Depeche Mode - Construction Time Again

2007 European pressing of the digitally remastered version of their 1983 album. 9 tracks including 'Everything Counts', 'Love In Itself' and more. This pressing is CD-only and does not include the bonus DVD included in the special edition. EMI. Album Description

Only for hardcore DM fans, and even then...

People are People is a better choice than this one. It has the good songs from it and doesn't include the bad. The Landscape is Changing is beyond overripe. More Than A Party is... um... June 30, 2008

Appetite for Construction

CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN, Depeche Mode's third album, was as large a step forward in evolving the band's sound as much as A Broken Frame had from their debut. No doubt, new member Alan Wilder was a crucial part in honing Depeche Mode's new development, as well as Martin Gore flexing a stronger songwriting muscle for this album. CONSTRUCTION is the most focused effort of the earliest Mode albums, being more musically consistent than either Frame or it's much-praised successor Some Great Reward, with a integration of industrial (emphasis on the lower-case "i") sounds and textures used throughout. Many of these tracks, in retrospect, are early templates for more overtly Industrial-inspired songs to come such as "People Are People", "Blasphemous Rumors", and "Stripped".

Like many early 80's electronic records of it's day, CONSTRUCTION utilizes much synthesized horns, with "Love In Itself" being the most glaring example (not one of my fave Depeche songs anyway). "Told You So", on the other hand, uses this same sound quite inventively. This album's most notable track, the single "Everything Counts", is among the band's greatest songs of all time (... at least in my opinion). A fluid track from start to finish it features great percussion and catchy hooks all around. (Check out the enthusiastic crowd participation it received in the Depeche tour documentary, 101.)

Fans of this particular album should consider Rhino Records' deluxe reissue of this CD. The noticeable difference being that the deluxe version is based on the original UK tracklisting, and concludes with a very brief reprise "Everything Counts" instead of an extended remix. The deluxe version also includes a DVD featuring a highly-informative documentary on the making of this album as well as additional non-album tracks and B-sides (including the extended "Everything Counts" and the excellent single, "Get the Balance Right"). Also remember when making your decision that the bonus music on the Rhino version is only accessible on the DVD (as well as double the price). May 15, 2007

Everything counts.

Depending on who you are, the first two DM records may be viewed as some kind of false start for the synth-pop group. This is not really my favorite album by the group at all, but stands as a worthy inclusion of the album. I actually like most DM albums over this, but there is stuff that brings it together.

It's still kind of minimalist, but here the song-writing has improved. It's like a distant cousin to Some Great Reward, less developed and not quite as consistently good, but it's not really a bad album. It takes a little bit to get into, since apart from the singles, it's kind of indistinguishable. I'd probably give it three stars if not for "Love, In Itself" and "Everything Counts," which still stand up as Depeche classics. The former is kind of quirky in its construction but shows the band's expermentation into acoustic guitars and piano samples here and there. I like Gore's simple lyrics here. Where on A Broken Frame he seemed like he wanted to prove that Depeche could continue as the band they were, that was kind of the transistion from the beginning to here. The record in retrospect is kind of underproduced; you have to turn the volume up pretty high to hear the songs in even the sound they are on The Singles 81>85. In this case I may recommend you get the remastered version of the group's third LP (now, if only they'd make a standard version). There's also more Alan Wilder-penned tracks here than on any other Depeche Mode album, even if it's merely two songs.

If you're new to DM, I suggest you trying one of their other albums first, but if you love what you've heard from them, particularly "Some Great Reward," I think that this would be worth checking out. Besides, it's fairly cheap as it is. March 31, 2007

Depeche Mode Go Industrial

This album remains one of my favourites in the dM catalogue.

With this album the band pretty much leave behind the purely pop-oriented songs of their early days, and instead transition fully into a unique industrial sound with a more experimental feel. (Here I mean industrial in its true sense with sampled metallic sounds, etc.) Brilliant use of sampled sounds accented by instruments such as metallaphones keep the songs fresh and interesting. The album's tracks really do have a unique vibrancy and texture to them.

While "Everything Counts" is indeed a classic, my favourites on this album are the darker tracks: Pipeline, Shame, Two Minute Warning, and The Landscape is Changing (the latter two of which are under-rated rare compositions of Alan Wilder).

The lyrics of the album give it a somewhat young and naive feel, intermixed with a sense of injustice. In this way, the raw sentiments behind the lyrics match the interesting and sometimes erratic feeling of the instrumentation.

The album cover and title bring together the blue-collar, industrial theme of the album, a marked improvement over dM's somewhat unfocused previous album "A Broken Frame". January 3, 2007

El disco politico de Depeche Mode

En 1983, Depeche Mode volvio a ser un cuarteto; con la incorporacion de Alan Wilder no solo como tecladista sino como un gran arreglador y vital en el lapso que seguiria hasta 1995. Comienzan a experimentar nuevas cosas, como sampleos (que era algo muy poco usual para la epoca) y tambien una evolucion importante en las letras de Martin Gore, basadas en la teoria marxista; cuyo resultado es el disco "Construction time again" de 1983.

El disco parte con dos temas muy comunes; "Love in itself", una excelente anti-cancion de amor y "More than a party", que es una semejanza (en mi punto de vista) contra la droga. Lo novedoso es que se incorpora nuevos sonidos que nunca se habian escuchado en los dos discos anteriores; para lo que el album se espera mas; y es asi, sorprendiendo con "Pipeline" una cancion para el obrero trabajador; cuyos sonidos son minimalistas, sonidos de cañerias, por ejemplo. Luego, para terminar la primera parte, esta el clasico "Everything counts" una cancion que hasta el dia de hoy se mantiene en el repertorio clasico del grupo.

La segunda parte del disco comienza con una cancion compuesta por Alan Wilder: "Two minute warning" que habla sobre la energia nuclear. Luego "Shame", una cancion critica contra los mandamases de la epoca por los niños desnutridos en Africa; "The landscape is changing", otro tema de Wilder, en el cual habla sobre como los paisajes se convierten en edificios, centrales hidroelectricas, etc. "Told you so", un tema que podria haber sido tercer sencillo de este disco, con una vision ironica del mundo por parte de Martin Gore; y al final "And then...", cuya tematica es el futuro mundial a modo de Depeche Mode.

Tal vez para la gente que no esten de acuerdo con la politica izquierda y marxista o la politica en general, no le gustaran este disco. En mi opinion, creo que es uno de los clasicos perdidos; me parece que es uno de los mejores discos de DM, pero al mismo tiempo, no esta a la altura de "Some great reward", "Black celebration", "Music for the masses", "Violator" y el mismisimo "Playing the angel". Musicalmente mostraban una evolucion que perduro en los siguientes discos, innovando mas sonidos. June 24, 2006

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