Violator (album)

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Violator
Studio album by Depeche Mode
Released 19 March 1990 (1990-03-19)
Recorded May 1989 – January 1990, Puk Studios in Denmark and Logic studios in Milan[1]
Genre Alternative dance, synthpop
Length 47:02
Label Mute (Europe) and Sire/Reprise (North America)
Producer Depeche Mode and Flood
Depeche Mode chronology
Music for the Masses
(1987)		 Violator
(1990)		 Songs of Faith and Devotion
(1993)
Singles from Violator
  1. "Personal Jesus"
    Released: 29 August 1989 (1989-08-29)
  2. "Enjoy the Silence"
    Released: 5 February 1990 (1990-02-05)
  3. "Policy of Truth"
    Released: 7 March 1990 (1990-03-07)
  4. "World in My Eyes"
    Released: 17 September 1990 (1990-09-17)

Violator is the seventh studio album by the English electronic group Depeche Mode, released by Mute Records on 19 March 1990.

Preceded by the hit singles "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" (a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic), Violator propelled the band into international stardom. The album yielded two further hit singles, "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes". This album is the first of the band to achieve the Top 10 on the Billboard 200—reaching No. 7—and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was supported by the World Violation Tour.

Contents

[edit] Album and song development

The band decided to try something new with regards to how they made this album compared to previous efforts. Said Alan Wilder, "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 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."[2]

Wilder formed with co-producer Mark 'Flood' Ellis a complementary working relationship, with Flood able to provide the technical know-how while Wilder worked on the arrangements and song textures. "That's how we made the group work at that time," clarifies 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."[3]

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 kept them less complete this time around. Several of the basic recordings consisted of vocals over 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.[4]

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 didn't do 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 band relocated to Puk studios in northern Denmark, where most of the album was recorded.[5]

Martin called the track "World in My Eyes" a very positive song. "It's saying that love and sex and pleasure are positive things."[2] 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.'"[2] 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."[2]

As for the album name itself, Martin 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. When we called an album Music for the Masses, we were accused of being patronising and arrogant. In fact it was a joke on the uncommerciality of it. It was anything but music for the masses![2] ”

—Martin Gore

[edit] 2006 re-release

As part of Mute's 2006 reissue schedule, Violator was re-released as a hybrid Super Audio CD + DVD-Video package on 3 April 2006 which included two-channel and 5.1 surround mixes of the album. The six B-sides to the Violator singles—"Dangerous", "Memphisto", "Sibeling", "Kaleid", "Happiest Girl", and "Sea of Sin"—also appear, albeit without the surround sound treatment. The reissue didn't reach the US till 6 June 2006. The US version lacked the hybrid SACD and instead just had a CD, but the DVD was included, and was identical to the European DVD but in NTSC format instead of PAL. The lack of SACD is due to the titles being distributed in North America by Warner, who do not support the SACD format.

A 32-minute short film entitled Depeche Mode 1989–90 (If You Wanna Use Guitars, Use Guitars) and featured interviews with the band Daniel Miller, Flood, François Kevorkian (who mixed the album), Anton Corbijn (who directed the music videos and did the album's photography/cover), and others. It also includes news footage from the infamous "riot" in Los Angeles which gave the band media publicity the day before Violator came out. The band were scheduled to do autographs in an LA music store, and the line reached into the 20,000's. The event had to be canceled shortly after it began due to problems keeping the line in order. There is also footage from Strange Too, notably clips from the music videos for "Halo" and "Clean".

The remastered album was released on "deluxe" vinyl 2 March 2007, in Germany and 5 March 2007, internationally.

[edit] Reception

 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 5/5 stars.... [6]
Pitchfork Media 7.9/10[7]
Hipersónica Favourable[8]
Q 4.5/5 stars....[9]
Sputnikmusic 5/5 stars.... [10]
Slant Magazine 4.5/5 stars.... [11]
Rolling Stone (1990) 2/5 stars.... [12]
Rolling Stone (2009) 4.5/5 stars.... [13]
Entertainment Weekly B−[14]
Wiki letter w.svg This table needs to be expanded using prose. See the guideline for more information.

As of 2010, Violator has sold more than 15 million copies. It remains the band's best selling album worldwide. Violator reached number 17 on the Billboard Year-End chart of 1990.[15]

Cited as one of the best recordings of the '90s, Violator is featured on various lists of the greatest albums of that decade.[16][17][18]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 342 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[19] It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Violator is also featured on lists of the greatest albums of all time made by magazines like Q[20] and Spin.[21]

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Martin L. Gore:

  1. "World in My Eyes" – 4:26
  2. "Sweetest Perfection" – 4:43
  3. "Personal Jesus" – 4:56
  4. "Halo" – 4:30
  5. "Waiting for the Night" – 6:07
  6. "Enjoy the Silence" – 6:12
    "Interlude #2 – Crucified" – 1:52 (hidden song starting at 4:21)
  7. "Policy of Truth" – 4:55
  8. "Blue Dress" – 5:41
    "Interlude #3" – 1:23 (hidden song starting at 4:18)
  9. "Clean" – 5:28

According to the band's web site the original title for "Waiting for the Night" was "Waiting for the Night to Fall" and the rest of the title was omitted due to a printing error.[22]

Both the original US and the original UK vinyl editions have a shorter version of "Personal Jesus".

[edit] 2006 Collectors Edition: Mute / DM CD 7 (CD/SACD + DVD)

  • Disc 1 is a hybrid SACD/CD with a multi-channel SACD layer, with the same track listing as the 1990 release. Bonus tracks are in PCM Stereo [48 kHz/16bit].
  • Disc 2 is a DVD which includes the documentary Depeche Mode 1989–90 (If You Wanna Use Guitars, Use Guitars), Violator in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo [48 kHz/24bit] plus the following bonus tracks:
  1. "Dangerous" – 4:22
  2. "Memphisto" – 4:03
  3. "Sibeling" – 3:18
  4. "Kaleid" – 4:18
  5. "Happiest Girl" (Jack Mix) – 4:58
  6. "Sea of Sin" (Tonal Mix) – 4:46

Dave Gahan sings lead vocals on all songs except "Sweetest Perfection" (Gahan can also be heard singing in the last chorus) and "Blue Dress", which Martin Gore sings.

[edit] Violator (Japan Limited Edition)

This is the rare 1st Japan press of Depeche Mode's Violator 2XCD set. It comes in a fat double CD jewel case with the 12-page lyric inlay booklet, 16-page Japanese insert, "Enjoy the Silence" insert and 40-page 1991 picture calendar. The second edition double CD was fixed and included "Enjoy the Silence (Hands and Feet Mix)" instead the edited Ecstatic Dub Mix.

CD2

  1. "Enjoy the Silence (Single Version)" – 4:17
  2. "Enjoy the Silence (Ecstatic Dub)" – 5:54
  3. "Enjoy the Silence (Ecstatic Dub Edit)" – 5:45
  4. "Sibeling (Single Version)" – 3:13
  5. "Enjoy the Silence (Bass Line)" – 7:42
  6. "Enjoy the Silence (Harmonium)" – 2:42
  7. "Enjoy the Silence (Ricki Tik Tik Mix)" – 5:28
  8. "Memphisto (Single Version)" – 4:01

[edit] Personnel

Depeche Mode
  • Andy Fletcher – vocoder ("Interlude 2 - Crucified")
  • Dave Gahan – lead vocals, backing vocals ("Sweetest Perfection"), guitar ("Interlude 2 - Crucified")
  • Martin Gore – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals ("Sweetest Perfection", "Blue Dress"), songwriting
  • Alan Wilder – keyboards, bass guitar ("Clean"), programming, drums ("Clean"), backing vocals
Guest musicians
  • Nils Tuxen – pedal steel guitar ("Clean")
Production

[edit] Chart performance and certifications

[edit] Charts

Chart (1990) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart[23] 42
Austrian Albums Chart[24] 4
Canadian RPM 100 Albums[citation needed] 5
Dutch Mega Album Top 100[citation needed] 15
French SNEP Albums Chart[25] 1
German Album Top 100[26] 2
Italian FIMI Albums Chart[27] 2
Norwegian VG-Lista Albums Chart[23] 12
Spanish PROMUSICAE Albums Chart[28] 93
Swedish Topplistan Albums Top 60[29] 6
Swiss Albums Chart[30] 2
UK Albums Chart[31] 2
US Billboard 200[32] 7

[edit] Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Austria (IFPI Austria)[33] Gold 25,000x
Canada (Music Canada)[34] 2× Platinum 200,000^
France (SNEP)[35] Platinum 300,000*
Germany (BVMI)[36] Platinum 500,000^
Sweden (GLF)[37] Gold 50,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[38] Platinum 50,000x
United Kingdom (BPI)[39] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[40] 3× Platinum 3,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cranna, Ian (April 1990), "Insidious", Q magazine: 77 
  2. ^ a b c d e Maconie, Stuart (17 February 1990). ""Sin Machine"". NME: pp 34 & 35. http://web.archive.org/web/20090104201221/http://www.sacreddm.net/1990s/nme170290/nme170290main.htm. Retrieved 22 October 2011. 
  3. ^ Malins, p. 143
  4. ^ Malins, pp. 143-144
  5. ^ Malins, pp. 144-145
  6. ^ Raggett, Ned. Violator (album) at Allmusic. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  7. ^ Abebe, Mitsuh (20 July 2006). "Album Reviews: Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell/Music For The Masses/Violator". Pitchfork.com. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11881-speak-spell-music-for-the-masses-violator/. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
  8. ^ Sobrado, Natxo (5 April 2009). "Especial Depeche Mode: Violator". Hipersonica.com. http://www.hipersonica.com/criticas/especial-depeche-mode-violator. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
  9. ^ Cranna, Ian (April 1990). "Insidious - Depeche Mode: no banner headlines, but good news all the same - Violator album review". Q: 77. 
  10. ^ "Depeche Mode - Violator (album review)". Sputnikmusic.com. 3 January 2007. http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1422. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
  11. ^ Cinquemani, Sal (29 September 2003). "Depeche Mode - Violator Slant Magazine Review". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/depeche-mode-violator/329. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
  12. ^ Eddy, Chuck: Violator Album Review Rolling Stone, 14 June 1990. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
  13. ^ Sheffield, Rob (11 April 2010). "Depeche Mode: Album Guide". Rolling Stone (Straight Arrow). ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on 12 September 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100912032221/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artist/album/news/artists/8828/55753/55788. 
  14. ^ Sandow, Greg (16 March 1990). "Music Review Violator (1990) Depeche Mode". Entertainment Weekly (5). http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,316910,00.html. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
  15. ^ Year-end Albums - The Billboard 200 - 1990[dead link]
  16. ^ "Treble's Best Albums of the '90s: Part One". Treble. treblezine.com. 8 November 2008. p. 1. http://treblezine.com/features/163.html&page=1. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
  17. ^ "Best Albums of the '90s". Slant Magazine. 14 February 2011. p. 7. http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-albums-of-the-90s/251/page_7. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
  18. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-nineties-20110427/depeche-mode-violator-19691231
  19. ^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone (Straight Arrow) (Special Issue): 342) Violator. November 2003. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090424153759/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6599375/342_violator. Retrieved 12 August 2011. 
  20. ^ "2003 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever". Q (Bauer Media) (198). January 2003. ISSN 0955-4955. http://www.timepieces.nl/Top100's/2003Qreaders.html. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
  21. ^ "Spin 100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005". Spin (20th Anniversary Special Issue). July 2005. ISSN 0886-3032. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/spin100.html#SPIN%2020th%20Anniversary%20Special,%20July%202005. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
  22. ^ "depeche mode dot com - discography - Violator". depechemode.com. http://www.depechemode.com/discography/albums/11_violator.html. Retrieved 8 May 2011. 
  23. ^ a b "Discography Depeche Mode". Australian-Charts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  24. ^ "Discographie Depeche Mode". AustrianCharts.at. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  25. ^ "Depeche Mode Violator french chart position". Infodisc.fr. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  26. ^ "Suchergebnis". Charts-Surfer.de. Retrieved 3 March 2009. Note: User must define 'neuer suchbegriff' search parameter as "Depeche Mode".
  27. ^ "Depeche Mode Violator italian chart position". Hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  28. ^ "spanishcharts.com - Depeche Mode - Violator". spanishcharts.com. http://www.spanishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Depeche+Mode&titel=Violator&cat=a. Retrieved 11 February 2011. 
  29. ^ "Discography Depeche Mode". SwedishCharts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  30. ^ "Discography Depeche Mode". SwissCharts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  31. ^ "Chart Stats: Depeche Mode". ChartStats.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  32. ^ "Depeche Mode > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  33. ^ "Austrian album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator" (in German). IFPI Austria. http://www.ifpi.at/?section=goldplatin.  Enter Depeche Mode in the field Interpret. Enter Violator in the field Titel. Select album in the field Format. Click Suchen
  34. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". Music Canada. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=Violator&sa=Depeche+Mode&smt=0. 
  35. ^ "French album certifications – DepecheMode – Violator" (in French). InfoDisc. http://www.infodisc.fr/Certif_Album.php.  Select DEPECHEMODE and click OK
  36. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Depeche Mode; 'Violator')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=Violator&strInterpret=Depeche+Mode&strTtArt=alben&strAwards=checked. 
  37. ^ "Guld- och Platinacertifikat − År 1987−1998" (in Swedish) (PDF). IFPI Sweden. http://www.ifpi.se/wp/wp-content/uploads/guld-platina-1987-1998.pdf. 
  38. ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards (Depeche Mode; 'Violator')". Hung Medien. http://www.swisscharts.com/search_certifications.asp?search=Depeche+Mode+Violator. 
  39. ^ "British album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx.  Enter Violator in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
  40. ^ "American album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Violator%22.  If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

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[edit] External links

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