Choice Is Yours Vol. 7
Depeche Mode – Violator (1990)
Vs.
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986)
The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…
- My Pal the Crook
December 30th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
violator
December 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Super Violator.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
violator!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
hmm – interesting versus this time! You know, I wonder if the preferences would lean to age this time around. The Smiths album came out when I was a sophomore in high school and, naturally, was quite influential to me and the other new wave / punk / goth kids. I gotta go with the Smiths!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Queen Is Dead. Violater is sort of Depech past its prime imo. The Queen Is Dead album just struck a real gloom and doom for me in H.S.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Queen is Dead no doubt
December 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Violator
December 30th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Skynard
December 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Joel, past it’s prime?? “Violator” is the pinnacle of everything they were building up to their whole career. And “Ultra” (not that it has anything to do with this) which came out 7 years later is one of their best albums.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
The Queen Is Dead
December 30th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Kill mother fucking depeche mode
http://www.worththereed.com
December 30th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I did like Ultra but I wasn’t feeling Violator. Maybe because of the commercial success with radio and mtv putting personal jesus on such heavy rotation? I don’t know. I thought DM reached its peak in 86-87 with Black Celebration and Music For The Masses which coincidentally is the same time Queen Is Dead came out.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Personal Jesus is actually the one song off of Violator I never liked.
Personally “Black Celebration” is my favorite Depeche Mode album as well. But Violator basically took the polished production of “Music For The Masses” and darkness of “Black Celebration” and made it into one amazing album.
After thousands of listens “Enjoy the Silence” and “Policy of Truth” still give chills and make me want to dye my hair blue-black with red streaks again.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
violator…i know its blasphemous with the streetwear sect but i never really liked the smiths
December 30th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Violator.
The Smiths are so ridiculously overrated..
December 30th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Queen is Dead.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I’m gonna say The Smiths just cos I’m a cliché scene kid. High school was hardcore, hip hop and ….. The Smiths.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:19 am
to be honest, I was never into either band.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:41 am
Violator; end of story.
Martin Gore > Morrissey and Johnny Marr
Side Note: It would be a toss up between “Violator” and “Ultra” for me.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:09 am
Prolly, believe me I know you were never into either band. I figured that out when I had “Heaven & Las Vegas” on and you asked why I was listening to Enya. :/
December 31st, 2008 at 11:10 am
I”m glad so many people acknowledge how good “Ultra” is.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Both of these bands were played out so much in College I can no longer stand to hear them. Going to an Architecture school it was all:
-Massive Attack
-Morrissey / Smiths
-Radiohead
-Joy Division
I just got overexposed and bruised. My teenage days were mostly punk / hardcore / classic rock and metal. Nothing too special.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Did you go to U of H?
January 1st, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Manchester vs Essex
Guitars vs Synths
The Prince of Pain vs Kings of Synthpop
Pompador vs Layered Buzzcut
Maudlin Lyrics vs Maudlin Lyrics
MANCUNIANS win!
“There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” alone crushes Violator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dr8Iy3_zZ0
I thought DM were better with Vince Clarke – the tension of Clarke’s lighter direction with Gore’s darker tendencies provided a better balance that would have been interesting to hear over the course of DM ’80s discography.
As far as DM albums go, picking Flood as Producer & François Kevorkian as Engineer was a good move in the recording studio. Still Moz & Marr self-produced, wrote, composed and performed the better album.
Cover Art wise: Violator may be the sole survivor. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the first Mishka sweaters. I can remember seeing it at SHQ and immediately thinking i’ll buy that. Then i looked at the price tag and decided i could wait a bit. Then i volunteered for a small clothing company and found a storage room with a box filled of ‘em! Yet Twerps would rarely give up the key.
a little shocked it took Crookie til Vol 7 to get to a Depeche Mode album. If you pitted them against The Cure, it would have been a closer call for me.
amusing factoid:
During his punkish years in the late ’70s with Ed Banger & The Nosebleeds, Moz founded The Cramps UK fanclub “The Legion of The Cramped” with Lindsay Hutton. He even looked a little like Lux Interior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shaggyhairmorrissey.jpg
this discovery did NOT sway my unbiased opinion and i have not fallen victim to Morrissey’s cult of personality.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 pm
ew, fuck Violator, The Queen is dead is not only one of the best smiths albums, its one of the best albums of the 80s.
Fuck Depeche Mode, smiths will always rain supreme over anyone.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:10 am
The Smiths no doubt. Morrissey is still doing his thing and is better than most the shit out there now.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Depeche Mode did all they had to do with one album. Yaawn..
The Smiths had NO bad albums and every one is still relevant today.
The Smith all the way!