Depeche Mode: Violator [MUTE]

Why you'll love it

Violator is Depeche Mode's best-selling album, with more than seven million copies sold, and their first to crack the Billboard 200 top ten. "Enjoy the Silence" won a Brit Award for Best British Single.

This edition

• Single LP, 9 tracks
• Mute pressing of the 1990 album
• Produced by the band with Flood, mixed by François Kevorkian

About the album

By 1990, Depeche Mode had grown from teenage synth-poppers in Basildon into one of the biggest cult bands on Earth, and Violator is where cult became colossal. Working with producer Flood in Milan, Denmark and London, they stripped their sound back to its darkest, sexiest essentials: pulsing synths, a few dirty blues guitar licks from Martin Gore, and Dave Gahan's baritone at the front of it all.

The singles are untouchable. "Personal Jesus" is a stomping gospel-blues for the electronic age, "Enjoy the Silence" is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, and "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" are sleek, seductive and slightly sinister. Nine songs, no wasted moments, and a sound that still turns up in every goth club and synth-pop playlist going.

Also at Kops: more Depeche Mode on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Mute, a reissue of the 1990 album.