A Date with Depeche Mode LP

Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux built Nouvelle Vague on a simple trick, taking hard post-punk and new wave songs and handing them to rotating female vocalists over bossa nova and lounge arrangements, and here they finally point the whole machine at one band instead of a scattershot playlist. Stripped of its synth-pop armor, 'Enjoy the Silence' turns into something closer to a confession than an anthem, and 'Personal Jesus' and 'Just Can't Get Enough' follow the same path toward warmth. Depeche Mode's songs were built for distance; this record closes it.