1993’s Songs of Faith and Devotion is one of my most favourites from all of Depeche Mode’s albums. Dark and passive-aggressive electronic at its best. Can we call it pseudo-industrial, too?
Listening to Songs of Faith and Devotion of course you would first start liking “I Feel You” and then “Walking in My Shoes”, “Condemnation”, “One Caress”, each and every song, it just grew on you. “Judas”, the song here, caught my attention a bit late. It took me a while to embrace it. But then once it got stuck on you, it kinda got stuck forever.
Songs of Faith and Devotion became DM’s first studio album to reach number one both the UK Albums Chart and Billboard 200. It also topped the charts in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
The Guardian dubbed Songs of Faith and Devotion an “astonishingly powerful album” and a “masterpiece”. NME called it “a very fine record indeed”, while The New York Times wrote that “the songs make desire more desperate, and more alluring, than ever”. Ned Raggett of AllMusic ranked the album at number 18 on his list of The Top 136 or So Albums of the Nineties. Q included it on their list of In Our Lifetime: Q’s 100 Best Albums.
Recording the album and the subsequent tour exacerbated growing tensions and difficulties with the band, prompting Alan Wilder to quit, making this album the final one with him as a band member.
Is simplicity the best
Or simply the easiest
The narrowest path
Is always the holiest
So walk on barefoot for me
Suffer some misery
If you want my love
If you want my love
• Read also ALISON MOYET: SITUATION 61.
