Delta Machine
The 13th Depeche Mode album is foregrounded in blues and gospel influences that have often merely burbled beneath their synth-sad pop. “The angel of love was upon me/And, Lord, I felt so high,” Dave Gahan growls on “Angel.” Gahan was treated for cancer in 2009, and he and co-founder Martin Gore wrote together for the first time in their contentious 30-year plus career. Delta celebrates brooding faith and slippery solace without scrimping on Depeche’s trademark blackstrobe punishment. When Gahan sings, “I’m coming for you like a junkie,” on the plasticine stomper “Soothe My Soul,” you can bet he’s after the kind of personal Jesus you won’t find in church.