David Gahan

Depeche Mode is one of many '80s bands currently enjoying a sudden resurgence in fame, and impulsively being labeled as legends. Smartly striking while the iron is hot, lead singer Dave Gahan has chosen to capitalize on this surge by picking up his solo career.

Gahan had no hand in writing any of the songs that propelled Depeche Mode to fame—in fact, he played no role in the bands' writing until 2005, so it's fun to imagine where he might take a project over which he has full control. Interestingly, Gahan takes a cue from the many contemporary bands who claim influence from Depeche Mode, borrowing from the band's synth-based electronica and incorporating darker melodies and instrumentation to give the music some edge.

This chicken-or-the-egg scenario plays out most effectively on "Saw Something," a moody, meandering track that finds Gahan employing his perfectly haunting vocals to great success. Not long after that, though, things get uncomfortable. Lead single "Kingdom" and "21 Days" are downright industrial, and in trying to play a game of keep up with Trent Reznor, Gahan loses badly.

The rest of Hourglass plays out similarly, with Gahan struggling between the sound that made his band one of the biggest in the world, and a more forward-thinking one that is almost the antithesis of everything that people associate him with—"Deeper and Deeper" has more in common with Marilyn Manson than The Killers. Sadly, he'd be much better off sticking with the former.

—Nathan Atnikov
10.22.07

After Dave Gahan released his debut solo album, Paper Monsters, in 2003, he landed three of his songs on Depeche Mode's 2005 album Playing the Angel, meaning Martin Gore was no longer the band's sole songwriter. Two years later and he's on a roll with Hourglass, a more electronic, better built, and altogether better deal than Monsters, thanks mostly to the singer and-don't-you-forget-to-mention songwriter's better sense of self. At least that's the way it feels because unlike Monsters, Hourglass doesn't have any overly urgent need to shake off Depeche Mode comparisons. Instead, it surrounds Gahan's serviceable writing skills with the dark electronic soundscapes he's obviously comfortable with. Just like his tracks on Angel, his co-conspirators here are Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpot, two musicians that are great at creating crunchy, expansive, and cold music. Even if leadoff single "Kingdom" is Depeche's "Never Let Me Down Again" without the keyboard hook, its groove is the same slithery kind of inescapable, and if it could conjure a smell it would be a mix of leather pants, sweat, and cigarettes. The swaggering macho goth stance Gahan perfected right around "Personal Jesus" is also in effect for the highlights "Use You" and "Deeper and Deeper" which is especially helpful for the latter since the lyrics could have come from any given Fergie song ("You can't tell me/That you don't want it" and so on). Cringe-worthy couplets like "Miracle"'s "I don't believe in Jesus/But I'm praying anyway." find Gahan writing in the style of Gore and coming up short, but you've got to admit his vocal delivery is moving, and that goes double for the opening "Saw Something." At the very least the album displays how much Gahan brings to Depeche Mode, and should go a long way in getting the Gore-favoring fan base to admit it. [A CD/DVD of the album was also released.] ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide