Violator

Violator is the seventh studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 19 March 1990 by Mute Records internationally, and by Sire and Reprise Records in the United States.

Preceded by the singles "Personal Jesus” and "Enjoy the Silence” (a top-10 entry in both the United Kingdom and the United States), the album propelled the band into international stardom, and also yielded the singles "Policy of Truth” and "World in My Eyes”. Violator reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, and was the band’s first album to chart inside the top 10 of the Billboard 200, peaking at number seven. The album was supported by the World Violation Tour.

Compared to previous efforts, the band decided to try a new approach to recording. Alan Wilder said, "Usually we begin the making of a record by having extensive pre-production meetings where we decide what the record will actually sound like, then go into a programming studio. This time we decided to keep all pre-production work to a minimum. We were beginning to have a problem with boredom in that we felt we’d reached a certain level of achievement in doing things a certain way.” Martin Gore elaborated, "Over the last five years I think we’d perfected a formula; my demos, a month in a programming studio, etc. etc. We decided that our first record of the ’90s ought to be different."

With co-producer Flood, Wilder began a complementary working relationship, with Flood able to provide the technical know-how and Wilder working on the arrangements and song textures. "That’s how we made the group work at that time”, clarified Wilder, "by accepting that we all had different roles and not actually all trying to do the same thing. So we ended up with this unwritten agreement in the band, where we’d all throw together a few ideas at the beginning of a track. Then Fletch and Mart would go away, and they’d come back after we’d worked on it for a while to give an opinion."

There was also a notable change in Gore’s demos. After the rigid, limiting effects of almost-finished demos for Music for the Masses, Gore, agreeing to Wilder’s request, kept them less complete this time around. Several of the basic recordings consisted of vocals over a simple guitar or organ part, with the odd percussion loop, but less sequenced material. The sparse demos allowed the band to take creative liberties with the songs. For instance, "Enjoy the Silence” started out as a slow ballad, but at Wilder’s suggestion became a pulsating, up-tempo track.

The band convened to work on the record with Flood at Mute’s WorldWide programming room in London for three weeks after which they flew to Milan for the new sessions at Logic studios. According to Flood, they did not do a substantial amount of work in Milan, except for the song "Personal

Jesus”, which was crucial in setting the tone and spirit of the album. "Everybody was feeling each other out, because they wanted to try working in a different way. The idea was to work hard and party hard and we all enjoyed ourselves to the full.” After Milan the band relocated to Puk studios in northern Denmark, where most of the album was recorded.

Musically, Violator has been described as synth-pop,alternative rock,dance,and gothic rock.Gore called the track "World in My Eyes” a very positive song: "It’s saying that love and sex and pleasure are positive things.” The song "Blue Dress”, which Gore called "pervy”, is simply about "watching a girl dress and realising that this is ’what makes the world turn.’"[1] With "Halo”, Gore said, "I’m saying ’let’s give in to this’ but there’s also a real feeling of wrongfulness [...] I suppose my songs do seem to advocate immorality but if you listen there’s always a sense of guilt.” The closing track, "Clean”, was inspired by Pink Floyd’s song "One of These Days”, from their 1971 album Meddle. Said Wilder, "they [Pink Floyd] were doing something very different to anyone else at that time – you can hear electronics in there, and the influence of classical music. It’s got a very repetitive, synthesised sound, and the bass riffs with the echo have a very hypnotic groove that underpins it. We basically nicked that idea [for ’Clean’]”.

Regarding the album’s title, Gore said, "We called it Violator as a joke. We wanted to come up with the most extreme, ridiculously Heavy Metal title that we could. I’ll be surprised if people will get the joke."

In a contemporary review for Melody Maker, music critic Paul Lester called Violator "Depeche Mode’s most arresting work to date.” Tim Nicholson of Record Mirror was enthused by the stripped-down quality of the songs and called the album a "compromise between pop music and something a little more sinister”, adding: "There are no noises out of place in this perfectly formed void."Ian Cranna of Q magazine found the music subtly clever and deemed Violator "a fine record which may not set the world on fire but deserves to singe it a bit."NME writer Helen Mead felt that the album "seems almost a step back, in that it’s cleaner, sparser, more clinical” than Music for the Masses, but concluded that "there is security in the knowledge that everything is very clear cut in Depeche Mode’s blue and white world."In a less enthusiastic review, Robert Christgau said that Depeche Mode conceded to fickle teenage demographics on Violator.Rolling Stone magazine’s Chuck Eddy said that, despite the album’s "ambient charm”, Gahan sounds "slimy and self-involved”, and in their attempt to make listeners dance, Depeche Mode "revert to morose pop psychology and then never tell you how come they’re so sad.” Entertainment Weekly’s Greg Sandow found that the music is over-reliant on "distinctive and curious”, but ultimately trivial, sound effects.

Violator was ranked number 342 on Rolling Stone’s 2003 and 2012 lists of the 500 greatest albums of all time and number 57 on the magazine’s 2010 list of the 100 best albums of the 1990s. It was ranked number 167 on Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.Violator has also featured on lists of the greatest albums of all time made by publications such as Q and Spin. In a retrospective review, The Austin Chronicle’s Christopher Gray cited Violator as Depeche Mode’s "career peak",while The Guardian’s Dorian Lynskey called it the band’s best album, "encasing Martin Gore’s favourite tropes – guilt, salvation, obsession and the virtues of keeping your mouth shut – in production as black and shiny as a beetle’s shell.” Barry Walters of Rolling Stone complimented its "heavier hooks, cinematic arrangements and sleek sonic detail."Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the album "a quintessential benchmark of pop, rock and electronic music."It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Depeche Mode

1990

47

3268440307432

CD

9 26081

5

Puk Studios, Denmark And Logic Studios, Italy

10

Album

N/A

1

2018-06-28 16:11:07

Jewel Case

~$6.84

2026-02-16

2018-06-28 16:11:07