Martin Gore
's
Counterfeit²
beat
David Gahan
Paper Monsters
to the punch by just over a month; with some better timing -- and, you know, a synchronous album from
Andrew Fletcher
--
Depeche Mode
could've pulled a
Kiss
. This first full-length from
DM
's principal songwriter follows an EP he released 14 years prior. On that EP,
Gore
covered some of his favorite songs and made them sound unsurprisingly like his group circa that year. As one can tell from the title of this disc, this is the same concept, and even some of the most ardent fans no doubt breathed another sigh of relief with the knowledge that he decided once again to let other people provide the lyrics. The only song
shouldn't have gone anywhere near is
Nick Cave
"Loverman."
While the dramatic lyrics are a suitable enough fit, he doesn't attempt to change the manner in which they were delivered on the original and in turn sounds goofy; he's incapable of taking the seething monstrous form that the song requires. The majority of the remaining songs are smarter selections. In
David Essex
"Stardust,"
's voice is almost as weary as the spare arrangement, which surges crawlingly so with occasional surges of buzzing
noise
.
Brian Eno
"By This River"
is given a faithful update;
recognized its gentle naivete and ran with it for one of the album's best moments. It also suggests, like a handful of songs here, that he's been paying attention to the
indie
-
electronic
pop
coming from labels like
Morr Music
and
City Centre Offices
. The basic template of
the Velvet Underground
"Candy Says"
is similarly fiddled with as little as possible and, with the slight gradients on which the keyboards run, could've just as easily been picked up from the second side of
Eno
Before and After Science
is almost too polite to these songs, but surely that can be forgiven when his love for them is so apparent. ~ Andy Kellman