When this first single off the
new album was released, people said that Depeche
Mode had become a rock band. Ok, so they had an electric guitar, but this was not the
first time; they'd used that before. It was a bit more apparent on this track,
though; in sound as well as vision - it was displayed in the video as well. Still,
it's very much a synthetic song, and a pretty stomping one at that. I love those drums.
Lyricswise, it's (in my interpretation) a sort of irony over those American
TV evangelists that offer you salvation over the phone. I remember Martin's
words in an interview at the time: "lots of people in America thought it was
a religious song..." (I'm paraphrasing, of course). However, he didn't
say what it was actually about, but from other sources it's been indicated that
I'm way off the target. Oh well.
'Dangerous' is a bit slow and dark, and more synthetic that the a-side.
Quite good, but not a classic; the verse is better than the chorus IMHO. An OK
b-side, though.
The 'acoustic' mix is once
again DM 'unplugged' (how's that for
an idea?); just Dave's voice and a guitar. Martin playing? He does play the
guitar, occasionally. A very good track; an interesting contrast to the usual
synthetics.
