Machinations

After skipping out on the last few albums from Depeche Mode (largely due to my lukewarm opinion of 2001's Exciter), I've been listening quite a lot to their newest effort, Delta Machine. It's a solid album that has reinvigorated an old love of the band.

What I really enjoy about the new album is that it perfectly walks the line of sounding like something new while capturing the feel of the band's classic songs. They're still a synth-driven band with distinctive vocals and a splash of guitar. You'll find tunes that remind you ever-so-slightly of Ultra's "It's No Good" or Music for the Masses' "Strangelove." But there are differences in the mix too.

The up-tempo bookends songs of the album, particularly "Soothe My Soul," seem to channel Nine Inch Nails. The subdued middle section of the album has an atmospheric quality reminiscent of Portishead. But all of it has the familiar vocals of Dave Gahan, and a certain instrumentation that's all Depeche Mode.

If you're going to pick up the album (which I'd recommend, if you're a fan), I'd say it's worth springing for the Deluxe Edition. Though the second disc contains only 4 additional songs, a couple of them ("Long Time Lie" and "All That's Mine") are among my favorites of this collection.

Overall, I haven't yet settled on any true 5-star songs I'm listening to obsessively, but this is the first album in a long while that I'm not heavily cherry-picking. There are no real duds on Delta Machine. I give the album a B+.