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Gone completely were the pop songs of Clark, and gone even were the experimental bleeps, flat brassy sounds and reedy woodwind sounds that Gore had used so much of in the last two albums. This was synthpop with a vengeance: the only instrumental sound that was patently recognizable as not synthesizer was the piano. Even more so than the last album, Gore wrote a "symphony," not an album. This album is much greater than the sum of the songs; it is a work of art that is incomplete without the whole framework of the album being considered. And art was what Gore was looking for. There were hit songs on the album, but nothing here was written just to be pop. The emotion, tone and mood of the album remain fairly consistent throughout, despite the variety of subjects and song types. As I've said earlier, this is DM's strongest point as artists, and this is the first album where they really achieved it, although ever since Gore's assumption of the songwriting duties they had come close. The first track, "Something To Do" is frantic, fast paced and almost panicky in tone. Gore still stuck to his previous theme of factories and dingy, glum lifestyles that seem almost communist, and this song kicks that theme off well with it's references to the hard work and sweat that they have apparently engaged in. "Lie to Me" is a little more personal, although the factory theme (including the album's title in this particular lyrical phrase) are still present. This song is one that is so passionate that it almost hurts to listen to. The big hit "People Are People" is next. This was one of my favorites when it first hit the radios and I was in my musical Dark Ages. Years later when I "discovered" Depeche Mode during the "Strangelove" days, I was surprised to discover that they had also done this song. Again, the theme is different, racial violence, but it fits as well, and even the fact that it is known more as a single doesn't really take it out of it's album context. After that is another song that nearly makes you cry, "It Doesn't Matter." This is slow, tender and very poignant, and really shows off Gore's highly developed (by this time) songwriting skill. "Stories of Old" is another well done song, it showcases a variety of styles, fits seamlessly into the album, and hits a more personal note again. While lyrically not as strong as most of the rest of the album, musically it more than makes up for it. When you've reached "Somebody," you've hit another classic, and one that I still hear all the time. This version is much better than the "heartbeat" version that's on Catching Up With Depeche Mode and I hardly need to describe it. It's slow, poignant and in every way at least the equal of "It Doesn't Matter." Although the many, many times I've heard it have somewhat dulled the emotional edge, I still remember being touched by the marvelous lyrical and musical skill imbued in this song. "Master and Servant" is also a hit, and therefore well known, although it's not the equal of "Somebody." It's still a good song, though, even if the main synth hook sounds almost exactly the same as the Cure's single "Let's Go To Bed." I've been tempted to look up the dates on those two songs and see which one came out first, as it really is a strange coincidence that they sound so similar. Alan Wilder's last songwriting for Depeche Mode (besides the instrumental B-side "Christmas Day") is next, "If You Want To." This has always been one of my favorite songs on the album too, even though it's lyrically a light weight. But as I mentioned on the last album, Wilder seems to have been capable of matching Gore on the few songs he wrote for the Mode, and this one is no exception. Starting off slow and sounding like a summons to bring out your dead it builds to a fast danceable rhythm. As in "The Landscape is Changing," Wilder added a coda to the song where the style changed and there was no more vocals. In fact, this coda seems to lead perfectly into what I think may have been the best Depeche Mode song ever written (and one of the best songs anybody's written for that matter): the well known "Blasphemous Rumours."
No song I know expresses an emotion as purely and as strongly as "Blasphemous Rumours." It is the pinnacle of the album, and in many ways, Gore was never able to top it, even though I think the next album was just a little better over all than this one. When the last notes of the coda fade away on "Blasphemous Rumours" and you hear the slight whirr of the CD coming to a stop, it is such an emotional release. This album is simply that powerful. It isn't without it's minor weak points; I think a few of the songs were lyrically weaker than works that appeared on the next few albums, but this album is very, very good, and the album cohesion is truly wonderful. The small number of tracks is another weakness, but in many ways it's better to have fewer tracks and all of them be good rather than, as in Black Celebration where a few tracks are slightly mediocre, but the larger number of tracks still gives you as many good songs.
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