Depeche Mode – 101 (Deluxe Edition) (1989/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:35:30 minutes | 4,95 GB | Genre: Synth-pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Music Entertainment Germany
This is the definitive boxed set edition of Depeche Mode’s newly updated 101 documentary concert film and live album, representing the “101” th and final appearance of the band’s “Music For The Masses” world tour, recorded live at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 19, 1988. 101, a groundbreaking collaborative documentary co-directed by acclaimed married couple D.A. Pennebaker (Dont Look Back) and Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and with active creative input from the band, who had organized an exclusive competition for fans, which promised an appearance in a Depeche Mode film as a prize. 101’s narrative portrayal of competition winners traveling across America to attend Depeche Mode’s groundbreaking Rose Bowl concert is a cinematic precursor to the youth culture trend on the “reality TV” program. Depeche Modes 101 captures the electrifying synergy between the band and their fans. This edition has been upgraded with new scans of the original film reels and includes the film, concert and official promotional video for “Everything Counts”.
As an event, Depeche Mode’s huge (attendance around 60,000) Los Angeles Rose Bowl concert in 1988 remains legendary; no single artist show had totally sold out the venue since eight years beforehand, while the film documentary done by Dylan-filmer D.A. Pennebaker based around the show clearly demonstrated fans’ intense commitment to a near-decade-old band most mainstream critics continued to stupidly portray as a flash-in-the-pan synth pop effort. This start-to-final-encore record of the concert showcases a band perfectly able to carry its music from studio to stage as well as any other combo worth its salt should be able to do. Understandably focused on Music for the Masses material, the album shows Depeche experimenting with alternate arrangements at various points for live performance; big numbers like “Never Let Me Down Again,” “Stripped,” and “Blasphemous Rumors” pack even more of a wallop here. Slower numbers and more than a couple of ballads help to vary the hit-packed set, including a fine “Somebody” and “The Things You Said” combination sung by Martin Gore. “Pleasure Little Treasure,” on record an okay B-side, becomes a monster rocker live, the type of unexpected surprise one could expect from a solid band no matter what the music. With a triumphant set of closing numbers, including magnificent takes on “Never Let Me Down Again,” “Master and Servant,” and the set-ending “Everything Counts,” with what sounds like the entire audience singing the chorus well after the song has finally ended, 101 does far better at its task than most might have guessed. – Ned Raggett
Tracklist:
1-1. Depeche Mode – Pimpf (00:59)
1-2. Depeche Mode – Behind the Wheel (05:53)
1-3. Depeche Mode – Strangelove (04:48)
1-4. Depeche Mode – Sacred (05:10)
1-5. Depeche Mode – Something to Do (03:53)
1-6. Depeche Mode – Blasphemous Rumours (05:12)
1-7. Depeche Mode – Stripped (06:38)
1-8. Depeche Mode – Somebody (04:35)
1-9. Depeche Mode – Things You Said (04:14)
1-10. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration (04:45)
1-11. Depeche Mode – Shake the Disease (05:09)
1-12. Depeche Mode – Nothing (04:33)
1-13. Depeche Mode – Pleasure Little Treasure (04:39)
1-14. Depeche Mode – People Are People (04:57)
1-15. Depeche Mode – A Question of Time (04:11)
1-16. Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Down Again (06:37)
1-17. Depeche Mode – A Question of Lust (04:06)
1-18. Depeche Mode – Master and Servant (04:29)
1-19. Depeche Mode – Just Cant Get Enough (04:00)
1-20. Depeche Mode – Everything Counts (06:31)
