{"id":153867636,"date":"2024-12-31T18:16:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T18:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writetosuccess.net\/nye-playlist\/"},"modified":"2024-12-31T18:16:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T18:16:35","slug":"nye-playlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writetosuccess.net\/es\/nye-playlist\/","title":{"rendered":"NYE Playlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

My band of the year (apparently)<\/h2>

Music and writing have always fed into each other: music makes me want to write, writing inspires me to delve deeper into the music I love.<\/p>

One of the highlights of 2024 was the chance to see Depeche Mode on their Memento Mori tour. The stunning show inspired an article for Pennyblackmusic.co.uk<\/a><\/p>

I\u2019m sharing an excerpt. You can read the full piece here<\/a>:<\/p>

\"concert<\/figure>

Growing up, my siblings and I weren\u2019t supposed to listen to \u2018secular\u2019 music. Fundamentalist Protestants, of which my mother was one, believed that rock and pop were literally the Devil\u2019s music. This led to outlandish familial tussles: my mother stole my brother\u2019s cassettes; my brother stole them back. What I didn\u2019t understand then \u2013 aged eight or nine \u2013 is what I don\u2019t understand now: how anyone could miss (or seeing, fail to be intrigued by) the spiritual vein at the heart of Depeche Mode\u2019s songbook. <\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve never been religious in a conventional sense\u2026 other than going to church for a year or two when I was 17 or 18 because I had nothing better to do,\u201d Martin Gore told journalist Richard Plunkett in a 1994 interview. \u201cI would go along from a pretty atheist point of view and just watch\u2026 I found the whole thing fascinating, because it is very bizarre.\u201d <\/p>

Perhaps some of Gore\u2019s creative output reaches lyrical conclusions at odds with fundamentalism, but he can hardly be accused of ignoring, belittling or shying away from questions of belief. Far from irreligious, many of the band\u2019s most memorable records fall squarely in the long tradition of mortals wrestling with the divine. Which \u2013 if one is going to engage with religion at all \u2013 seems a far more interesting and honest starting point than the mindless dogmatism that dogged my youth. <\/p>

For over 40 years, Depeche Mode has celebrated the sublime, and the flesh. Here are 10 of Gore, Gahan and company\u2019s finest moments of faith and devotion. <\/p>

1. \u2018Blasphemous Rumours\u2019 Some Great Reward (1984) <\/h3>

As a techno nerd, the first thing that always grabs me about \u2018Blasphemous Rumours\u2019 is its magnificent futurism. To think: when I was toddling, Depeche Mode was releasing records whose sonic offspring would ignite dance floors in London and Ibiza 20 years later. Compounding this musical daring are lyrics that tackle the Gordian knot that fundamentalism has never been able to untangle: if God is loving and merciful, why so much suffering? <\/p>

In the light of the world we know, Gore\u2019s wry conclusion \u2013 \u201cGod\u2019s got a sick sense of humour\u201d -\u2013 seems wholly reasonable. <\/p>

2. \u2018Sacred\u2019 Music for the Masses (1987) <\/h3>

\u2018A lot of my songs are about love, sex and religion\u2019, Gore has said. \u2018Often about all three at the same time\u2019. He might have been alluding to \u2018Sacred\u2019, which borrows sanctified lexis \u2013 missionary, believer, devout, eternal glory \u2013 in the service of ambiguous ends. When Gahan sings, \u2018I\u2019ll go down on my knees\/When I see beauty\u2019 the next act might be prayer, but I doubt it. \u2018Love and sex\u2019 \u2013 Gore said \u2013 \u2018that\u2019s what I tend to find faith in\u2019. <\/p>

3. \u2018Personal Jesus\u2019 Violator (1990) <\/h3>

One chapter of my work-in-progress memoir is devoted to \u2018Personal Jesus\u2019 \u2013 a song whose spiritual overtones are so naked one almost has to look away. I wrote: <\/p>

\u201cFor some reason, when I hear \u2018Personal Jesus\u2019 my mind\u2019s eye supplies Gahan in a scarlet cloak and crown trudging through the snow in the \u2018Enjoy the Silence\u2019 video, a result, I suspect, of the two cuts being in constant-to-the-point-of-interchangeable rotation on MTV and VH1 in the mid \u201890s. <\/p>

Can you blame \u2018em? From swaggering opening guitar chords to rubber-ball percussion to cathedral-sized refrain, \u2018Personal Jesus\u2019 is so perfect a record it seems to have been conjured by a superior alien intelligence. Plus it delivered chewy ambiguities: was the allusion to \u2018flesh\u2026 on the telephone\u2019 a reference to phone sex? Was it straight-up mocking religion, or low-key endorsing it? Who was going to make whom a believer?\u201d<\/p>

4. \u2018Policy of Truth\u2019 Violator (1990) <\/h3>

Despite a collective lack of a sense of humour, the church folk I grew up around embodied a fine, if unwitting, irony. The Biblical injunction not to \u2018bear false witness against thy neighbour\u2019 (Exodus 20:16) got flattened into \u2018don\u2019t lie\u2019 which was then weaponised against us kids who tried to retain a scrap of privacy or agency. Yet the grown-ups lied about whatever took their fancy, in the name of \u2018protecting\u2019 us. <\/p>

\u2018Policy of Truth\u2019, though not overtly preoccupied with religion, has always read as a warning about the inevitable hypocrisy of people who prioritise ideology over humanity. <\/p>

5. \u2018Judas\u2019 Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) <\/h3>

History\u2019s worst dinner guest is a popular rock\u2019n\u2019roll reference point (see also U2 \u2018Until the End of the World\u2019, Lady Gaga \u2018Judas\u2019, etc.) After all, what could be more subversive, more rebellious, than the absolute rejection of righteousness embodied in the infamous kiss? <\/p>

True to form, Depeche Mode play \u2018Judas\u2019 as a tale of misplaced passion. Even truer to form, it isn\u2019t clear whose. Is the admonition \u2018Open yourself for me\/Risk your health for me\/If you want my love\u2019 directed at Judas, by Jesus? Or is Judas speaking? Does the chanted refrain \u201cIf you want my love\u201d hold the promise of salvation for a man, or a demigod\u2019s damnation?<\/p>

Read on: Pennyblackmusic<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My band of the year (apparently)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153867636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNYE Playlist - Write To Success<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writetosuccess.net\/es\/nye-playlist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYE Playlist - 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