Dragged in from the rain
Who goes straight back out
To do it all over again
I'll be back for more
It's something
That is out of our hands
Something we will never understand
It's a hidden law
The apple falls
Destiny calls
I follow you


Like a pawn
On the eternal board
Who's never quite sure
What he's moved towards
I walk blindly on
And heaven is in front of me
Your heaven beckons me enticingly
When I arrive
It's gone
The river flows
The wise man knows
I follow you


I'm yearning
I'm burning
I feel love's wheels turning


Like a moth on love's bright light
I will get burned
each and every night
I'm dying to(o)
The sun will shine
The bottom line
I follow you

I would follow Martin Gore through five football fields full of horse-puckey like Tim Robbins in "Shawshank" if he sang these words to me in his lilting tenor. I can see why my friends made this foolish decision if this was the soundtrack. They didn't make it to the altar, but this song lives on in their memory.

Here is a live video of Martin Gore tearing up this song:



Yes, it is a rather dark song for a wedding. We were full-on goth back then. My husband and I got married to U2's "All I Want Is You," personally.

Soundtrack of Your Life: Depeche Mode - One Caress

DEPECHE MODE - ONE CARESS from their 1993 album, "Songs of Faith and Devotion"

I wrote in the Soundtrack of Your Life featuring "Enjoy The Silence" about the wonderful play in opposites that lead singer Dave Gahan and chief songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer Martin Gore's voices are in Depeche Mode. If "Enjoy The Silence" is Dave Gahan's consummate vocal showcase, then "One Caress," on their second official album of the 90's, "Songs of Faith and Devotion" is his.

"Songs of Faith and Devotion" saw DM going in a similar musical direction as their song "Personal Jesus" from 1990's "Violator," continuing to adapt to the raw rock sound that pervaded the top of the charts and incorporate electric guitars into their own electronic sound, as well as taking full advantage of Dave Gahan's raspy growl. Dave's aggressively unpretty voice was comfortably matched by the aggressive guitar arrangements, a 90's coup that catapulted its "I Feel You" and "Walking In My Shoes" to the top of singles charts in the U.S. and the U.K.

While I totally respect all of the above, it was "One Caress" that I looked forward to each time I popped "Songs" into my Walkman.

Martin Gore's "Counterfeit e.p." (1989) was a much-loved, much-discussed, much-passed around item with my black kohl eye makeup and fishnet-wearing cohorts. We yearned to hear more of Martin's clear-as-a-bell, sweet tenor. "One Caress" made our goth dreams come true. I'm also a weak one for string arrangements in pop and rock music, so I was all over this overwhelmingly romantic tune. It is radically different than anything else on "Songs of Faith and Devotion," and I love it.

Please enjoy the weird video (complete with snakes and bugs and whatnot) to this singular song:



Can we please, in the next racial draft, claim Martin Gore for African-Americans? He is half-black. For serious, he is!

Soundtrack of Your Life: Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence

DEPECHE MODE - "ENJOY THE SILENCE" from their 1990 album, "Violator"

I was just watching clips of Depeche Mode in the studio for their new album, set to be released in the US on April 21, "Sounds of the Universe" (which you can check out on their website, depechemode.com) and I stumbled upon the great video for their inimitable 1990 single "Enjoy The Silence." How much do you love this song? How much?

Me and my goth friends could not get enough of this track in the 90's. What else can be said for a song that speaks for itself? My husband and I were talking about the quality of frontman Dave Gahan's voice versus DM resident genius Martin Gore's, and while I believe Martin's is technically brilliant and pure, Dave's voice has a raw, naked quality that represents Depeche Mode's dark worldview quite nicely, thank you very much. "Enjoy The Silence" is the ultimate expression of that quality, IMO.

By the way, Depeche Mode's Tour of the Universe 2009 in support of their new album hits the States beginning July 28 in Washington,DC and wends its way around to the Hollywood Bowl in L.A. for two nights, August 16 and 17. For tour dates in other parts of the country, click here for the info. In celebration, I'll post a "Soundtrack of Your Life" feature of a song off of each of DM's 90's albums, beginning today with 1990's "Violator."

After the video for "Enjoy The Silence," please check out the very twisted video for "Wrong," the first single from DM's 2009 album, "Sounds of the Universe":