What are your top 10 favorite Depeche Mode songs?  (that is, if you like them of course)

In no particular order

1. Only When I Lose Myself

2. Somebody

3. Stripped

4. Never Let Me Down Again

5. Behind the Wheel

6. World In My Eyes

7. Enjoy the Silence

8. Mercy in You

9. One Caress

10.It's No Good

Bastard! I shall have a short think and then get back to you. Mine changes a bit every time I have a listen, but I know the general structure. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Only 10??  That's a hard one.  Here's a few but I need to think hard for some more:

Somebody
Shake the Disease
Blasphomous Rumors
Stripped
Waiting for the Night

I chose 10 because it was hard.

I have many runners up like Strangelove, But Not Tonight, Blue Dress, Things You Said, Dream On, Black Celebration, Here is the House, etc.

I spent like three hours last night comparing DM songs and making a list. So far I'm down to 27 entries. I'll get you something eventually. :) It's even worse because I'm considering the extended mixes from all of the individual singles (and their B sides) as well as the remix albums. And then there's the fact that some of the songs have slightly different versions on the Singles compilation CDs than they did on their original albums... for example, I prefer the version of "Walking in My Shoes" from the Singles CD.

I had to cut myself off from counting any songs from Recording the Angel...otherwise it would be even harder. BLEH!

I must say though...sometimes I wish I'd been a better fan back in the day. I remember when Songs of Faith and Devotion came out and I just didn't care for it much and so I didn't even bother to buy it. And now it's an album I can't imagine not having. That's what I get for being a stupid fickle teenager I guess. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I still have my cassette copy of Songs of Faith and Devotion.  It's pretty worn...I guess I should invest in a CD copy...the quality of the cassette takes me back to high school though...memories...

If you get a CD copy, be sure to pick up the remastered edition. It's lovely.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

1. The Love Thieves

2. Sea of Sin

3. Halo

4. Rush

5. In Your Room (jeep rock mix)

6. Higher Love

7. Everything Counts

8. Lillian

9. Precious

10. Dream On

"Rush" is definitely one of my top ten, though I'm torn between the album version and the live version. It's such an incredible song live...

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

lol

With 12's picks you can obviously tell she was a DM newbie when she strolled onto the scene.  Old school DM for her is Songs of Faith and Devotion.

I've struggled for a while with my perception of DM at this point in my life. Like Angel said, we all had Violator in high school. Came out my Freshman year in fact, and I lived that f'ing album for a good two years. I've always seen Violator as the fulcrum upon which their musical library hinges...on one end you have their earlier stuff that is dark in nature at some points but for the most part pure electrosynthpop. Violator thankfully opened the door for many people who had never previously been interested in Depeche Mode, and while some longtime fans may scoff at it, I think it's just fine. I would rather people come to know this band I love than not know them at all. But for the most part, up to this point DM saw airplay on both pop and alternative venues. Violator really was the colliding of two DM worlds...the poppier side and the alt-goth-emo side.

Starting with Songs of Faith and Devotion, we saw more of Gore and Gahan tackling demons like never before, and it opened the band up to new musical levels both lyrically and instrumentally. From that point on, the band's albums were less pop-y and more...dunno..."dark and real" seems kind of a cliché thing to say, but I think you know what I mean. Ultra and Exciter got panned, but when you listen to them, they've got some fantastic stuff on them. Playing the Angel really brought them back 'round full circle, harkening back to those Violator days but once again addressing those darker, more personal issues. The song "Precious" is itself about Gore's divorce from his wife of many years, and his fears about what it would do to their children; but musically, the song is just as much a crowd-pleaser as "Enjoy the Silence" was back in 1990.

For me personally, Playing the Angel was a reminder of exactly why I love DM. It made me go back and re-explore Ultra, Exciter, and Songs of Faith and Devotion. I would be hard-pressed to NOT name a song from that album in my top 10...

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

1. Everything Counts

2. Shake the Disease

3. It's called a Heart

4. Love in Itself

5. Freelove

6. Strangelove

7. People are People

8. It's no Good

9. Fly on the Windscreen

10. Question of Lust

*DM is awesome live. Go see them if you can.

80% of their stuff pre-Black Celebration is a little too homoerotic for my tastes.

*DM is awesome live. Go see them if you can.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

lol 

Tch. Their early stuff does not suck. Might I remind you that songs like "People are People", "Somebody" and "Shake the Disease" came off of their pre-BC albums.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Tch. Their early stuff does not suck. Might I remind you that songs like "People are People", "Somebody" and "Shake the Disease" came off of their pre-BC albums.

 The majority of their early stuff does suck and sounds like Booth's favorite band Erasure.

There are some diamonds in the rough off of Some Great Reward and People are People but most of it is filler or Just Can't Get Enough sissy remakes.

EDIT - my case in point.  Look at their their greatest hits CD 81-85 (or Catching Up with Depeche Mode for that matter) - they are horrible overall and only have a handful of good songs.  Look at the Greatest Hits 86-98 and it absolutely rocks.  Darker DM blows early DM out of the water.

The rerelease of Singles 81 > 85 is worth it alone for the updated mix of "Photographic", which was a snoozer on Speak and Spell but is a rather frenetic dance tune now (and INCREDIBLE at live shows).

I also think "Leave in Silence" is a terribly overlooked song. I don't know that it gets the love it really deserves. And let's not forget "Shake the Disease" which wasn't released on anything but Singles 81 > 85. The first Singles album really plucked some of the best tunes from their early catalog. I don't know that it really deserves to be lambasted in such a manner.

And it's no wonder that early DM sounds a bit like Erasure, considering that Vince Clarke formed DM and then later formed Erasure (with a brief stopover to form Yaz...). His songwriting for Speak and Spell really set the tone for many of those early singles that are quite poppy. The band didn't start really experimenting with their sound and lyrics until Construction Time Again, which is why I think A Broken Frame gets lost in the fray...it sounds too much like a continuation of Speak and Spell.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

In no particular order... 

1. Enjoy the Silence

2. Halo

3. Personal Jesus

4. Policy of Truth

5. I Feel You

6. Waiting For The Night

7. Sweetest Perfection

8. World In My Eyes

9. It's No Good

10. A Question of Time

lol   

No need to be a shithead, J.

I purchased the cassette as well as Catching Up With Depeche Mode with my Christmas money from a record shop in San Francisco. Brand-new, never-unwrapped, and yes, I was 10 years old; it was January 1986 - I will search my house and dig up the original cassette and scan it in for you if you're so inclined. Though it was never "officially" released in the US, it was most certaintly readily available. I wasn't the only person who had a copy as I recall. Import or domestic release status aside, that is the actual timeline of the albums.

I received my first Depeche Mode album (A Broken Frame) when I was 7. If you must know, I was introduced to them by my aunt and MTV. Care to pick a fight about that as well?

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

rocks and bottles could have just said Violator and a couple of other songs.