Black Celebration

***Black Celebration*** is the fifth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released on March 17, 1986 by Mute Records. The album further cemented the darkening sound created by Alan Wilder, which the band later used for their subsequent albums *Music for the Masses*, *Violator*, and *Songs of Faith and Devotion*, a sound that was initially hinted towards on their albums *Construction Time Again* and *Some Great Reward*.

*Black Celebration* reached number four on the U.K. Albums Chart, and has been cited as one of the most influential albums of the 1980s. To promote the album, the band embarked on the Black Celebration Tour. Three years after its release, *Spin* ranked it at number fifteen on its list of the "25 Greatest Albums of All Time".

## Singles

1. *Stripped*, released on February 10, 1986
2. *But Not Tonight*, released on February 10, 1986
3. *A Question Of Lust*, released on April 14, 1986
4. *A Question Of Time*, released on August 11, 1986

## Track listing

### Standard Edition

**CD bonus tracks**

Alan Wilder
Daniel Miller

**U.S. LP, CD and cassette bonus track**

### 2007 Collectors Edition CD + DVD

**A short film**

* "Depeche Mode: 1985–86: (The Songs Aren't Good Enough, There Aren't Any Singles and It'll Never Get Played on the Radio)" (written and produced by Roland Brown; directed by Ross Hallard and Phil Michael Lane)

***Black Celebration*** **(DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo)**

**Live in Birmingham, April 1986 (DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo)**

**Additional tracks (PCM Stereo)**

## Critical reception

Contemporary reviews for *Black Celebration* in the British press were mixed. *Melody Maker*'s Steve Sutherland lambasted the album and wrote that Depeche Mode came off as "pussycats desperate to appear perverted as an escape from the superficiality of teen stardom", and *Sounds* published a similar scathing review. While criticizing chief songwriter Martin Gore's "adolescent fragments of despair", Sean O'Hagan of *NME* nonetheless praised *Black Celebration*'s "perfectly constructed jigsaw melodies" and concluded, "When the songs address topics other than the composer's state of mind – as on the evocative exploration of loneliness that is 'World Full of Nothing' – Depeche Mode sound like a lot more than just a high tech, low-life melodrama". Betty Page of *Record Mirror* felt that the band should be admired for their "refusal to follow anything but their own fashion" and "unswerving ability to come up with great, fresh melodies".

*Black Celebration* has since been reappraised in retrospective reviews. In 2007, Rob Sheffield of *Rolling Stone* referred to the album as an "instant classic for the band's fans" that at the time of its release had seemingly been "utterly ignored by everybody else".

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails cited *Black Celebration*, and its subsequent tour, as an influence and said it helped inspire him to write *Pretty Hate Machine*.

## Re-release

In 2007, *Black Celebration* was re-released with a bonus DVD. It was released on March 20, 2007 in the United States, on March 26 in the United Kingdom and on April 2 in the rest of Europe, as a part of the third wave of re-issues (along with *Construction Time Again*). The first CD was remastered and (except in the U.S.) released on a CD/SACD hybrid. The bonus DVD includes the B-sides in addition to the singles and B-sides for "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart", two songs that were recorded shortly before the album and were released too early to be put on the album. There are also several live versions of some of the songs from *Black Celebration*. The album is released the way it was originally intended and ends with "New Dress" (not "Black Day" or "But Not Tonight").

Like the other reissues, the DVD includes a documentary on the album. The title—*The Songs Aren't Good Enough, There Aren't Any Singles and It'll Never Get Played on the Radio*—is Gore paraphrasing Daniel Miller about his demos for *Black Celebration* in the film. The double-documentary discusses both *The Singles 81→85* and *Black Celebration*, its more challenging commercial success (especially the song "Stripped") and all five related singles. It also includes a plethora of behind-the-scenes footage of the making of *Black Celebration* and the ensuing tour. Highlights include the band meeting The Cure, and behind the scenes footage of several of the music videos. The documentary is nearly an hour long.

The remastered album was released on vinyl on April 2, 2007 in Europe and on September 11, 2007 in the United States.

## Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ***Black Celebration***.

**Depeche Mode**

* Alan Wilder
* Andrew Fletcher
* David Gahan
* Martin Gore

**Technical**

* Depeche Mode – production
* Gareth Jones – production
* Daniel Miller – production
* Richard Sullivan – engineering assistance
* Peter Schmidt – engineering assistance
* Tim Young – mastering
* Dave Allen – recording on "Fly on the Windscreen – Final"
* Phil Tennant – recording assistance on "Fly on the Windscreen – Final"

**Artwork**

* Martyn Atkins – design
* David A. Jones – design
* Mark Higenbottam – design
* Brian Griffin – photography
* Stuart Graham – photography assistance

## Charts

### Weekly charts

 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
 Canada Top Albums/CDs (*RPM*)
 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
 European Albums (*Music & Media*)
 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)
 French Albums (SNEP)
 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
 UK Albums (OCC)
 US *Billboard* 200

### Year-end charts

 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)

## Bibliography

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black\_Celebration
* https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/Black\_Celebration\_(album)
* https://genius.com/albums/Depeche-mode/Black-celebration