The Light The Dead See

I can understand why Depeche Mode fans approaching this because of Dave Gahan are underwhelmed. But if they didn't know Soulsavers before, then they're missing the point. I'm not having a dig; I just think maybe they should go find a copy of Soulsavers' much darker and more electronic debut to listen to, and work their way forward again to here. Dave Gahan IS a good choice to mine the same seams as [previous main guest vocalist] Mark Lanegan, albeit using a different tool, (as it were). For me, it's simply evolution. As primarily a rock fan, I always prefer guitars to keyboards, organic real strings to electronica ones, and I'm a sucker for gospel stylings, so all in all, I'm enjoying this album a lot so far.

Having said that, I admit this album isn't perfect. With my analytical critic's head on, I can identify the album's shortcomings and (particularly) its recycling of earlier Soulsavers ideas/music - Take Me Back Home is a BLATANT revisiting of Revival - but you know what? I don't care! As a collective unit, T.L.T.D.S. hangs together well, more so than the otherwise excellent Broken did. None of the songs here outstay their welcome (I do accept that not everyone likes 8min+ crescendo wig-outs like DsD-all-time-fave Some Misunderstanding, which Gone Too Far could have been turned into).

Butbutbut ... have you played Just Try and thought, what IS this reminding me of? It drove me mad for an hour or two before the penny dropped: the verses are a dark-mooded take on Babybird's You're Gorgeous! What with that, and some of the Ian McNabb vocalisms, it may be that my interest is being held on what/who this album ISN'T rather than what it IS, but hey-ho. So far, a solid 7/10 album for me. And I'll tell you something else: when I'm done with this, I'm going to dig out Gahan's Paper Monsters CD for another spin or two.

Listening to albums made by Marvin Gaye; Led Zeppelin; Neil Young, can give the listener goosebumps as there are moments of pure emotion: when the voice of the singer and the music collides. "The Light The Dead See" is chock full of those sort of moments. When David Gahan sings about slaying the demons in his head whilst seeking redemption: the end result is highly moving.

This album has less of a rock edge than the last Soulsavers album and this time round the gospel and soul harmonies are very much brought to the fore. It is an album that works very much as a whole. The last three Soulsavers albums have all been good - but - this album is a truly magnificent and stunning piece of work!

Ostensibly the new Soulsavers record with guest vocalist Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, "The Light The Dead See" is more, so much more, than Gahan warbling on top of other people's songs in some vanity project to stave off boredom.

Miles away from Depeche Mode's throbbing, maudlin menace, this is an epic, majestic record : bass, drums, guitars, barely a trace of a traditional synthesiser or keyboard rack, Gahan's voice sits elegantly and comfortably over sweeping live strings and dynamic arpeggios. Each song sounds like some kind of hope-in-the-face-disaster anthem. Without any of that cellphones-in-the-air Bruce Springsteen / Bon Jovi stuff.

Gahan has never sung better. Never sung with so much passion, conviction, or with so much meaning. To all intents and purposes, this may be a Soulsavers record on the box, but inside it is a Dave Gahan solo record with a new, and exciting set of collaborators. Particularly on "The Presence of God", and throughout the rest of this, you can imagine that this is Gahan wrestling with the eternal dilemmas we all have - what is my place in the world? As a lover, a father, a fighter, a worker, what role do we have, and do we want that role? - .... because you may not have a choice. Life is, after all, a thing you can't control and must exist within. Finding a peace within that is a power.

"Just Try", after all things, is an exploration of the moment of death. Who else, aside from the bonkers Flaming Lips, would do a song that you might as well call "The Last Thoughts Of a Dying Man As He Watches From Heaven His Own Funeral?".

Coldplay think they do meaning, but really, they are unassuming aspirants, far beyond their grasp, trying to fake depth and thought with their meaningless/nonsense lyrics, like someone who barks at a dog and thinks that they are speaking with it, or a random assortment of Scrabble letters that they think is a sentence. Here, Gahan simply taps into an articulate but uncalculated sincerity of expression : what is it to be old and have a young soul?

There are two types of artists - those who refuse to face the world changing around them, and their aging place within it. And those who see their art as a chart, and life as a journey : where are we now? What are we doing? Why are we here?

"The Light The Dead See" is not just Gahan's finest record outside the band, but one of the best records he has been involved in, full stop. It's not for everyone, nor is it a panacea to the starved and narrow-minded Depeche Mode fan, but it is the kind of record I would be proud to make.