Dave Gahan – Hourglass
Mute Records (10/23/07)
Synth-pop / Rock
It’s been more than four years since Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan released his solo debut, Paper Monsters, and in that time, the synth-pop band released Playing the Angel, their eleventh studio album and a much more highly touted release than their previous, 2001’s Exciter. While Playing the Angel returned to a harder, more lush sound, it also featured something that had never been present on any of the band’s previous albums—Gahan as a co-writer. While he’s been the lead singer of the band for its entire 27-year run, he’d left the song-writing to Martin Gore (and earlier on, Vince Clarke). While Depeche Mode has been one of the most influential bands of their genre, this writer dares to point out that Gore’s songwriting has been on cruise control for the last few albums, and adding Gahan as a permanent contributor in that department might be a good way to freshen things up a bit. By the sound of Hourglass, he’s definitely got what it takes.
Most of the lyrics on the album manage to be thought-provoking but simple, like the ethereal “Miracles”, in which Gahan sings about his doubts when it comes to Christianity, a theme that’s also visited in the album’s lushly electro first single, “Kingdom”. Not only are all the tracks written by Gahan, but for the most part they’re also produced by him, along with Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott. The former has worked with Enigma’s Peter Cornelius as well as Depeche Mode on Playing the Angel, and has been their touring drummer for the past ten years, while the latter also helped to produce Playing the Angel, as well as Martin Gore’s 2003 solo album, Counterfeit, and has remixed songs for Monolake and Señor Coconut.
Since it has a lot of the same personnel from Playing the Angel, Hourglass has the same rough, organic feel, as evidenced in the brooding “Deeper & Deeper”, “21 Days” and “Insoluable”, while tracks like the superb opener “Saw Something” (easily the best track on the album), “A Little Lie” and “Use You” recall newer Nine Inch Nails material—unpolished beats with a nice downtempo groove.
Clocking in at just under 49 minutes, these ten tracks show that Dave Gahan as a solo artist has grown a bit since Paper Monsters, and his sultry voice mixed with dark beats and well-placed tintinnabulations (not the mention superb songwriting… wait, actually I did mention it, repeatedly, at the beginning of this very review… oops) make Hourglass a highly enjoyable composition by one of synth-pop music’s most important players.
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