Depeche Mode remasters out in February!

From Empty World 3:

"Suffer Well should be released in February 2006. Also in February, EMI will be re-releasing older albums as special collector's editions. What these "collector's edition" will include is yet to be announced, but the discs will be remastered."

 

uh oh... this could be really bad.

 

Or good. Let's see what we actually get before we start complaining, shall we?

 

this is great news! i'll be buying....but i wanna get the Brick first (Talking Heads) and hopefully Depeche Mode will get the same treatment as i have heard great reviews on the Brick. "being if they get the surround sound treatment that is"
and if not, i hope they get the same standard as the Eurythmics did recently.

 

What is "Suffer Well" ?

 

Were should I start with them?

 

Third track on the new album and a surprisingly good one that was written by Gahan instead of Gore. Should be a good single. Very cool that Anton Corbijn is doing the video since he hasn't done the last few. I guess he's directing a new film about Joy Division which will feature new soundtrack music by New Order... that should be cool!

I really hope they do high resolution versions of the back catalog. I think there's a good chance that could happen since they rereleased "101" and issued the new album on SACD.

 

I should have known that...I own the record, but I clearly haven't learned the song titles!

One thing about the Gahan songs: they're not really written by him, he only co-writes with a couple of other non-band members. I think that if Gahan really wants to contribute songs to DM records he should write them on his own...but since they -are- good songs I guess I shouldn't be that annoyed by it.

 

So, uh, was "God Only Knows" not really written by Brian Wilson, since he co-wrote it with a non-band member?

 

Brian Wilson wrote the music, produced, did the arrangements, and everything else but the lyrics. There's no question he was the main force behind that track. There are 3 writers credited on the Gahan tracks, who knows who contributed what. And if you're trying to equate Gahan's role in Depeche Mode with Brian Wilson's in the Beach Boys, you've really lost me.

 

The non-band members you are talking about are Christian Eigner, who has played with Depeche as a full-time drummer since 1996 (the recording of "Ultra"), and Andrew Philpott, who has been in the Depeche-camp for ages, both live and in the studio - also in engineering and programming.

Dave has already made a solo album out of his own compositions, and collaborating with Christian and Andrew is a positive way of including them in the current line-up imho.

You could probably say that Martin Gore is the Brian Wilson of Depeche (without further comparison), but I'd still prefer the album as it is, rather than some mediocre instrumentals that would surely be on there, if it wasn't for the fact that Dave presented about 20 songs (!) for the band, and Martin agreed on three of them.

 

I actually do agree, and again I like the songs. They are much better than some of the filler tracks Martin put on the previous two (why do they feel every record has to be so long?). And I knew the two song-helpers were already in the Depeche campground. I don't really know what it is about it that bugs me, maybe it's just that I'm just so used to seeing Gore's credits on every song over all these years (give or take an Alan Wilder track).

anyway, back to the subject: is there any word on who will be handling the remastering? Will these be released at the same time in the US and UK? And when exactly did EMI get the rights to the DM catalog??

 

Please God, let them be SACD's? Please?

 

Rumours has it that Alan Wilder will be involved, but these are mere speculations - probably based on an interview Alan gave, where he said he'd like to do it. He always complained "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" was mastered badly.

EMI bought Mute in 2002 for £42m.

 

Playing their comp 'The Singles 86>98' a few months ago for the first time in years, I was suprised how much I liked it's sound. I'm too often guilty of expecting the worst. How true to the tape it is I don't know but the vivid garish neon lit colours off the CD seemed appropriate to the music for me. I think I remember good dynamics and I'm going to play it later today at a proper volume.

 

If they are SACD's, I'll be very happy. I'm quite excited about the remasters. I can't think of any Depeche Mode disc that has disappointed me!

 

I've mentioned in previous threads that I thought the Gahan solo album was very mediocre and was really worried when I heard he was demanding that some of his songs be included on the new album. Since I already had a bad impression of his songwriting, I deliberately avoided reading who wrote which songs on the album so I could judge them in an unbiased way. I was surprised when I learned that one of my favorite tracks, "Suffer Well", was written by him (well, co-written as bonjo has pointed out).

 

OK, here's the tentative release schedule:

February 20th:
Suffer Well (CDS, CDM, DVD Single)

March 2nd:
Speak & Spell (SACD)
Music For The Masses (SACD)
Violator (SACD)

April 13th:
A Broken Frame (SACD)
Construction Time Again (SACD)
Some Great Reward (SACD)

April/May:
John The Revelator (CDS, CDM, DVD single) TBC

June 15th
Black Celebration (SACD)
Songs Of Faith & Devotion (SACD)
Songs Of Faith & Devotion Live (SACD)

August 10th:
Ultra (SACD)
Exciter (SACD)

September 29th:
Playing The Angel Live (DVD - title not finalized)

November 2nd:
Best Of Depeche Mode (CD, DVD - title not finalized)

Sources: Noble PR, Indietective

Also: According to Empty World it is the UK based mastering engineer Simon Heyworth that is currently working on a complete remastering of Depeche Mode's entire album backcatalogue. Each disc will feature 5.1 remastered sound and as yet undisclosed bonus content.

 

Simon Heyworth has done good work (Harrison Dark Horse box) and bad work (Kinks remasters). I guess only time will tell.

 

March 2nd:
Speak & Spell (SACD)
Music For The Masses (SACD)
Violator (SACD)

There are 3 must buys if I ever seen one.
Will these be available in the USA or only in Europe?

 

SACD's! YES!

 

Since they are SACD's, they will most likely be available only in Europe. In the US, DM is on WEA. That means, if there are any High-Res DM reissues in the US, they would most likely be DualDiscs (yuck).

 

As I was reading the thread before getting to post #18 I was thinking to myself, 'Couldn't this be the release of the new 5.1 mixes of old DM material that someone posted here on another thread? It seems like this is the case.

If so, I think that Depeche Mode are in tune with their fans' ears.

 

Playing the Angel was released in the US as a DVD-A not the dreaded DualDisc.

 

When was it released on DVD A? I have never seen a listing for it