Black Celebration (album)

This article is about the 1986 Depeche Mode album Black Celebration. For the Depeche Mode song "Black Celebration" written by Martin L. Gore for the album of the same name, see Black Celebration.

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For information on this album's singles, see the Singles section.
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This article is about the album. To view a list of its songs and B-sides, see Black Celebration songs.

Black Celebration
Album	Black Celebration (album)
By	Depeche Mode
Catalogue number	Stumm26 CDStumm26 CDStumm26 CDStumm26 CStumm26 Stumm26 Stumm 26
Release date	17 March 1986
Recorded at	Worldwide International Studios, London, UK Westside Studios, London, UK Hansa Mischraum, Berlin, Germany
Produced by	Depeche Mode Gareth Jones Daniel Miller
Number of tracks	11

Black Celebration is the fifth studio album by Depeche Mode. It was released on 17 March 1986 by Mute Records and was supported by the Black Celebration tour.

Track list

1. Black Celebration
2. Fly On The Windscreen
3. A Question Of Lust
4. Sometimes
5. It Doesn't Matter Two
6. A Question Of Time
7. Stripped
8. Here Is The House
9. World Full Of Nothing
10. Dressed In Black
11. New Dress

For a full list of songs, singles, and B-sides produced for this album, see the list of Black Celebration songs.

Singles

1. Stripped - February 10, 1986
2. But Not Tonight - February 10, 1986
3. A Question Of Lust - April 14, 1986
4. A Question Of Time - August 11, 1986

Quotes

"Black Celebration sounds a bit morbid but it's a common thing. At the end of a working day you go out and drown your sorrows no matter how [shit] you feel or how bleak your future looks."

— Dave Gahan - Blitz, April 1986

"We used some melodies from the original demo, some came about in the studio. Actually, [Daniel Miller] and I often felt there were too many counter-melodies and not enough space in the music."

— Alan Wilder - SHUNT ARCHIVES Q&A : DEPECHE MODE : BLACK CELEBRATION

"The NME made the point that we were not adventurous enough. They said that we could pull more out of the bag, that we were actually quite lazy. That is true to a point, but it comes from the problem that as a democracy we always tend to end up with a compromise between the adventurous and conservative sides of the band."

— Alan Wilder - Blitz, April 1986

Gahan discusses the reasoning behind the band's decision to record a third album at Hansa studios in a 1986 interview:

"I can't work in England anymore. It's funny. The studio is right next to the Berlin Wall but none of us has ever been to the East. Martin tried once but they refused him entry. Didn't like the way he was dressed. Thought he was a hooligan. People imagine we work here because it's wow, you know, really heavy, but I don't feel that. The place is quite suburban. Berlin's like Brixton. [...] Oh, yeah. [The cellar] is a bit weird, innit? I was down here doing the vocals for 'Shake The Disease' in the dark, last time we were here, and I was terrified. I had all noises in me headphones like whispers, and apparently sometimes you can see the shadow of a projectionist. It's a bit haunted, this studio."

Gahan continues:

"[We] mainly [decided to record a third album at Hansa] because we're too lazy to find another studio! And we know when we come here that it's going to be good. It's probably one of the best studios in the world. Working in London, it's difficult to get into it because we just have so many people coming to see us. We don't go through a manager or anything. The four of us. We are the managers."

— Dave Gahan - No. 1, February 1986.

Statistics

Album BPM range by song
Black Celebration 154
Fly On The Windscreen 93
A Question Of Lust 94
Sometimes 125
It Doesn't Matter Two 109
A Question Of Time 140
Stripped 90
Here Is The House 126
World Full Of Nothing 90
Dressed In Black 93
New Dress 114
Average: 111.64
BPM values are plotted from 1 to 184 BPM. In cases where a song features a change in tempo, the tempo at which the majority of the song plays takes precedence. Unless noted otherwise, BPMs are estimated values determined by Spotify's Audio Analysis algorithm and as such are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.

Album live plays by song
Black Celebration 502
Fly On The Windscreen 221
A Question Of Lust 451
Sometimes 0
It Doesn't Matter Two 107
A Question Of Time 766
Stripped 866
Here Is The House 23
World Full Of Nothing 65
Dressed In Black 31
New Dress 75
Average: 282.45
Song live play values are plotted from zero to 1,100. All values are determined by summing the number of times each song has been performed live by Depeche Mode per tour. These totals do not reflect live plays performed by individual members of Depeche Mode as part of solo projects, solo tours, or known one-off performances.

Trivia

• The total number of live song plays from Black Celebration is 3042. This figure is found by summing the number of individual performances for each album track.

References

Depeche Mode studio albums 1981-1982: Speak & Spell • A Broken Frame 1983-1986: Construction Time Again • Some Great Reward • Black Celebration 1987-1993: Music For The Masses • Violator • Songs Of Faith And Devotion 1997-2001: Ultra • Exciter 2005-2013: Playing The Angel • Sounds Of The Universe • Delta Machine 2017-2023: Spirit • Memento Mori Recoil studio albums 1986-1988: 1 + 2 • Hydrology 1992-2000: Bloodline • Unsound Methods • Liquid 2007: SubHuman Dave Gahan studio albums 2003-2007: Paper Monsters • Hourglass 2012-2015: The Light The Dead See • Angels & Ghosts 2021: Imposter Martin Gore solo albums and extended plays 1989-2003: Counterfeit e.p. • Counterfeit² 2012-2015: Ssss • MG 2021: The Third Chimpanzee Official releases Studio albums • Live albums • Compilation albums • Video albums • Singles