For The Masses: An Album of Depeche Mode Songs

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Editorial reviews

Album Details
Depeche Mode Tribute Album.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-03-06 rating:
Not so great
This compilation is really odd, 3 stars only because I really like the Meat Beat Manifesto cover.

Have been a huge fan of DM since the 80's, own all their stuff with the exception of a few early singles, and I would consider them and Radiohead to be my favorite bands.

All in all, good choices for songs to cover, but... Gonna break it down by track:

1) Smashing Pumpkins - Never Let Me Down Again, is a decent acoustic version of the song, though this song has so much rock potential I would have like to have seen Billy take it another direction.

2) God Lives Underwater - Fly on the Windscreen, is tolerable, but other than the vocals this doesn't really sound like GLU, nor like DM. I would have thought GLU (an above average NIN wannabe band) would have put a little more oomph into this cover given what I own of theirs.

3) Failure - Enjoy the Silence, tolerable, though very weak vocals, ok guitars and some interesting noises. DM did a rock version of this that is much better.

4) The Cure - World in My Eyes, wish they had covered any other DM really, I am fairly alone in the opinion the World in My Eyes is in my least 5 favorite DM song list (allthough the World in my Eyes single had two of the best B sides in history). I found this to be a run of the mill redo, was hoping Mr. Smith would have done something different with this one.

5) Dishwalla - Policy of Truth, weak vocals, boring guitars, find myself wanting to hit the skip button.

6) Veruca Salt - Somebody, average alt rock band looks silly trying to do a fan favorite with half the talent.

7) Meat Beat Manifesto - Everything Counts, Finally, a good cover! The vocals are a little weaker than DM's, but the noises Jack constructed for this cover are complex and interesting, he does a good job of paying tribute to this song. This track alone was worth the purchase price of this album!

8) Hooverphonic - Shake the Disease, I like Hooverphonic, but this song falls short for me, nowhere near as good as the DM version (which I like a lot) and not a very good Hooverphonic song either.

9) Locust - Master and Servant, Way boring, almost any band could have done better with this song, would have liked to have seen Lords of Acid take this one on.

10) Self - Shame, this is one of my all time favorite DM songs, because it was so odd. Self tried to keep the odd, but the vocals are bland, and the beat ruins the oddity for me.

11) Monster Magnet - Black Celebration, is a servicable cover, not a fan of MM, but they do ok here. Maybe a little too much funk and not enough of the heaviness I expected from MM.

12) Rabbit in the Moon - Waiting for the Night, is ok, but sort of boring, I usually skip this after a minute or so, although I really like the DM version of this song.

13) Apollo 440 - I Feel You, these guys can turn out some pretty rockin mainstream techno, while they aren't my favorite techno act, I thought they would do something like they did with the Lost in Space song, but this one falls short of that by a lot, Oh well, it's a tolerable listen anyway.

14) Gus Gus - Monument, this is a decent version of Monument, kind of a weird choice for a cover given the age and obscurity of the song.

15) Deftones - To Have and to Hold, I love the DM version of this song, I don't care for Deftones, boy was I surprised when I found that I like this cover! Too bad most of the other bands didn't put the effort the Deftones did into their work.

16) Rammstein - Stripped, this one is tough, I dont mind Rammstein, being a fan of Industrial and Industro-metal, so I like this cover, but I could see where fans would be wretching over this track. I just wish he would finish the chorus and sing the words '...down to the bone' instead of just stopping after singing 'Let me see you stripped', the empty space where the words should be makes the song sound incomplete.

Would have liked to have seen NIN, Front 242, Aphex Twin and many other bands no doubt influenced by DM on this compilation, or at least less alt rock and more effort.

Only buy it if you're a big fan of DM and want a small handful of decent covers, otherwise buy the MBM cover by itself from wherever and pass this one up!

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review by: Zyx date: 2007-02-06 rating:
Primarily for "hardcore-fans"
You would typically not buy this album if you were going to buy one single album to learn more about either Depeche Mode or any of the participating bands. This album is more of something you buy when you know "your" band and just want to know how their songs would sound when other established band play them or how "your" band would interpret Depeche Mode.

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review by: http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~someone date: 2007-01-20 rating:
Good tribute album.
You know, tribute albums are things I rarely ever care for. In fact, one CD that I would sell if I get the oppurtunity is this one of boring U2 covers that I accidentally bought. But this album not only has some artists who already had a name, but some of the less obvious DM influences. This is part of why I appreciate this CD. Some of the covers were kind of surprising, like "Monument" from "A Broken Frame," and also "Shame" (covered by Self, the only artist I had never heard of prior to this compilation) which I wasn't aware of before I got this. While it's clear how heavily influenced a group like God Lives Underwater is by the group, I wouldn't have known that Monster Magnet and Dishwalla were groups who got influenced by DM.

It's a pretty good tribute, as well. It's really interesting to hear Locust's (not to be confused with the noisecore group) interpretation of "Master and Servant." I never have thought of an S&M-themed song being played so mellow and playful. I really liked Failure's take on "Enjoy the Silence" and the one track I had always been familiar with was the Pumpkins' take on "Never Let Me Down Again." It's surprising that they play that one clean, especially being a B-side of the distortion-happy "Siamese Dream" era. Basically, the first five tracks are my favorites. It is more hit than miss.

There are a couple points that don't really do it for me. "Monument" was never really a favorite of mine to begin with, and I don't care for the remake, either. I wish Monster Magnet would've embraced their style a little bit more on "Black Celebration" as well.

Overall, if you like '90s electronic and alternative music, I recommend this. You'll respect it even if you don't enjoy it. Totally worth getting.

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review by: When people are nervous that they will offend you with their beliefs, it's usually because their beliefs are offensive. date: 2006-10-25 rating:
For The Masses
I'm not really a fan of the band Depeche Mode, and as a general rule tribute albums are a pretty hit and miss affair (the yawn inducing tribute album to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours featuring Jewel, Tonic, and Elton John at their most boring a prime example). So why do I not only own but thoroughly enjoy this tribute album, featuring artists such as Smashing Pumpkins, God Lives Underwater, Locust, and Rammstein?
It's the lyrics that sell it. These are solid songs, but the fact is the covers are quite simply better than the originals.
The songs that stand out first are the Rammstein cover Stripped, which originally appeared as a bonus track on the album Sehnsucht, and the band Failure whose cover of Enjoy The Silence was a hit on Top 40 during the summer of 1998, but these are not the only good songs on this album.
Others I highly recommend to any potential purchaser of this album include the song Shake The Disease, covered by the band Hooverphonic. Geike Arnaert's delivery on the chorus of the song is way more powerful, to my ears, than the delivery of DM's lead singer Dave Gahan..

Here is a plea
From my heart to you
Nobody knows me
As well as you do
You know how hard it is for me
To shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue
In situations like these

The melody is not changed much from the 80s techno the original band is known for, but the Belgian band with it's young female lead singer packs the song with more emotion.
Another selling point is the cover of the song Policy of Truth done here by the band Dishwalla, best known for the line from their one hit Counting Blue Cars, "Tell me all your thoughts on God / Cause I'm on my to see Her." Again, the lyrics are better served by another style of music, in this case rock, as opposed to 80s style techno.

Its just time to pay the price
For not listening to advice
And deciding in your youth
On the policy of truth

This album is truly a must have for people who like diamonds in that rough known as the pop music section.
Other Good Tribute Albums: Songs From A Material World (George Harrison tribute), Kindred Sprits (Johnny Cash tribute) and Killer Queen (Queen tribute).



review by: date: 2006-08-24 rating:
MINDLESS MUSIC FOR THE MINDLESS MASSES
If you are a self-loathing manic depressive who wears pointy shoes and black fingernail polish then you probably own this already, the 80's were a horrible decade for music and trying to revive it with newer bands is equally bad.

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