Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

• What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
• Why?
• And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

The band Depeche Mode makes songs with lyrics that I love. Their lyrics are a beautiful combination of romance, violence, poetry, blasphemy, seduction, pure eroticism, and intelligence. And sometimes I just feel purely exhilarated by what is being said. But I guess that has something to do with the way the words, the ideas they express, seduce me. I also like their lyrics because they make sense to me; the lyrics speak perfectly of the world in just the way that I see it. I guess you could say that I “get” it beyond the superficial sounds of words strung together to make a phrase.

For example:

Sex jibe husband murders wife
Bomb blast victim fights for life
Girl thirteen attacked with knife
Princess Di is wearing a new dress
…
You can’t change the world
But you can change the facts
And when you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

- New Dress

This song is taking a stab at the media. You have all of these serious issues of violence and hatred, yet just as important to people is something so superficial as something someone famous is wearing. The media is probably the major influence of people’s thoughts and opinions, and it’s not always for the best. People need to become more informed and less influenced by biased opinions. It’s only through knowing the world can we change it.

Sitting target
Sitting praying
God is saying
Nothing

- Nothing

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. Here a person (man or woman) sits, trying to figure out the world, in faith. Yet, there’s nothing but silence in response.

I look to you
How you carry on
When all hope is gone
Can’t you see
Your optimistic eyes
Seem like paradise
To someone like me

- Black Celebration

At the end of a boring, droll day, a person who has no reason to feel happy finds happiness in someone else. It’s like salvation, like a bright light when everything around is dark. It’s that one thing someone clings to to keep their own sanity.

I don’t want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God’s
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing

- Blasphemous Rumours

Yeah, I have felt like this, too. Sometimes I just look up at the sky and go, “really?” I’m convinced I am at the butt of some grand cosmic joke. You can’t make me believe anything other than that I am the source of amusement and nothing more.

The above are just a sampling of Depeche Mode. On my iPod alone I have over 400 songs and remixes. Not only are their lyrics incredible, but I love their complex electronic sound. Music today just isn’t made to the same quality, I tell you. It’s a very heavy, layered sound, and undeniably electronic/new wave. Even without the lyrics, I would still be seduced by the sound of their songs. A Depeche Mode instrumental is still some top quality stuff. The sounds are always tinted with a bit of darkness, too, which is why this band was so popular with the Goth scene. Their music isn’t superficial or silly in lyric or in composition.