DAVE GAHAN "Paper Monsters" Reprise/Mute
Inattentive Depeche Mode listeners may well assume that Dave Gahan's new album is the solo debut by the British band's principal songwriter. After all, "Paper Monsters" sounds a lot like the music the venerable yet somehow still callow synth-pop combo has made since founding member Vince Clarke departed in 1981, and especially since the group boldly (yawn) added guitars in 1990. In fact, Gahan was never the band's composer, and "Paper Monsters" pays tribute -- perhaps unwittingly -- to longtime DM tunesmith Martin Gore.
Of course, Gahan has a certain right to the abject outlook and minor-key electro-rock of such songs as "Dirty Sticky Floors" and "Black and Blue Again." He did sing all those bleak DM hits and experienced a well-publicized bottoming out that makes the bluesy anguish of "Bottle Living" seem more than an affectation. And the 10 throbbingly morose songs crafted by Gahan and co-writer Knox Chandler (a freelance guitarist whose credits include DM's "Exciter") are more consistent than anything the singer's full-time band had managed in a decade. But when Gahan bleats about dropping to his knees and confesses that he's "not very nice," he's just ripping a page from Gore's blasphemous prayer book.
