I Dunno, Just a Thought vol.2

i love the albums that Depeche Mode and Duran Duran did in the 90s; Songs of Faith and Devotion and The Wedding Album (respectively). really elegant and pretty, but sad and bitter at the same time. they perfectly capture the tribulation of anachronisms. here you have two of the biggest party bands of the 80s. millions of records sold, thousands of women bedded, every other indulgence exploited to its maximum. they were synonymous with the 80s. thing about that is the 80s had to end. the decade needed to bottom out, making way for some intense introspection on those who survived the decade's high life.

so here they are in the early 90s. brooding is in. escapism is out. the songs Depeche Mode and Duran Duran released in 1993 are like Orson Welles at the end of Citizen Kane; all the isolation money can buy. they've got money, they're world famous, and now they're living in a time where it's en vogue to loath those things....even if they're in your possession. you also realize that it was all empty. when faced with the void, it's almost impossible to deny it. you can either wallow in it or explode from it. songs like "Come Undone" from Duran Duran and "Walking in My Shoes" by Depeche Mode are like walking down a corridor blackened by your own shadow, gliding your fingers over the glass walls holding back the emerald water of the void.

the songs play off each other. "Come Undone" illustrates the unbearable unraveling, where "Walking in My Shoes" is the acerbic reinvention in the wake of the unraveling.

the irony is that in perhaps the darkest hours of these bands, their strongest and most beautiful material comes to surface. it takes loss to grow up. to reinvent yourself, you have to destroy what you once were, in the eyes of others and in the eyes of yourself.

i dunno....just a thought.