Songs of Faith and Devotion [LP] [2006 Remastered Track]

Depeche Mode: Martin Gore (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, keyboards, synthesizer); Alan Wilder (keyboards, synthesizer, drum programming); Andrew Fletcher (keyboards, synthesizer).
Additional personnel: Steafan Hannigan (Uilleann pipes); Bazil Meade, Hildia Cambell, Samantha Smith (background vocals).
Engineers: Steve Lyon, Chris Dickie, Paul Kendall.
SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION - LIVE features songs from the studio version in the same sequence.
Depeche Mode: Martin Gore (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, synthesizer); David Gahan (vocals); Alan Wilder (keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Andrew Fletcher (keyboards, synthesizer).
Additional personnel: Hildia Campbell, Samantha Smith (background vocals).
Recorded live in Copenhagen, Denmark; Milan, Italy; Lievin, France; New Orleans, Louisiana.
Depeche Mode's tenth album, SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION, finds the band reinventing itself somewhat. Not that it'd been exactly treading water, but its last several albums had explored and refined a particular aesthetic of dark lyrical themes and minor-key synthesizer atmospherics.
However, in 1993's grunge era, lyrical mopeyness was endemic and keyboards were rapidly becoming out of date. Wisely, Depeche Mode sought to change both elements of its music, not just one. Incorporating guitars--most notably on the oddly blues-derived "I Feel You"--and other instruments into its songs was a canny move, but the stroke of genius is in Martin Gore's lyrics, which largely abandon the bleakness of the band's more recent work in favor of cautious optimism and spiritual questions. In an age of irony, the real surprise was that this album's title was not particularly ironic.