- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive £1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. Saw Something |
| 2. Kingdom |
| 3. Deeper And Deeper |
| 4. 21 Days |
| 5. Miracles |
| 6. Use You |
| 7. Insoluble |
| 8. Endless |
| 9. A Little Lie |
| 10. Down |
Product Description
Review
Hourglass, Dave Gahan's second solo outing, is crammed to the gallery with sweeping keyboard grandeur, majestic rhythms and hymns to the lowlife. Ten superb slices of cutting-edge electronica, dosed liberally with a guitar sound straight from the 1980s; the album slithers around outsider influences on a trip from Bowie's Berlin decadence, via David Sylvian's Japan, to the sordid back alleyways of Marc Almond's Soho.
There's also a tip of the hat to Happy Mondays here, a touch of The Verve there, but Gahan's unmistakeable writhing performance and the album's solidly 21st Century production means it packs far more punch than a mere rehash of old themes ever could.
As his most romantic ballads descend into threats of sexual assault ("Deeper And Deeper", "Use You"), Gahan takes us on a tour of the darker side of the city at night. Covering the emotional gamut from tearful regret to sated melancholy - at times with more reverb than strictly necessary - Dave's voice is the album's strongest, most memorable facet; the perfect vehicle with which to acknowledge one's sins, invoke divine protection and beseech forgiveness. Gahan's control and masterful delivery show that years of the rock star lifestyle left no lasting damage: if anything, the slight rasp of maturity lends an air of authentic experience that his work with Depeche Mode only hinted at. When he permits the polished professional croon to slip to one side, his Basildon roots show; and that creates a genuine, exciting danger that his more purist electro-based rivals can't match. More than just a Scott Walker for the nightclub generation, nobody does overindulged weariness like our Dave. --Al Spicer
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Paper Monsters,
By
This review is from: Hourglass (Audio CD)
In my opinion Depeche Mode have never recovered since the departure of Alan Wilder, he added a musical integrity to Martin Gore's lyrics and Dave's voice that was lacking on subsequent albums. On Paper Monsters, Dave's first solo album he's finding his feet as a solo act and while the results are encouraging, the outcome is pretty average.
The addition of Christian Eigner & Andrew Phillpott (DM's touring band) to the mix has made a huge musical difference to the second album, Hourglass. Dave's fantastic voice is backed up by layer upon layer of sound and melody. The outcome is more electronic than Paper Monsters but it's also more cohesive; this is not only a great album for DM fans, it's a fantastic album for Dave Gahan fans.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mature, intensive, enthralling - a unique Dave!,
By Katja Kaygin (Hamburg / Oberhausen, Germany) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hourglass (Audio CD)
The first three songs on the CD are absolutely awesome: Saw something" is a wonderful electronic ballad that starts really slow and ends with a brilliant climax, so that you only want to close your eyes and let yourself fall into the arms of someone else. It is an excellent song and it has been a long time ago, that I have ever heard a song that really captured my heart like this. The second song Kingdom" is a great dancetrack and is going to be one of these classic songs. Deeper and deeper" is a song where people will have different opinions about: Either you'll hate it or you'll love it. I loved this song from the first tunes. It is smashing, fast, aggressive, evil" and great for dancing.
21 Days" sounds dark, slow and Dave has a real penetrating voice that sounds extremely sexy and which really turns me on. It reminds me a bit of DM Ultra" times. The next song is the ballade Miracles" that starts with an electronic sound layer, followed by Dave's striking slow voice and lyrics pointing out what I think and feel too. Use you" sounds a bit like former DM songs. It's a great dance track, falling in the categorie nasty, evil, sexy and dangerous". Insoluble" is a kind of ingenious ballade starting with strong electro sounds that are really exciting, ambitious and diversified. Endless" is the most wicked song on this album. I have never heard some tunes like this before. It starts with some electrobeats which sound like the volume is consistently openend and closed. Dave's voice appears in an extremely resound and hypnotic way. I love this song and I am addicted to it. It's wicked, lush, sexy and a good song for DM partys. A little lie" is a wonderfull balade with strong drums and great guitar tones that remind me of very old Simple Minds songs. Down" is a condigned last song on this album. I have never liked Dave's first album Paper Monster" that much. But this album is different. I am really impressed by the mature Dave and his extremely intense voice, of which I have the impression, that I have never heard it in this perfect quality ever before. The way Dave sings and in addition his lyrics really capture my heart and my soul. I Thank Dave, als well as Andrew Philpott and Christian Eigner, for this excellent work and I hope to hear more music like this in the near future. The idea to show the handwritten lyrics in the booklet, instead of just printing them as everyone does, is absolutely lovely. Thus the album gets a more individual character.
4.0 out of 5 stars
not quite Depeche mood,
This review is from: Hourglass (Audio CD)
Good yes great not quite,
Very moody but not as poweful as his groups offerings yes I am a Depeche mode fan and found Hourglass not as instantly likeable as D.M.albums but after a few plays it gets better and better.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
