Ultra

Rolling Stone - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Songwriter Martin Gore has plenty of dark passion to document....moody, pulsating ballads such as `The Bottom Line' and `The Love Thieves' are ideal vehicles for Gahan's brooding baritone and for the band's ever-increasing sense of tender intuition..." Q - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997." Entertainment Weekly - "..combines up-to-the-second synth effects...with ripping melodies--all supported by the grim sonic architecture that long ago made DM the darlings of many a sour teen. Imposing spires of synths, industrial rivets of percussion, churchy organs, and grave vocals erect an edifice of reverent dread..." - Rating: B+ Q - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...ranks alongside...BLACK CELEBRATION as their darkest album to date....dry, dislocated, burnt-out and sometimes beautiful songwriting....Gone are the big, roguishly aggressive hooks, replaced by industrialised trip-hop beats...and widescreen spaces..." Spin - (6 out of 10) - "...Simeon's pristine production...fits Depeche Mode's need to conceal their age in sleekness. Rather than co-opt drum'n'bass, they do what they've done since VIOLATOR: merge machine aesthetics and corporate machinery into a punkishly forbidding indolence..." Spin - "'Barrel of a Gun' is classic Depeche Mode: down-plus tempo; Gahan's tortured baritone squeezing the lemon of Martin Gore's teeny-bop, S&M lyrics; guitars, synths, and drum machines deliberately emasculated like so much ground meat."

When news surfaced in 1995 that Alan Wilder had departed Depeche Mode to concentrate on his solo project Recoil, the immediate concern among fans was whether the band would be able to hit past heights again. Though Wilder's profile was always much lesser than that of Martin Gore and David Gahan -- and almost even that of Andy Fletcher, whose nonperformance live has always been a running joke in the fan community and who freely admits to generally being around merely to maintain a vibe with his childhood friend Gore -- his capability at arranging the songs over the years gave the band its increasingly distinct, unique edge. Combined with Gahan's near suicide and lengthy recovery from drugs, things looked bleak. Happily, Ultra turned out a winner; hooking up with Tim Simenon, longtime U.K. dance maven and producer of arty fare such as Gavin Friday's Adam 'n' Eve, Depeche delivered a strong album as a rejuvenated band. The most immediate change was Gahan's singing; for the first time ever, he took singing lessons beforehand, and his new control and projection simply shines, especially on the marvelous "It's No Good," a pulsing, tense, yet beautiful song with another deeply romantic Gore lyric. Opener "Barrel of a Gun" continues in the vein of arena-level stompers like "Never Let Me Down Again" and "I Feel You," with huge drum slams and scratching to boot, but Ultra mostly covers subtler territory, such as the slightly creepy "Sister of Night" and the gentle "The Love Thieves." Gore sings two winners: the orchestral, slow dance groove "Home" and "The Bottom Line," featuring steel guitar and Can's Jaki Liebezeit on drums, distinctly different territory for Depeche. Closing with "Insight," a quite lovely, building ballad, Ultra showed Depeche wasn't ready to quit by any means. ~ Ned Raggett|