Depeche Mode Some Great Reward CD

Live Recording

Depeche Mode: Martin Gore (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer); David Gahan (vocals); Andrew Fletcher, Alan Wilder (keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals).
Producers: Depeche Mode, George Jones, Daniel Miller.
Recorded at Music Works, London, England and Hansa Mischraum, Berlin, Germany.
Depeche Mode: Dave Gahan, Alan Wilder, Martin L. Gore, Andy Fletcher.
The peak of the band's industrial-gone-mainstream fusion, and still one of the best electronic music albums yet recorded, Some Great Reward still sounds great, with the band's ever-evolving musical and production skills matching even more ambitious songwriting from Martin Gore. "People Are People" appears here, but finds itself outclassed by some of Depeche Mode's undisputed classics, most especially the moody, beautiful "Somebody," a Gore-sung piano ballad that mixes its wit and emotion skillfully; "Master and Servant," an amped-up, slamming dance track that conflates sexual and economic politics to sharp effect; and the closing "Blasphemous Rumors," a slow-building anthemic number supporting one of Gore's most cynical lyrics, addressing a suicidal teen who finds God only to die soon afterward. Even lesser-known tracks like the low-key pulse of "Lie to Me" and the weirdly dreamy "It Doesn't Matter" showcase an increasingly confident band. Alan Wilder's arrangements veer from the big to the stripped down, but always with just the right touch, such as the crowd samples bubbling beneath "Somebody" or the call/response a cappella start to "Master and Servant." With Reward, David Gahan's singing style found the métier it was going to stick with for the next ten years, and while it's never gone down well with some ears, it still has a compelling edge to it that suits the material well. ~ Ned Raggett
Depeche Mode's U.S. breakthrough album, 1984's SOME GREAT REWARD, expanded the U.K. synth band's American following from a small cult of Anglophiles to the same sort of teenage adulation that the Cure had started attracting around the same time. Featuring the Top 20 U.S. hit "People Are People," along with cult faves such as the intensely mopey "Blasphemous Rumours," the fashionably S&M-tinged "Master and Servant," and the disarmingly earnest love ballad "Somebody," this is the album on which Depeche Mode finally shed the stigma of founding songwriter Vince Clarke's departure.
SOME GREAT REWARD finds Martin Gore coming into his own as a songwriter, with Alan Wilder taking Gore's place in the George Harrison role, adding two fine tunes of his own. The addition of mechanical factory noise to several songs, as well as the more introspective tones and more intricate constructions, aligned the band more with darker industrial bands than with sunny technopop groups. Meanwhile, Gahan's vocals started hinting at a deeper, moodier tint, foreshadowing the gloomier, more complex, more angular path that was to follow.

Q (7/95, p.139) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...confirmed Martin Gore as a talent of real depth, creating music that could be both experimental and icily catchy, while combining this with ominous lyrics that hinted at much more than Robert Smith's callow pronouncements..."
CMJ (1/5/04, p.16) - Ranked #3 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1985"