Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward

Front cover photography in Brierly Hill, Midlands, near Birmimgham.This factory doesn't exists anymore.

My copy has label one on both sides of the vinyl.

Just got my copy from Europe today! Wow, does it sound amazing!!!! MPO presses are sick! All of mine sound fantastic. Such a great record and glad to add to my ever-growing DM and vinyl collection. Would I lie to you? ;-) Nope!

OK so I've got an Australian made CD which the disc looks like the 1997 re-issue except that it is Virgin Records not Liberation. Barcode: 7243 8 41779 2 8. Anyone else have this?

Titled after a lyric line from 'Lie To Me', another never-to-be hit single masterpiece by the group, 'Some Great Reward' marks the final stage in Depeche Mode's career - all of their ideas explored here inform later albums to come.

Here the shades of grey flow smoothly at full pace - whether melancholic ('It Doesn't Matter', 'Somebody') or energetic ('Something To Do', 'People Are People', 'Master and Servant', 'If You Want'...) - Depeche Mode know exactly where to take us with their music. Albeit too introspective at times, or ambiguously provocative, we relate to their themes without a single complaint - to this very day, 'Some Great Reward' is a masterpiece ahead of many times, a defining moment which dares the listener to lose him/herself between innocence, intellectual and sexual maturity.

The atmospherics on the record once again magnificently relate to the cover art - a contradictory composition in which traditional values (the married couple) are juxtaposed with social hypocrisy (industrial mould routines). Some of the group's strongest statements are documented here - sexual perversion, religion, emotional duality...

Means of escape rage in the opening 'Something To Do', magnificent track which starts with effective, if not pleasant, ghostly growl. "I'm going crazy with boredom - come with me..." - sings Dave. It's a welcome edge and we except the invitation without complaint. Brilliant rhythm structures help at large. Cannot resist but dance the grey sky over a black town... This track alone absorbs the group's previous flirtations with 'industrial music' - metallic systems move forward, it's all hysteria on the dancefloor. Truly amazing.

Then a sudden pause - with a nice, one of their sexiest tracks so far, 'Lie To Me', in all of its cynicism. I always wondered about the true meaning of the line 'Come on and lay with me...' - it's rude as much as it is, once again, so childishly innocent by all means. I perceive this song as sheer disappointment within a relationship. The very title implies there is very little to hope for between two people eventually in love. 'Love' as the song's light-motif is basically sounding more of 'hate'. Similar by topic albeit musically more catchy - a hit-single you must have heard at least 50.000 times so far - is 'People Are People', a song about coping with unbearable aspects of 'human nature'.

'It Doesn't Matter' once again calls for a slight mood shift, a chillingly calm and soothing song, darkly humourous in its fantasizing - augmented by bizarre sound theatrics towards the end, with lyrics that fare less cynical although there is frustration in the air ('I am happy, that I have you - even thought you're not here now...'). The nostalgic effect of 'Stories Of Old' also captures the listener in its own tiny little world. The atmosphere of the song suggests a dusty old box, wide open only to rediscover one's very own demons of the past...

'Somebody' opens with a street soundtrack - a ballad which at the time must have seemed so untypical of Depeche Mode. It took me quite sometime to except it as it is. Such a fragile confession in the middle of the album's storm. Not that the song itself is free from sarcasm ('Things like this make me sick and in case like this I'll get away with it...'), marking the pathetic side of such ballad-type approach where usually everything is expected to be a bittersweet affair with a happy ending.

However, 'Somebody' doesn't seem like a happy end - while the street chorus and the soothing melody cover like the finest silk sheet over a naked body, tiny sinister clinging sound at the end warns something rather shocking is about to hit. It suddently cuts off with 'It's a lot... like life!' opening line to 'Master & Servant', one of the group's truly brutal excursions into restricted sexual area. While the song whips and clashes to great effect, its ending sequence is a sudden swinging electronic twist, at first listen truly confusing like there's another song kicking in.

No need to explain more from what everybody already knows or presumes this song to be, but it is still amazing how Depeche got away with it in the mainstream charts, Top of the Pops, at some point also the children's TV shows etc., celebrating sexual extremes with aggressive disco beat. Brilliant and unforgettable. And still truly shocking. Fetish clubs should definitely be thankful to the group, for this song helped their agenda quite big. Then there is 'If You Want' - a stunning piece of dark tapestry, very easily to fit in with 'Violator', which was still 6 years away from 'now'. The intro alone captures the essential sound trademark of what Depeche Mode have become in of their own electro. It bizarrely suggests something rather occult in the mix - the rest is up to your own imagination. The song irresistibly catchy but at some point not for the easily intimidated crowd. This one serves as perfect introduction to the album's closing - and the group's strongest ever song - 'Blasphemous Rumours'.

Augmented with rumbling can sounds, scissor snippets and once again the ghostly growl which opened the album, every note here comes delivered with great tension - in the verses, the chorus, nightmarish synthetic xylophone intermission and especially (oh, especially!) in the ending 'life machine' sequence. Here the bass line sharply cuts without mercy in all horror of thinking what's to expect or not to expect, once we find (if we find) ourselves on the other side.

This is one of the greatest album to come out of the 80's.
'People Are People' was Depeche Mode's first big hit in the US.
This album broke barriers in sound, and what sampling could do.
Many other artists have copied DM after this album was released.
The sounds were different and blew everyone away.

A new version of "Something To Do" has been released these last months, with filtered samples of the original. It works very well on the dancefloors, surely better than the one made by the english quartet (since it has the contemporary cliches), but the original is worthy of mentioning, for it's perfect to listen any time.../