A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.
The start of Depeche Mode’s imperial phase began w/this title track opener. DM has a treasure trove of phenomenal opening tracks – and many fans still cite Black Celebration as the band’s greatest album from beginning to end. It is one of my favorites for many reasons. First, it’s an album with no weak tracks. Every song is strong on its own, and collectively they’re that much stronger. Second, this is the album where DM solidified and defined their darker brand of electro pop. No other band sounded like them – and perhaps there’s no better example of this than the aforementioned album’s title track.
“Black Celebration” is a rite of passage into an illustrious album of pop songs (“But Not Tonight”, “Fly On The Windscreen - Final”, socio-political commentary (“New Dress”), enveloping intimacy (“Here Is The House”, “Sometimes”, “A Question of Lust”) and epic rock (“Stripped”, “A Question Of Time”). It may seem like a collection of disparate parts, but the menacing synth lines from Alan Wilder and Dave’s ominous vocals on “Black Celebration” are the glue that brings all these great songs together.
“Your optimistic eyes seem like paradise to someone like me.”