DEPECHE MODE 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Featuring as it does six discs of live recordings, Music Portrait is veritable feast for Depeche Mode fans. All of the material was originally recorded for radio broadcasts. Discs one and two feature what appears to be an almost complete 1998 concert featuring such perennial favourites as 'Policy of Truth', 'Personal Jesus', 'It's No Good' and 'Just Can't Get Enough' (a triumphant, sing-along conclusion all told), while CD three offers up 11 songs from a set recorded in 2005. The other three discs feature recordings of solo outings from Dave Gahan, with big Depeche Mode hits being joined by personal favourites and deep cuts from the Basildon Band's 40-plus year career.

Review: When vital bandmember Andrew Fletcher suddenly passed away at the start of the sessions for 'Memento Mori', even Dave Gahan and Martin Gore wondered aloud whether Depeche Mode would continue. Yet somehow, Gore and Gahan put their much-discussed differences aside, knuckled down and produced something fittingly special: an album that may well be the iconic outfit's most consistent and impressive body of work for decades. Naturally, darkness abounds, with opener 'My Cosmos Is Mine' - all evocative vocals, distorted electronic beats, dark sonic textures and mutilated choral vocal samples - setting the tone for a set that once again brilliantly blends dark synth-pop, gnarled guitars and the kind of lyrical melancholia that stays with you for days. Highlights are plentiful, with our picks including 'Ghosts Again', 'Soul With Me' and closing cut 'Speak To Me'.

Review: This deluxe edition of Depeche Mode's latest album Memento Mori features a wealth of additional material, adding all manner of tangents in relation to the former trio's (now duo's) ultimate reflection on death. Centring on the mood of grief after the passing of the band's founding member Andrew 'Fletch' Fletcher, this is the first LP by a Depeche Mode made up of only two remaining members: Gahan and Gore. It hears a sadder, gloomier yet no less slowly euphoric sound, with lead singles like 'Ghosts Again' presenting a kind of conflicted melancholia.

Review: Back in 2005, Depeche Mode recorded a special live set for broadcast on US radio that - much to most people's surprise at the time - featured fewer synthesizer sounds. Instead, it saw the Essex outfit reproduce many of their classics hits and fan favourites using traditional rock instrumentation (think electric guitars, drums, bass guitar and electric piano), with the addition of more electronics as the set progressed. Now finally released on CD, the set is genuinely excellent, despite the pared-down, altered musical set-up. Highlights include fine renditions of 'Personal Jesus', 'Behind The Wheel' (which here sounds like a post-punk disco throwdown) , 'Enjoy The Silence' and - after a partial take ruined by sound problems - 'I Feel You'.