Because ‘Spirit’ is not an easy album! Lyrically it is often straightforward and in-your-face, musically it isn’t. However, it’s easy to see why some fans find it hard to get into the latest offering by Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher. And as with every new DEPECHE MODE album there are the usual suspects who cry out “bring Alan Wilder back”, somewhat the Lord’s Prayer for some long-time fans and the putative cure-all for everything they apparently miss in modern-day DEPECHE MODE. The fans’ reactions range from “Is this still DEPECHE MODE?” to “best album since ‘Ultra’ / ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ / the invention of the wheel”. One thing is clear: ‘Spirit’ is already polarizing! For the other half, and for anyone who’s interested, here’s our take on the real deal. It’s a shame, and it seems half of the excellently cross-linked global fan base has already heard ‘Spirit’. Why being so overly strict in the beginning when you offer streams and hand out physical copies shortly before the release, anyway? It’s up to the label’s lawyers to find out who did what but it is clear that Sony failed with its strategy. Only two days after this low quality mono bootleg another person got hold of a physical copy of the album and uploaded the songs as high quality FLAC files. In the end Sony failed as somebody was apparently able to record a live stream of the album and the recording was allegedly distributed via a Polish fan forum.
Sony tried their best to keep ‘Spirit’ under tight wraps, at first there were no promotional copies and journalists were invited to listening sessions with strict rules (no smartphones, no recording devices) and were supposed to base their reviews on just one listen. And already one of the most controversial since the new DEPECHE MODE album leaked about two weeks prior its release.
Artist: Depeche Mode Title: Spirit Genre: Electronic / Pop Release Date: 17th March 2017 Label: Columbia / Sony Music Album Review ‘Spirit’ is arguably one of the most anticipated releases of the year.
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