Both packages available on May 31st
Depeche Mode 12″ vinyl singles project continues with the release of Black Celebration | The 12″ Singles and Music for the Masses | The 12″ Singles on May 31st from Rhino.
Each of these definitive boxed sets contains 12″ vinyl singles contemporaneous to either Black Celebration (1986) or Music For The Masses (1987). Both pivotal releases in Depeche Mode’s career, these albums advanced the band’s musical mission, moving the Depeche Mode sound from industrial pop into darker atmospheric emotional territory.
Following its release in 1986, Black Celebration became the group’s then-highest charting album in both the UK and Germany, expanding their influence across pop culture while inspiring myriad young musicians to start bands of their own.
The next year, Music For The Masses furthered Depeche Mode’s international mass appeal, breaking open the United States and other markets with the record-setting Music For The Masses Tour. An electrifying and historic adventure for band and audiences worldwide, the tour included Depeche Mode concerts in then-communist East Berlin, Budapest, and Prague. The tour’s 101st show, a transcendent performance at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, was attended by more than 60,000 fans and documented in 101, a concert film by D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back) and an accompanying live album.
From their earliest days as a band, Depeche Mode championed 12″ vinyl, embracing the singular power of the format and the avenues of innovation it opened. The 12″ single allowed the band to explore new sonic possibilities while the tactile physical beauty of the packaging gave Depeche Mode room to develop a sophisticated and commanding visual aesthetic. Depeche Mode used their singles discography as a means of offering left field remixes and other delights for their fans.
Both Black Celebration | The 12″ Singles and Music for the Masses | The 12″ Singles extended Depeche Mode’s increasingly mind-blowing run of 12″ singles and featured some of the band’s most sublime artwork to date. Each of the albums showcased some of the most enduring singles in the Depeche Mode catalog; Black Celebration featured “A Question Of Lust” and “Stripped” while Music For The Masses contained “Never Let Me Down Again” and “Strangelove” (Depeche Mode’s first No. 1 US Dance chart hit).
Black Celebration | The 12″ Singles contains the four original 12″ releases from the album plus a 12″ vinyl version of the limited edition “A Question Of Lust” cassette release, available for the first time internationally in this collection.
Music for the Masses | The 12″ Singles includes the seven original and special edition 12″ vinyl singles from the album and is available on the same day.
Rhino Entertainment released the first two boxed sets in the series, Speak & Spell | The Singles and A Broken Frame | The Singles, on August 31, 2018. The second batch – Construction Time Again | The 12″ Singles and Some Great Reward | The 12″ Singles – arrived on December 14, 2018.
Each boxed set in the series contains the singles from each Depeche Mode album on audiophile-quality 12″ vinyl, with audio mastered from the original tapes. The artwork for the exterior of each of the boxed sets draws on iconography inspired by the original releases, while the vinyl sleeves themselves feature the original single artwork.
The Depeche Mode 12″ Singles Series will continue over the coming years, with plans to release boxes containing the singles from each of the band’s albums in similar deluxe audiophile-grade collector’s editions.
In 2018, Depeche Mode completed their Global Spirit Tour, a worldwide concert itinerary that launched in May 2017 and peaked summer 2018 with a pair of shows at the Waldbühne in Berlin on July 23rd and 25th. The 15-month Global Spirit Tour saw the band play to more than three million fans across Europe, North America, and South America.
