We’ve definitely been in a Depeche mode lately: First Hillary Duff appropriated ‘em, then Division Day covered ‘em, and now DM frontman Dave Gahan’s back with his second solo album Hourglass. First single “Kingdom” has a skittering, ominous ‘n’ pulsing electro feel with a mysterious, completely apropos flash-lit parking garage video that reminds us both of 120 Days’ “C-Musik” and the Knife’s live show — well, until it leaves the garage, goes past a Talking Heads-style house flicker, and enters the woods.
What happens if you take away Gahan’s smoothie baritone? Hey, there’s this disembodied instrumental remix…
Dig its overall construction: The air-gasping reps at the beginning, the anonymous feeling of the snowing-on-the-dancefloor middle part, the odd pause, and the windy, techno-bumped finale. We just grabbed some glow sticks out of the freezer.
We get the “hourglass” reference, Dave, but considering “Kingdom”‘s bluster, shouldn’t you be playing in snow?
Hourglass is out 10/23 on Virgin/Mute.
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this is 10x better than anything off of his first solo album, and possibly the best gahan effort w/or w/o depeche mode in years…i likey!
Umm, what happened to his voice?
That might just be the best thing that I’ve heard this year.
It’s probably the best thing that I’ve heard from Dave Gahan since the “Violator” days (exciter was okay, but this fucking owns).
Um, yeah, it’s pretty good. I would listen to this again, even! And, yes, at times, his voice does not sound quite Gahanian enough.