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Rotations: Depeche Mode, Teddy Thompson, HAIM release new music

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | Jul 4, 2020

The U.K.’s electro-pop veterans Depeche Mode have had a banner year. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; they released an 18 CD boxed set, “Mode” in January, which rounds up all 14 of the band’s studio albums plus four additional discs of bonus material; and this month have released “Live Spirits” (Columbia), the soundtrack to their concert and documentary film, the latter which followed six fans from six parts of the world, who all have one thing in common: their love of Depeche Mode. The band is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of their landmark studio album, “Violator,” which was originally released in March 1990. Two of that record’s best-known hits, “Personal Jesus,” and “Enjoy the Silence,” are featured on “Spirits.” Like any live album, once you get past the audience chants and claps, the record is crisp and effervescent. (A deluxe “Live Spirts” features the DVD and a Blu-ray.) Normally the band is chock full of gloomy meditations – which may well be a fact, but it’s easily guised on this live recording. Disc one peppers favorites like “World in my Eyes,” and especially, “The Things You Said,” which the band performed live for the first time on this trek of their world tour. (The song dates back to 1987’s epic masterpiece, “Music for the Masses.”) Disc two steamrolls hits like “Never Let Me Down Again,” and the disc’s closer, “Just Can’t Get Enough,” an ’80s synth anthem that’s worthy of reintroduction. And while Mode’s mood is a bit less polemic, “Live Spirits” still makes room for some rousing doom.

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Few artists are so lucky to be swimming in the deep end of the gene pool with parents like Richard and Linda Thompson as Teddy Thompson. His folks, whose acclaimed 1982 album, “Shoot Out The Lights” chronicled their crumbling marriage, is still the litmus test for couples therapy. Teddy Thompson’s new effort, “Heartbreaker Please” (Thirty Tigers), finds the troubadour creating near perfect slices of soulful, emotional pop, refining what a break-up record is supposed to sound like. As the name implies, Thompson knows a thing or two about getting dumped – and although Thompson dismisses any vocal comparisons to Roy Orbison, there is a direct line between Thompson’s pen and Orbison’s drama laden approach. (Thompson gets a little closer vocally to the Mavericks’ majestic Raul Malo.) This is particularly true on the cut, “Take Me Away,” with its dream-like backing strings and melodramatic atmosphere. Thompson gets off to a peppy Motown- inspired start with the opening “Why Wait” which features brash horns, thumping drums, and a hook that begs hit single. Thompson is an unsung hero in the love department; he’s also been overlooked as a singer and songwriter in his own right. The irony is that much of “Heartbreaker” charts the demise of a relationship – not so different than, “Shoot Out The Lights.” Apple meet tree; the fall’s not really that far.

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HAIM gets into a groove with “Women in Music Pt. III” (Columbia). On what may well be one of the best albums of this summer, the L.A. sisters – Alana, Danielle and Este Haim – have added much punch and circumstance to their third album and the result is less-than-subtle texture and tension. The 16-track record, buoyed by U.K. garage beats and louche funk, combines nicely with their west coast rock appeal. It’s a cathartic stroll through the blues, even if the jam seems a little too pumped up for the sisters to be a bunch of sad sacks. There is some fluttering G-funk (“3 a.m.”), nods to Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” (“Summer Girl”) and even some Zeppelin (“Up From a Dream,”) where the trio sings, “Something you see wakes you up from the dream/Wanna go back to sleep but now you’re up from the dream.” The first single from the album, “The Steps,” is all petulant stomp, as it takes HAIM’s sunny, ’70s FM radio sound and hair-flips it like a big wad of bed head. Electric guitars screech over acoustic strumming ­- a workable combo – and it’s that pleasant layering to all the happy madness and the ensuing feast that represents HAIM’s strongest and most revealing record yet.

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