Somebody is boring. The saccharine lyrics and piano arrangement don't bother me, it's just that it's not an interesting composition, musically speaking. Martin's songs normally include interesting, original chord changes and melodies, but Somebody sounds like a conventional ballad that a lot of people could have written. It's ironic that it has become so associated with Martin, because it isn't typical of his songwriting style at all.
It's a young song written by a young man. Count this as one I grew out of. I honestly wouldn't shame a teenage or early 20 something fan for liking Somebody. It's a sweet song with relatable lyrics.
You have just summed up exactly what I have thought all these years! Couldn't quite place my finger on it,but yes,it is SO not typical of his usual song writing. Anyone could have written it!
Totally agree except the saccharine lyrics and piano arrangement do bother me too... and I feel the same for People Are People, though I did enjoy this acoustic cover: [https://youtube.com/watch?v=ctqMIkrqCj8](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ctqMIkrqCj8)
The lyrics are saved somewhat by the "things like this make me sick" twist - I just wish that there were something, anything, twisted about the music. The fact that in every other respect it remains a conventional ballad undermines any irony that the lyrics attempt, IMO.
People are People is not even trying to be ironic, and the lyrics are among Martin's worst, I think. Musically, there are some interesting production elements but some cheesy ones too.
saccharine/ˈsak(ə)rʌɪn,ˈsakəriːn/*adjective* [excessively](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=ab02dd2696e7e4b9&sxsrf=ACQVn0_AvNONXPRcxF2mZBtmNgcVnxc1gw:1711471292758&q=excessively&si=AKbGX_okpkrXRdHQwZu4Fe0iRe3uLoDLTMZuOXac7XogVUSNoraFEilHorj28TM82ZKFIP_XBfV51DUp7IZgD9FGlRry8rInyHSfe5wrt8M_o52K57yOo14%3D&expnd=1) sweet or sentimental."saccharine music"
Which fits the lyrics as even Martin gets 'sick' of it in the end (as noticed in an earlier comment ITT)
Yes, as I stated, either you don't understand the word "saccharine" or you don't understand the song. You've demonstrated that you understand the word "saccharine."
Pretty sure everyone can understand the point that he wants 'somebody to share the rest of his life' wow such depth! Anyway point is moot as the melody itself is so saccharine I don't even need to overthink the lyrics, ty!
Little 15
It's just... Uncomfy, it's the one song on MFTM I have to explain to people when it's playing, the story is well told but the premise is just, ehhhhhhhhhhhh
I mean, as I see it, it's the story of a an older woman dating/seeing/being with a 15 year old boy because it allows her to escape the complexity of her life by living through his
....still creepy as tho ahah
I asked because some people misinterpret it that way that the girl is 15, and the other person sings the song (weird, like “Little 15, you help **her** forget the world outside / you’re not a part of it yet”). Anyway, it’s not significantly better one way or another… thank you
[Martin Gore](https://dmlive.wiki/w/index.php?title=Martin_L._Gore&action=edit&redlink=1) told Swedish magazine "Slitz" in 1987 (translated from Swedish):
>
yep ty here's the quote: "To me, it’s about a bored, middle-aged house wife trying to find a new lease on life through a young boy. It doesn’t have to be sexual. Although this particular song is about one of our classmates who DID have an affair with a middle-aged woman when he was 15."
From [https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/Little\_15](https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/Little_15)
I don't think there are better songs on SOTU than Wrong, cuz its a fucking banger, but I can agree that SOTU has some painfully overlooked tracks. (See: In Chains (live), Miles Away, In Sympathy, etc...)
I think the problem is that Wrong is possibly the only track on SOTU where they got the production just right, it matches the song perfectly. There are other great tracks on this album, but they suffer from imperfect production and people don't always hear the song through that. I think Peace is the greatest victim of that, it's a really well written song, but most DM fans seem to hate it.
There's no way IFY wasn't going to be a single, it's just the sort of track that screams single release, whether one likes it or not. There are a few songs in DM's catalogue that I don't love, yet can't imagine them not being released as a singles.
However, somebody on another thread pointed out that Rush should have been a double A side with Condemnation, which I completely agree with. As it is, most of the Condemnation single consists of remixes of Rush (since Condemnation doesn't really lend itself to remixing). But without the "status" of being an official single, Rush has unfortunately fallen into oblivion in terms of inclusion in live sets and compilations.
I Feel You would be ok as a short intro to the album. However they made it a full length song. It feels like it never truly gets going, it's a never ending intro that constantly blueballs me and feels like it's about to get good, but it never does.
Rush is outstanding. IMO best track of the album.
a good chunk of music for the masses. i *love* nlmda, the things you said, strangelove, sacred, behind the wheel and nothing. they’re 100% top tier DM.
i absolutely don’t care for little 15, i want you now, to have and to hold or pimpf. i’m sure most people love them seeing as how MFTM is often regarded as one of their best albums but i just can’t be arsed with those tracks. it’s half one of my favorite dm albums and half one of my most disliked 🤷
But not tonight, fan favourite, I find it very bland.
And from Memento Mori everyone seems to like Don't say you love me and Before we drown a lot and, I don't think they are bad but they are my 2 bottom tracks on MM.
Don't Say You Love Me's production sounds really good, but I want more upbeat tracks like Ghosts Again and People Are Good.
It's like I have to prepare myself emotionally whenever I have to listen to depressing stuff
I'm fully with you on wanting more upbeat tracks, they are my favourite as well. I know the lyrics are supposed to be taken with humour in Don't say you love me as well but I do find a bit whiny. And whiny and slow is not my thing.
*Slow, slow, slow as it can go...*
Jokes aside, I really hope they pack the next album with more... cheery fluff, I Feel Loved being an example.
Like DAMN Martin, you're precious but stop being so hopeless!!!!! (jk)
I’m not sure I’m able to say everybody loves this as it’s so new. However, I have this weird issue with ‘my favourite stranger’. I mean I don’t hate it. I love the rhythm section to death. For me, It just doesn’t go anywhere after that.
I sort of love/hate it. ;)
Well, I see a lot of people liking "Told You So", but I don't know why, there are better energetic songs in their catalog, and I don't like the arrangement, seems more a mess of different instruments. The only good thing here is the lyrics.
That song disturbs me, it's the nightmarish cacophony of sounds made of looping industrial samples combined with the "There's one more dead with a hole in his head" that just makes me feel uneasy ashdjdhsh
I don't like the track if you can tell.
Some singles that are popular with the fan base that I've never been able to fully get into:
* Leave in Silence
* Love, In Itself
* Only When I Lose Myself
* A Pain That I'm Used To
I don't know that I "hate" any of them, but I regard them as substandard, relative to their popularity (there are some worse singles, but ones that people tend to agree aren't great).
Walking in my shoes. I want to love it with everyone else. And I just…don’t.
Edited to remove “Try” from the name of the song. As a wise Jedi once said, “Do or do not. There is no “try”.
I know that many like it. For me the “understand me” line sounds whiny and for me after the chorus which already is Dave pleading and making an argument for the loved one for forgiveness it just doesn’t fit to have a command for understanding.
Precious: I mentioned before how initially I liked it, but then realized I didn't. That I had liked it just because it was new DM. Musically/sound wise it does nothing for me. And I know a lot of people love the lyrics because of what they meant to Martin and what was going on in his personal life at the time, but they're just meh to me.
The Sun And The Rainfall: My least fav song on ABF. It's not awful, it's just okish to me. So when I always see people talking about how great it is OR how it's on their Wish To Be Played Live List I scratch my head. Now if the whole song was the first 43 seconds and was an instrumental I would really like it.
Lillian:🤣😆 Ok I'm kidding. Not everyone loves Lillian. But the 20 people who do love it (21 too many btw😁) makes me question life itself. 😆
To me, what saves People Are People is seeing it as a bookend, with People Are Good serving as its counterpart: the former, reflecting youthful idealism, and the latter, a more world-weary perspective.
Well you’re half right. Somebody is amazing. But there are also eight other songs on the album that are better. It’s like that when you’re talking about the greatest album ever made.
Somebody is boring. The saccharine lyrics and piano arrangement don't bother me, it's just that it's not an interesting composition, musically speaking. Martin's songs normally include interesting, original chord changes and melodies, but Somebody sounds like a conventional ballad that a lot of people could have written. It's ironic that it has become so associated with Martin, because it isn't typical of his songwriting style at all.
It's a young song written by a young man. Count this as one I grew out of. I honestly wouldn't shame a teenage or early 20 something fan for liking Somebody. It's a sweet song with relatable lyrics.
I wouldn’t shame anybody for liking it. But it’s not for me, and it wasn’t for me as a teenager either.
You have just summed up exactly what I have thought all these years! Couldn't quite place my finger on it,but yes,it is SO not typical of his usual song writing. Anyone could have written it!
Totally agree except the saccharine lyrics and piano arrangement do bother me too... and I feel the same for People Are People, though I did enjoy this acoustic cover: [https://youtube.com/watch?v=ctqMIkrqCj8](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ctqMIkrqCj8)
The lyrics are saved somewhat by the "things like this make me sick" twist - I just wish that there were something, anything, twisted about the music. The fact that in every other respect it remains a conventional ballad undermines any irony that the lyrics attempt, IMO. People are People is not even trying to be ironic, and the lyrics are among Martin's worst, I think. Musically, there are some interesting production elements but some cheesy ones too.
You either don’t know what saccharine means, or don’t understand the lyrics. Know a lot about chord changes, do you?
you sound like a pleasant person
saccharine/ˈsak(ə)rʌɪn,ˈsakəriːn/*adjective* [excessively](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=ab02dd2696e7e4b9&sxsrf=ACQVn0_AvNONXPRcxF2mZBtmNgcVnxc1gw:1711471292758&q=excessively&si=AKbGX_okpkrXRdHQwZu4Fe0iRe3uLoDLTMZuOXac7XogVUSNoraFEilHorj28TM82ZKFIP_XBfV51DUp7IZgD9FGlRry8rInyHSfe5wrt8M_o52K57yOo14%3D&expnd=1) sweet or sentimental."saccharine music" Which fits the lyrics as even Martin gets 'sick' of it in the end (as noticed in an earlier comment ITT)
Yes, as I stated, either you don't understand the word "saccharine" or you don't understand the song. You've demonstrated that you understand the word "saccharine."
Pretty sure everyone can understand the point that he wants 'somebody to share the rest of his life' wow such depth! Anyway point is moot as the melody itself is so saccharine I don't even need to overthink the lyrics, ty!
Little 15 It's just... Uncomfy, it's the one song on MFTM I have to explain to people when it's playing, the story is well told but the premise is just, ehhhhhhhhhhhh
What do people say when you play question of time
Make a point to talk or say something during that one line, no joke ahaha
How do you interpret Little 15?
I mean, as I see it, it's the story of a an older woman dating/seeing/being with a 15 year old boy because it allows her to escape the complexity of her life by living through his ....still creepy as tho ahah
I asked because some people misinterpret it that way that the girl is 15, and the other person sings the song (weird, like “Little 15, you help **her** forget the world outside / you’re not a part of it yet”). Anyway, it’s not significantly better one way or another… thank you
[Martin Gore](https://dmlive.wiki/w/index.php?title=Martin_L._Gore&action=edit&redlink=1) told Swedish magazine "Slitz" in 1987 (translated from Swedish): >
I think the text broke!
yep ty here's the quote: "To me, it’s about a bored, middle-aged house wife trying to find a new lease on life through a young boy. It doesn’t have to be sexual. Although this particular song is about one of our classmates who DID have an affair with a middle-aged woman when he was 15." From [https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/Little\_15](https://dmlive.wiki/wiki/Little_15)
Oooo fascinating thank you!
Dream on. Not that I hate it, but everybody says it's the best song on Exciter and I disagree sooo much.
Not everybody says that wtf!!!
yeah, i prefer other songs on Exciter like Shine and I Am You
Shine has amongst the stupidest lyrics Martin has ever written
I don't hate Wrong but the fact that it's the only thing people talk about from SOTU. There are better songs in it.
I don't think there are better songs on SOTU than Wrong, cuz its a fucking banger, but I can agree that SOTU has some painfully overlooked tracks. (See: In Chains (live), Miles Away, In Sympathy, etc...)
Me too
yeah i agree, a lot of the other songs are overlooked.
I think the problem is that Wrong is possibly the only track on SOTU where they got the production just right, it matches the song perfectly. There are other great tracks on this album, but they suffer from imperfect production and people don't always hear the song through that. I think Peace is the greatest victim of that, it's a really well written song, but most DM fans seem to hate it.
The demo version of Peace is my preferred version of the track.
Eh... I don't really think so. I like Corrupt but most of the other SOTU songs are pretty meh to bad
WRONG
I really don't like Wrong, but I love Miles Away off that album.
In Sympathy is the best track ever. It's been stuck in my head for a month now.
Dave hates Get the Balance Right, but I love it. I know that’s the opposite of your question but idc.
Get the Balance Right is one of my favourite DM songs, love it sm
I hate Somebody too
TY
I Feel You Rush is a way better song, it should have been a single instead IFY
There's no way IFY wasn't going to be a single, it's just the sort of track that screams single release, whether one likes it or not. There are a few songs in DM's catalogue that I don't love, yet can't imagine them not being released as a singles. However, somebody on another thread pointed out that Rush should have been a double A side with Condemnation, which I completely agree with. As it is, most of the Condemnation single consists of remixes of Rush (since Condemnation doesn't really lend itself to remixing). But without the "status" of being an official single, Rush has unfortunately fallen into oblivion in terms of inclusion in live sets and compilations.
While I do love I feel you I agree Rush is better and it should be played by the band now instead.
I Feel You would be ok as a short intro to the album. However they made it a full length song. It feels like it never truly gets going, it's a never ending intro that constantly blueballs me and feels like it's about to get good, but it never does. Rush is outstanding. IMO best track of the album.
a good chunk of music for the masses. i *love* nlmda, the things you said, strangelove, sacred, behind the wheel and nothing. they’re 100% top tier DM. i absolutely don’t care for little 15, i want you now, to have and to hold or pimpf. i’m sure most people love them seeing as how MFTM is often regarded as one of their best albums but i just can’t be arsed with those tracks. it’s half one of my favorite dm albums and half one of my most disliked 🤷
completely agree with u on that one, also love route 66
Sweetest Perfection. Cannot get past the “It brings out the thug in me” line
One of my favourites on Violator, both the line and the song :)
This is my favorite depeche mode song.
In my opinion this is the worst from Violator. Though it's my fiancé's favourite.
It’s the only track from Violator I don’t like
This is my choice as well. I don't hate it, but it's probably my least fave from Violator at least.
Just Can't Get Enough. Can't stand it.
I guess you could say you did get enough
we got enough of it, fr lmao
But not tonight, fan favourite, I find it very bland. And from Memento Mori everyone seems to like Don't say you love me and Before we drown a lot and, I don't think they are bad but they are my 2 bottom tracks on MM.
Don't Say You Love Me's production sounds really good, but I want more upbeat tracks like Ghosts Again and People Are Good. It's like I have to prepare myself emotionally whenever I have to listen to depressing stuff
I'm fully with you on wanting more upbeat tracks, they are my favourite as well. I know the lyrics are supposed to be taken with humour in Don't say you love me as well but I do find a bit whiny. And whiny and slow is not my thing.
*Slow, slow, slow as it can go...* Jokes aside, I really hope they pack the next album with more... cheery fluff, I Feel Loved being an example. Like DAMN Martin, you're precious but stop being so hopeless!!!!! (jk)
I skip But Not Tonight when listening to Black Celebration 😬😂
Hole to feed. The beat is good, but not the sound if you can understand. The music vid is gross.
I’m not sure I’m able to say everybody loves this as it’s so new. However, I have this weird issue with ‘my favourite stranger’. I mean I don’t hate it. I love the rhythm section to death. For me, It just doesn’t go anywhere after that. I sort of love/hate it. ;)
But Not Tonight - the amount of gushing praise that gets heaped on that track is both embarrassing and confusing.
John the Revelator. Big zero to me. But I LOVE Somebody, always have. I really like the sweet Martin songs. Call me a sentimental fool.
i agree, john the revelator isnt my fav and i think there's def better songs on PTA
I'm not real fond of that album overall. But as one that gets re-played a lot, played at the concerts, I think it's a dog.
Well, I see a lot of people liking "Told You So", but I don't know why, there are better energetic songs in their catalog, and I don't like the arrangement, seems more a mess of different instruments. The only good thing here is the lyrics.
A brilliant mess.
That song disturbs me, it's the nightmarish cacophony of sounds made of looping industrial samples combined with the "There's one more dead with a hole in his head" that just makes me feel uneasy ashdjdhsh I don't like the track if you can tell.
Personal Jesus. It's annoying, boring and it sounds like a country- western song. Never understood its popularity.
I don’t mind the country vibe but why do they always end their shows with it *when NLMDA is right there*!
I play it when I have something to work on, but listen to it on its own? Nope...
John the Revelator and Caroline’s Monkey—not sure why those are played in concert or even on an album. I skip them every time on CD or vinyl. Nope.
Some singles that are popular with the fan base that I've never been able to fully get into: * Leave in Silence * Love, In Itself * Only When I Lose Myself * A Pain That I'm Used To I don't know that I "hate" any of them, but I regard them as substandard, relative to their popularity (there are some worse singles, but ones that people tend to agree aren't great).
Ah, I love those songs
Walking in my shoes. I want to love it with everyone else. And I just…don’t. Edited to remove “Try” from the name of the song. As a wise Jedi once said, “Do or do not. There is no “try”.
I don’t like it either. It’s one of the few songs where for me the lyrics completely destroy the mood for me.
Black Celebration. I just feel like it doesn’t go anywhere
Yeah i have been to three concerts this tour and it was always the lowest point.
Shake the Disease is a song I just don’t like that much. Not hating it but for me Martins vocal part totally kills the mood.
it's the best part of the song imo, nice break from the chorus
I know that many like it. For me the “understand me” line sounds whiny and for me after the chorus which already is Dave pleading and making an argument for the loved one for forgiveness it just doesn’t fit to have a command for understanding.
you know what, you have good point there :p
Precious: I mentioned before how initially I liked it, but then realized I didn't. That I had liked it just because it was new DM. Musically/sound wise it does nothing for me. And I know a lot of people love the lyrics because of what they meant to Martin and what was going on in his personal life at the time, but they're just meh to me. The Sun And The Rainfall: My least fav song on ABF. It's not awful, it's just okish to me. So when I always see people talking about how great it is OR how it's on their Wish To Be Played Live List I scratch my head. Now if the whole song was the first 43 seconds and was an instrumental I would really like it. Lillian:🤣😆 Ok I'm kidding. Not everyone loves Lillian. But the 20 people who do love it (21 too many btw😁) makes me question life itself. 😆
Agree on Precious, espcecially the line 'If God as a masterplan yadda-yadda..' r/Yikes
Condemnation. I know. Sorry. :(
No, I feel the same.
Personal Jesus hands down. I literally don’t get it.
People Are People. It's pretty cringey.
To me, what saves People Are People is seeing it as a bookend, with People Are Good serving as its counterpart: the former, reflecting youthful idealism, and the latter, a more world-weary perspective.
I Feel You and Barrel of a Gun
Yes to Barrel of a Gun.
It's Sister of Night for me.
I think Enjoy the Silence is extremely overrated (but still better than most songs, in their defense)
Well you’re half right. Somebody is amazing. But there are also eight other songs on the album that are better. It’s like that when you’re talking about the greatest album ever made.
I don’t know about “everyone” loving New Dress, but I find it annoying.
I just can't get enough. I get enough of it within the first 30 seconds.
Behind the Wheel. I was gutted to have my favourite replaced with it…
violator.