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Violator (album)

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Untitled

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. As of 2010 Violator had sold more than 6 million units in the United States.[1]

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.

Reception

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.[2]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 342 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The most successful song from the album, "Personal Jesus", was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is also on Q's 1001 Best Songs Ever.

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [3]
Pitchfork Media(7.9/10) [4]
Hipersónica [5]
Q[citation needed]
Almost Cool [6]
Sputnikmusic [7]
Slant Magazine [8]
Rolling Stone (1990) [9]
Rolling Stone (2009) [10]
Review Centre [11]
Entertainment Weekly(B-) [12]

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.[13]

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

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.

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

Personnel

Depeche Mode
  • Andrew Fletcher – keyboards (in the Milan recording sessions only), vocoder ("Interlude 2")
  • David Gahan – lead vocals, backing vocals ("Sweetest Perfection"), guitar ("Interlude 2")
  • Martin Gore – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar ("Clean"), backing vocals, lead vocals ("Sweetest Perfection", "Blue Dress")
  • Alan Wilder – keyboards, piano, programming, drums ("Clean"), backing vocals
Guest musicians
  • Nils Tuxen – pedal steel guitar ("Clean")
Production

Chart performance and certifications

References

  1. ^ Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 286.
  2. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=412&cfgn=Year-end+Albums&cfn=The+Billboard+200&ci=3068352&cdi=8699345&cid=12%2F31%2F1990
  3. ^ Allmusic Review
  4. ^ Pitchfork Media Review
  5. ^ Hipersónica Review
  6. ^ Almost Cool Review
  7. ^ Sputnikmusic Review
  8. ^ Slant Magazine Review
  9. ^ Eddy, Chuck: Violator Album Review Rolling Stone, June 14, 1990. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  10. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artist/album/news/artists/8828/55753/55788 [dead link]
  11. ^ Review Centre Review
  12. ^ Entertainment Weekly Review
  13. ^ "depeche mode dot com - discography - Violator". depechemode.com. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
  14. ^ a b "Discography Depeche Mode". Australian-Charts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009. Cite error: The named reference "australia" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Discographie Depeche Mode". AustrianCharts.at. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  16. ^ "Depeche Mode Violator french chart position". Infodisc.fr. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  17. ^ "Suchergebnis". Charts-Surfer.de. Retrieved 3 March 2009. Note: User must define 'neuer suchbegriff' search parameter as "Depeche Mode".
  18. ^ "Depeche Mode Violator italian chart position". Hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  19. ^ "spanishcharts.com - Depeche Mode - Violator". spanishcharts.com. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  20. ^ "Discography Depeche Mode". SwedishCharts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  21. ^ "Discography Depeche Mode". SwissCharts.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  22. ^ "Chart Stats: Depeche Mode". ChartStats.com. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  23. ^ "Depeche Mode > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  24. ^ "Austrian album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator" (in German). IFPI Austria.
  25. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". Music Canada.
  26. ^ "French album certifications – DepecheMode – Violator" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  27. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Depeche Mode; 'Violator')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  28. ^ "Guld- och Platinacertifikat − År 1987−1998" (PDF) (in Swedish). IFPI Sweden. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2011.
  29. ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards ('Violator')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien.
  30. ^ "British album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Violator in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  31. ^ "American album certifications – Depeche Mode – Violator". Recording Industry Association of America.

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