Black Celebration (album)

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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.

For information on this album's singles, see the Singles section.
Album-SGR.jpg #4: Some Great Reward
Albums
#6: Music For The Masses Album-MFTM.jpg
This article is about the album. To view a list of its songs and B-sides, see Black Celebration songs.
Black Celebration
Album-Black.jpg
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[1]

"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."[2]

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[3]

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."[4]

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."[5]

— Dave Gahan - No. 1, February 1986.

Statistics

Album BPM range by song
154
93
94
125
109
140
90
126
90
93
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
493
221
451
0
107
766
857
23
65
31
75

Average:
280.82
  • 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 3024. This figure is found by summing the number of individual performances for each album track.

References

  1. Source: Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22 February 1986.
  2. Source: recoil.co.uk
  3. Source: Basildon Bond, Blitz, April 1986.
  4. Source: Back to the Wall, No. 1, 22 February 1986.
  5. Source: Record Mirror, 8 February 1986.


1981-1982: Speak & SpellA Broken Frame
1983-1986: Construction Time AgainSome Great RewardBlack Celebration
1987-1993: Music For The MassesViolatorSongs Of Faith And Devotion
1997-2001: UltraExciter
2005-2013: Playing The AngelSounds Of The UniverseDelta Machine
2017-2023: SpiritMemento Mori
1986-1988: 1 + 2Hydrology
1992-2000: BloodlineUnsound MethodsLiquid
2007: SubHuman
2003-2007: Paper MonstersHourglass
2012-2015: The Light The Dead SeeAngels & Ghosts
2021: Imposter
1989-2003: Counterfeit e.p.Counterfeit²
2012-2015: SsssMG
2021: The Third Chimpanzee
Official releases