Depeche Mode

This stalled at No. 7 in the U.S. charts, but kept selling steadily to become DM's biggest hit. The reason is that it features Martin Gore's strongest set of tunes with his "we're going to die at any time so let's have sex now" worldview getting aired in the charting singles "World In My Eyes," "Personal Jesus," "Enjoy The Silence," and "Policy of Truth."

As Edison might have put it, most great disco is one-percent inspiration,
ninety-nine-percent perspiration. Its unguarded vulgarity is what puts it over – "I'm not the
same/I have no shame," Madonna sang on her first record. What's held back the artsy British
synth technicians who've been aping disco moves over the last decade isn't their
narcissism or irony as much as their tasteful fear of sweat. Put on almost any Ne... More >

Fearing the loss of their silly grip on America's angst-ridden teens, who they're old enough to know are a fickle lot, they forge on toward the rap market by rhyming "drug" and "thug." And for the U.K.'s ecstasy-riding teens, who God knows are even more fickle, there's the techno-perfect synth/guitar sigh/moan that punctuates the easily rescinded "Policy of Truth." (Grade - C-)