David Gahan - Hourglass (CD/DVD)
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CD Details
Artist: David GahanEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Music Label: Mute/Virgin
Soundtracks:
- Saw Something
- Kingdom
- Deeper And Deeper
- 21 Days
- Miracles
- Use You
- Insoluble
- Endless
- A Little Lie
- Down
Music reviews of Hourglass (CD/DVD)
Music Review: Watching the Hourglass...
Rating: 3 Stars
After the hit-and-miss of Dave Gahan's first solo album (Paper Monsters), 2005's Playing the Angel gave Dave Gahan a bigger role creatively within Depeche Mode. Twenty-plus years of leaning on Martin Gore for songwriting has given Dave a solid understanding of what does and does not make a song work, and that learning process is well under way on the heavily electronic Hourglass.
CD:
"Saw Something," the opener, is a remarkably powerful ballad, perhaps about a missed romantic connection. Dave's voice truly fills the vast spaces opened up by the languid beat. "Kingdom," the first single, immediately commands attention with its sweaty club thump and lyrical content as profound as anything Gore has written for Depeche Mode. Here Gahan asks an old but important question: "Is there a kingdom behind it all? Is there a God who loves us all? Do we believe in love at all?" If you've ever loved Depeche Mode, you'll find yourself singing along, no matter how bad you are at it. An excellent song that works on multiple levels.
Other knockout tracks on Hourglass include "Insoluble," which at first I thought must have been a wrongfully discarded demo for Playing the Angel. It's certainly dark and brooding enough, with its frigid electronic soundscape and chilling refrain: "You have nothing to fear." A slithery, menacing masterpiece. And after listening to this album now and then for over a year, I have to admit that my favorite track is "Endless," an electronic ode to the earth as companion and lover. Best heard in a fast car, late at night, with the volume up as loud as you can stand it. Very addictive.
Many deeply committed DM fans were upset by the idea of Dave writing songs, and pointed to some of the less-than-perfect offerings on Paper Monsters as supporting evidence. And while there is a lot to like on Hourglass, there is also fodder for the Dave-haters too. "Deeper and Deeper" is a forgettable romp with a generic chorus. The obliquely political "21 Days" and "A Little Lie" do nothing to improve the album, and the oft-mentioned "Miracles" is a little embarrassing at times.
But if you're willing to skip tracks a little (I sequence it 1-2-7-8, but your results may vary) you'll find that Hourglass is a solid solo effort. It also shows that, between what Dave is capable of on his own and what he has done for Playing the Angel, he has earned his place alongside Martin Gore as songwriter for the upcoming album Sounds of the Universe. After all, Gore himself has remarked that it can be hard for one person to write enough songs for an entire album. If Hourglass seems to support that conclusion, perhaps so do somewhat underwhelming DM albums such as Ultra and Exciter.
DVD:
This extra disc includes a nice little documentary about the making of Hourglass, with interviews from Dave, musicians Christian Eigner and Andrew Philpott, and a music journalist who has followed Dave's history with Depeche Mode. The slick video for "Kingdom" is also included here, worth seeing if you haven't already. The image of an empty police car with its flashers on seems like an apt metaphor for the song's underlying questions about the presence or absence of authority. The studio sessions round the DVD out, where Dave and the musicians play some pretty bare, demo-style versions of four songs on Hourglass. The electronic versions are better, but you can certainly hear the promise in the demos. Lastly, there are some pointless and goofy studio outtakes--somewhat amusing, but at the end, you ask yourself, "why bother?"
OVERALL:
It's worth buying the CD+DVD if you really enjoyed Paper Monsters and would like to fully explore Dave's attempts at classically DM-style electronic music. But if you're not interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff, and instead just want a sampling of Dave's solo work, you might be better off with just the CD or downloading a few tracks individually.
Description of Hourglass (CD/DVD)
Deluxe version of Hourglass:Upgraded packaging and bonus DVD which contains a live studio session with 4 tracks, an EPK, plus the "Kingdom" video and b-roll footage.
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