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Songs also has some more of the same problems that Violator had in that many of the songs are just plain boring. Some of this has to do with the actual songs not being all the great, and some of it has to do, again, with song-crafting, where just a little more arranging, or maybe even mixing from someone other than Francois Kevorkian would go a long way toward solving this problem. The first song is one of the best known ones from the album (which has no classics like "Enjoy the Silence" or "Personal Jesus") and that is "I Feel You." It is a well done song, except where the guitar, again, sounds out of place and jarring rather than integrated into the rest of the song. In many ways, though, it's head and shoulders above some of the other songs on the album, although this album does have a pretty good collection of decent songs. "Walking in My Shoes" certainly fits that bill well, it has a theme that sounds very Mode-ish, and is musically well made. My biggest complaint with this song (and with the album in general) is the shuffling beat which almost seems to be behind all the time. Add to that the guitar (which is even more prominant than in Violator and perhaps not so out of place since the rest of the music, unfortunately, has evolved to accomodate it more) and you have some serious handicaps that even a great song has trouble overcoming. "Condemnation." A very controversial song among DM fans. You either love it or hate it. I hate it. I mean, c'mon! Depeche Mode is a synthpop band! If I wanted to hear bluesy gospel, I would go listen to that. It serves no purpose on this album, as it really isn't even a hybrid of the two genres, it's simply a gospel song. Not only is it very out of place on the album, but it's not a good song anyway. Finally (it seems like finally after putting up with "Condemnation") we get to a real Depeche Mode song, "Mercy in You." This is a good song, and within the limitations of the new style DM has defined for themselves, it's one of the best. "Judas" is another one of Gore's poignant songs. As such, it works better than most of the songs on this album, as it doesn't suffer from the "shuffling zombie" handicap, nor the schizophrenia of most of the other songs which can't seem to really decide which genre of music they're going to emulate. However, Gore seems to have slipped a little on the tune; the chorus is a little anachronistic. I guess that's just a minor issue and a purely subjective one anyway, but it always seems too pat and not very artistic (the "Do something about it" line is what I'm refering to) which stands in contrast with the rest of the song. However, "In Your Room" is probably the best song on the album. The tone is vintage DM, even if the sound is congruent with the rest of the album. It really gets aggressive, too and mean, which is a new sound for DM, but one that works quite well while still being artistic rather than just noisy. "Get Right With Me." Something DM needs to actually do, in my case! This song, unlike "Condemnation," is a hybrid, not a transplanted anachronism. However, it still doesn't work, and nobody I know will ever argue that this song is a particularly strong example of what DM is capable of. "Rush" on the other hand, almost tries to be the best song of the album. Unlike most of the others, it's beat actually moves rather than stumbling along. The almost hairy voice Gahan has adapted and the rougher guitar work in this song, where they were out of place in so many others. However, the terminally long slow section in the middle of the song was a bad idea, and even the remixes I've heard couldn't really solve that particular problem. Gore takes the helm vocally again for "One Caress," another attempt at poignancy. This time, however, the words don't seem to fit the tune, so the entire song comes out sounding forced. This is another song that I've tried really hard to like, but just don't think it's worth it. For the final song, "Higher Love," Gore makes a song that could almost be a clone of the finishing song of Violator. "Higher Love" and "Clean" are nearly identical stylistically, and while both are technically good songs, they are kinda boring, to tell the truth. Quite a change from A Broken Frame, Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, and Black Celebration where the closing songs were the strongest on the album.
Overall, Songs of Faith and Devotion, as well as having the most awkward of all the album titles, is one of the most awkward of albums. The two gospel songs especially seem to have been crammed unwillingly into an album where they don't belong, and the "zombie shuffle" that served as a beat for almost half the album was at once tiring. Despite these most obvious of compromises, it is still a Depeche Mode album, and it still has good songs, so I do still like it. However, it was enough of a downturn from Violator, which itself was a largely disappointing work, that I've been unable to motivate myself to go out and find a copy of Ultra. Perhaps, however, the time is at hand for me to finally hear that album as well.
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