Depeche Mode

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Lore & Background

Exciter was produced by Mark Bell, whom Dave Gahan credited with helping him become a more confident vocalist. Martin Gore said that 'The Dead of Night' was inspired by a club in London where there were a lot of drugs and mayhem. Gore told MTV Europe that 'I Feel Loved' is about when you 'feel absolutely like shit, and you feel the worst you've ever felt in your life. Then somehow you think: "the universe must like me, for making me feel like this"'. Musically, Exciter is a very atmospheric and electronic album. Gore had been listening to more abstract electronic music in the lead up to recording, which may have influenced some of the more experimental soundscapes. The band also added elements of traditional blues, retro funk, progressive rock, and orchestral pop to its arrangements. Bell told Keyboard magazine that they treated the acoustic and electronic sounds on 'Dream On' the same. Gore felt many songs including 'When the Body Speaks' have a 1950s or 1960s sound. 'Comatose' was massively stripped down from the original demo since the band wanted a more minimalistic arrangement. 'Freelove' was one of the final tracks completed. 'The Dead of Night' makes heavy use of analogue synths such as the EMS Synthi AKS. Bell found working with the group fun but strange, stating he had listened to the group when he was 12 and found the band asking him for days off or 'what they should eat'. According to an interview with Gahan in 2003, Gore's lack of involvement with the production led to Bell feeling frustrated and that he was essentially creating the album for the band.

Reader's Guide

The Exciter Tour began with a North American leg on 4 June 2001; the group performed one rehearsal show and two 'warm-up' concerts before the official tour began in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in mid-June 2001. The leg continued until mid-August, concluding with two shows in Anaheim, California. In late August 2001, the group began a European leg, which started in Tallinn and culminated in early November in Mannheim, Germany. This was the final show of the tour; a second European leg had been planned for the summer of 2002 but never happened. In total, the band played 84 concerts, performing to over 1.5 million people in 24 countries. The concerts in Paris were filmed and issued in May 2002 on a DVD release entitled One Night in Paris. Exciter received generally positive reviews. NME wrote that 'Not many long-running groups could make an album this fresh and confident in their 20th year, never mind one which bridges timeless soulman crooning and underground techno'. Rolling Stone complimented the album's minimal arrangements, comparing them to early Kraftwerk. The A.V. Club stated that 'Bell's subtle, inventive knob-twiddling pairs perfectly with Martin Gore's new batch of somber, subdued songs'. In contrast, Q Magazine wrote: 'This time it's Martin Gore who's out of puff. No amount of fashionable tweaking can hide the flimsiness of his offerings'. On 2 October 2007 (3 October in North America), Exciter was re-released as a two-disc set, along with Ultra, in the fourth and final set of Depeche Mode reissues. The first disc was a remastered version of the original, on an SACD/CD hybrid (only a CD in the US). The second disc is a DVD which features the album in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo. The B-sides from Exciter as well as the single version of 'Freelove' are included. There is a documentary on the making of Exciter titled Depeche Mode 1999–2001 (Presenting the Intimate and Delicate Side of Depeche Mode), around 30 minutes long. Producer Mark Bell does not appear in the documentary.

Did You Know?

• Exciter is the only Depeche Mode album to debut higher in the United States than in the United Kingdom.
• The plant on the cover is Agave attenuata, known as 'lion's tail', 'swan's neck', or 'foxtail' for its curved stem.
• Martin Gore said 'The Dead of Night' was inspired by a London club with 'a lot of drugs and mayhem'.
• The Exciter Tour played 84 concerts to over 1.5 million people in 24 countries.
• Producer Mark Bell does not appear in the 30-minute documentary on the making of Exciter.