Depeche Mode – 101 (Deluxe Edition) (1989/2021) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

This is the definitive boxed set edition of Depeche Mode’s newly updated 101 documentary concert film and live album, representing the “101” th and final appearance of the band’s “Music For The Masses” world tour, recorded live at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 19, 1988. 101, a groundbreaking collaborative documentary co-directed by acclaimed married couple D.A. Pennebaker (Dont Look Back) and Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and with active creative input from the band, who had organized an exclusive competition for fans, which promised an appearance in a Depeche Mode film as a prize. 101’s narrative portrayal of competition winners traveling across America to attend Depeche Mode’s groundbreaking Rose Bowl concert is a cinematic precursor to the youth culture trend on the “reality TV” program. Depeche Modes 101 captures the electrifying synergy between the band and their fans. This edition has been upgraded with new scans of the original film reels and includes the film, concert and official promotional video for “Everything Counts”.

As an event, Depeche Mode’s huge (attendance around 60,000) Los Angeles Rose Bowl concert in 1988 remains legendary; no single artist show had totally sold out the venue since eight years beforehand, while the film documentary done by Dylan-filmer D.A. Pennebaker based around the show clearly demonstrated fans’ intense commitment to a near-decade-old band most mainstream critics continued to stupidly portray as a flash-in-the-pan synth pop effort. This start-to-final-encore record of the concert showcases a band perfectly able to carry its music from studio to stage as well as any other combo worth its salt should be able to do. Understandably focused on Music for the Masses material, the album shows Depeche experimenting with alternate arrangements at various points for live performance; big numbers like “Never Let Me Down Again,” “Stripped,” and “Blasphemous Rumors” pack even more of a wallop here. Slower numbers and more than a couple of ballads help to vary the hit-packed set, including a fine “Somebody” and “The Things You Said” combination sung by Martin Gore. “Pleasure Little Treasure,” on record an okay B-side, becomes a monster rocker live, the type of unexpected surprise one could expect from a solid band no matter what the music. With a triumphant set of closing numbers, including magnificent takes on “Never Let Me Down Again,” “Master and Servant,” and the set-ending “Everything Counts,” with what sounds like the entire audience singing the chorus well after the song has finally ended, 101 does far better at its task than most might have guessed. – Ned Raggett

Tracklist:
01. Depeche Mode – Pimpf
02. Depeche Mode – Behind the Wheel
03. Depeche Mode – Strangelove
04. Depeche Mode – Sacred
05. Depeche Mode – Something to Do
06. Depeche Mode – Blasphemous Rumours
07. Depeche Mode – Stripped
08. Depeche Mode – Somebody
09. Depeche Mode – Things You Said
10. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
11. Depeche Mode – Shake the Disease
12. Depeche Mode – Nothing
13. Depeche Mode – Pleasure Little Treasure
14. Depeche Mode – People Are People
15. Depeche Mode – A Question of Time
16. Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Down Again
17. Depeche Mode – A Question of Lust
18. Depeche Mode – Master and Servant
19. Depeche Mode – Just Cant Get Enough
20. Depeche Mode – Everything Counts