Depeche in a New?ro;”And Better?ro;”Mode
Consider the sad fate of Third Eye Blind and The Verve Pipe, two popular bands that made their first decent album just when the public lost all interest. Don't give them sympathy, though. The members probably invested wisely during their hit years. That guy from TEB even gets to have sex with Vanessa Carlton. Besides, everyone will likely cash in nicely when the big return of the Millennium package tour comes along in 15 years.
They were already irritating back when they had a veneer of U.K. hipster cultishness back in the early '80s. Vince Clark-soon to depart to the even lamer Yazoo and Erasure-was working through some infantile synth poppiness. With his departure, Martin Gore and frontman David Gahan defiantly carried on with further dopiness propelled with all the passion of pre-determined beats. This throbbing mopiness got them to 1983's Construction Time Again, where DM began building an audience of daffy L.A. teenage girls.
By the time of 1990's Violator, the band had managed a handful of impressive singles and well-earned disdain for their formulaic drama-queen droniness. DM's greatest asset was that they weren't New Order. Most music fans then enjoyed a good laugh as Gahan's drug addictions led to a suicide attempt. The young ladies shopping at Wet Seal were a lot more horrified, but they were probably more jealous about not getting to weep over their own dead rock icon.
Depeche Mode would manage to release three albums during the Sub Pop/hip-hop decade. By the release of 2001's Exciter, though, it was increasingly difficult to find critics willing to note that DM had become a really great band.
Sure, the band could fill big venues in the '90s-but that was during a tour spent promoting a career compilation. This week's shows at Madison Square Garden feature a band that remains a late-blooming spectacle with the new Playing the Angel.
This isn't particularly unprecedented in synth rock. Plenty of acts panicked and tried to mature in a rush. Ultravox even became folkies toward the end. Depeche Mode, however, is redefining their sound from a position of strength. Or, at the very least, some decent sales figures.
Exciter moved units despite a quieter direction and a determined lack of hipster interest. Playing the Angel also made a strong debut on the charts, and "Precious" is even making a strong presence as a single. This is all the more impressive in that Playing the Angel is a marked departure from Exciter. Both, though, are great albums.
There's no telling who's actually buying these records. Solving that mystery is another good reason to attend the MSG shows. At the very least, a guy might be lucky enough to be immersed in an impressive selection of mallrats turned MILFs.
You'll also get to witness DM's transformation into an upbeat band that's thrilled to outdraw The Cure and Duran Duran combined. It's a little-known fact that Depeche Mode spent their initial heyday being completely honest about how they would soon be forgotten by their adolescent audience. That sense of humor is a lot more apparent now.
Depeche Mode also has all the enthusiasm of younger rock stars only now lurching forward to rehab. Gahan's recent solo album turned him into a songwriter, and his four collaborations on Angel easily match Gore's own bold ambitions. The new album has less of Exciter's leisurely gorgeous landscaping, but you can hear the maturity that underpins the band's return to catchy synth songwriting.
Gahan's own recent growth is probably what comes naturally after a guy starts prying the syringes out of his arms. He also took singing lessons-probably because ex-addicts have to spend their money on something. But it's yet another big improvement.
Above all, DM is really cool because you never hear anyone saying that they influenced Franz Ferdinand or Kaiser Chiefs or any other lame act harkening back to the '80s through sheer ineptitude. Depeche Mode's new albums also edge out the recent work of more-respectable veterans ranging from Gang of Four to Wire to The Soft Boys. And if Cameron Crowe had put them on the soundtrack, Elizabethtown could've been a coming-of-age tale on the level of Modern Girls. Weds., December 7?Thurs., December 8, Madison Square Garden, 7th Ave. (at 32nd St.), 212-465-6741; 8, $40?$85.