Ultra
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| This article is about the album. To view a list of its songs and B-sides, see Ultra songs. | |||||||||
Ultra
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| Album | Ultra |
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| By | Depeche Mode |
| Catalogue number | Stumm148 CDStumm148 CStumm148 PCDStumm148 BX Stumm148 Bong25 Verbong 2 CDstumm148 Verbong 2 VSTUMM148 CDSTUMM148 |
| Release date | 14 April 1997 |
| Recorded | January 1996–February 1997 |
| Recorded at | Abbey Road Eastcote Westside Strongroom RAK (London) Electric Lady (New York City) Larrabee West (Los Angeles) |
| Produced by | Tim Simenon |
| Engineered by | Q |
| Number of tracks | 11 |
Ultra is the ninth studio album by Depeche Mode and the first to be produced without Alan Wilder as a member since 1982's A Broken Frame. The album was released on 14 April 1997 by Mute Records. Though not directly supported by a full length tour, it was promoted via a brief series of concerts promoted as Ultra Parties.
Track list
- Barrel Of A Gun
- The Love Thieves
- Home
- It's No Good
- Uselink
- Useless
- Sister Of Night
- Jazz Thieves
- Freestate
- The Bottom Line
- Insight
For a full list of songs, singles, and B-sides produced for this album, see the list of Ultra songs.
Singles
- Barrel Of A Gun – 3 February 1997
- It's No Good – 31 March 1997
- Home – 16 June 1997
- Useless – 20 October 1997
Quotes
Dave Gahan: "Ultra was a very important record to finish in retrospect. You know, we didn't tour with that record. That was probably the best decision that we made. Probably the only studio record that we ever didn't tour with, actually."
Martin Gore: "Did we actually make that decision?"
Gahan: "I don't know."
Andrew Fletcher: "Yeah, we did, didn't we?"
Gahan: "Yeah. I seem to remember sitting in a meeting and everybody's going ..."
Gore: "I think when we couldn't answer. I think they took it as a no."
Gahan: "Yeah. And I might've gotten arrested again or something like that."[1]— Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andrew Fletcher – NME, January 1997
I think there was a feeling of us having to prove ourselves, a bit like after when Vince left. It gave us a new challenge and I think in some ways it's spurred on us to do better things.[2]
— Andrew Fletcher – Dotmusic – 4 May 2001
I felt a big part of what we were doing was missing - a leader, musically, and for me Alan was that. The others would say he was too controlling, but he just worked his arse off because he really believed in it and the idea of pushing himself musically, which you can hear on his own records. I find that really inspiring. I miss him.[3]
— Dave Gahan – Time Out – 4 April 2001
I can't hear it in the same way as a record I was involved with, but I certainly don't feel a yearning to be involved again, and I've no regrets about leaving at all. The album is difficult for me to comment on, though I do have something of a stock answer, which is: you can probably work out what I think about it by listening to Unsound Methods and then Ultra, because the two records tell you everything you need to know about what the musical relationship was between myself and Martin. It's almost as if we've gone to the two extremes of what we were when we were together. What the band had before was a combination of those extremes.[4]
— Alan Wilder – Sound On Sound – January 1998
Trivia
- The total number of live song plays from Ultra is 1577. This figure is found by summing the number of individual performances for each album track.
- Ultra is the first Depeche Mode studio album to not be directly supported by a major tour.
Statistics
Album BPM range by song
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83
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97
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75.5
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99
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94
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94
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90
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74
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95
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67
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85
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Average: 86.68
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Album live plays by song
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247
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0
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572
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442
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1
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122
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100
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0
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0
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22
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71
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Average: 143.36
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References
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