Violator [CD + DVD] [Hybrid SACD, SACD, Original recording remastered]

'Violator' (a deliberately Spinal Tap style title!) was the conclusion of the Mode's European outlook, the contribution of Francois Kevorkian aligned it to the electronic past of Kraftwerk and Moroder. 'World in My Eyes' (the fourth single released) opens the LP, a minimal electronic pop song that is Andy Fletcher's favourite Mode track. 'Sweetest Perfection' is the first of Martin Gore's lead vocals, blending bluesy guitar with electronics - setting the tone for 'Personal Jesus' and live favourite 'Halo' - the latter is one of Gore's greatest pop-songs and should have been a single (especially with the hilarious promo they shot found on 'Strange Too').

Following these highs we shift into the epic electronic ballad 'Waiting for the Night' which finds Gahan alone in an artificial universe until Gore supplies some harmonies: pure machine-soul. The sequencing on 'Black Celebration' and 'Music for the Masses' is advanced on here - the latter four tracks are generally linked together by smaller pieces of music - we move from 'Waiting for the Night' to Top 5 hit 'Enjoy the Silence' - a key song in the Mode's back catalogue and single of the year at the Brits the following year (not that they bothered to turn up!). '...Silence' is followed by 'Policy of Truth' (the third single)- an anthemic track later covered by some grunge band I've forgotten the name of!

The album concludes on a darker note, Gore's second lead vocal 'Blue Dress' drifts between a sensitive 'Somebody'-style ballad and something more sinister. The model for later Gore-fronted tracks such as 'Home', 'Comatose', 'Damaged People' and 'Macro.' Finally there is 'Clean', which opens with electronics that recall Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Yellow Magic Orchestra before shifting into a downbeat anthem in which Gahan unconvincingly sings "I'm the cleanest I've been..." - kind of at odds with his infamous addictions and issues that followed...

As with the 'Speak & Spell' and 'Music for the Masses' reissues, this is a twin disc set with the album on DVD/A in 5.1 and stereo (my original copy of 'Violator' on CD sounds terrible on my mp3 player...a more than welcome reissue).There is another audio feature (the Mode and co exploiting the possibilities of this new format wonderfully) like the other two reissues and several bonus tracks. These are basically b-sides of the singles - 'Dangerous' is a fair enough pop-song that was the flipside of 'Personal Jesus', while instrumentals 'Memphisto' and 'Sibeling' were on 'Enjoy the Silence.' Another instrumental 'Kaleid' ('Policy of Truth') was used as the intro to the 'World Violation' tour and the final two songs ('Happiest Girl' and 'Sea of Sin') featured on the 'World in My Eyes' single from Autumn 1990. All nice additions, but 'Kaleid' apart nothing as great as the album proper...(& tracks most Mode fans are likely to posess on several formats already!)

'Violator' was the Mode's peak I feel - follow-up 'Songs of Faith & Devotion' had a flawed production (sort of grungey-'Achtung Baby!') and the two albums that followed were patchy ('Playing the Angel' is more succesful). 'Violator' was the pinnacle of the Mode's achievment, building on the fine 'Construction Time Again'/'Some Great Reward' and fellow masterpieces 'Black Celebration' and 'Music for the Masses.' What's great here is that the Mode stayed true to themselves and released an LP that was naturally them - no trying to be Alice in Chains or Nirvana here! It's also a great collection of pop-songs that show how great the pop-song was before the return to the 50s style of recent years (though of course Girls Aloud and Sugababes have Mode-elements in their music thanks to Richard X!). 'Violator' is the best Mode album and one of the classic albums of the early 1990s alongside 'Chill Out', 'Heaven or Las Vegas', 'Fear of a Black Planet', 'Loveless', 'Behaviour', 'Blue Lines' & 'Selected Ambient Works I.' What more can I say?

A lot has happened since it's release, Alan's left, Dave's nearly died, the band nearly imploded, but they've come out the other side and released some great material.

Back to Violator. This expanded edition includes a DVD with interviews from band members, including the much-missed Alan. You get DVDA versions of the whole album plus various b-sides, some nothing to write home about, others which are, for me, some of Martin's finest work, Sea Of Sin and Happiest Girl. It's a shame that these b-sides weren't included on the audio cd, but that's just me being picky. I also mentioned in the review to Music For The Masses that it was a shame the band didn't sieze the opportunity to go down the same route the Cure did on their Deluxe editions by having demos and previously unreleased material included, again just a minor niggle really.

The album is rich and beautiful and dark. The singles included were probably the greatest quartet of tracks released by the band, Policy Of Truth, World In My Eyes, Personal Jesus and the seminal Enjoy The Silence, one of the greatest songs ever.

Other highlights are the gorgeous Clean (see the DVD included with Playing The Angel for a great acoustic version) and Halo, which would have made a great single, but maybe would have been one single too many from the album.

For anyone starting a jouney on the good ship Mode, then this is the place to start. Buy, listen, enjoy and then kick yourself that you could've been listening to this 16 years ago. Shame on you!