Depeche Mode - The Best Of Depeche Mode Volume 1 [3LP]

Twenty-five years of Depeche Mode singles, from Basildon synth-pop to stadium-sized gospel noir, spread across three LPs on The Best Of Depeche Mode Volume 1.

First released in 2006, this collection skips strict chronology and plays like a carefully sequenced set, letting early bubblegum bump straight into the band's darker, leather-clad era. It is the cleanest way to hear how Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and their bandmates turned drum machines and samplers into something sweaty, devotional and strangely tender.

The hits arrive one after another. "Personal Jesus" swaggers in on that stomping, bluesy riff, "Enjoy the Silence" still sounds like the most elegant sulk in pop history, and "Never Let Me Down Again" builds to a swaying, arms-in-the-air climax. The set also carried a then-new song, "Martyr", a brooding single that slotted neatly beside the classics.

Across six sides, the sequencing does a lot of quiet work. Chirpy early synth lines give way to industrial clatter, gritty guitar and the cavernous production of the nineties, yet the thread of Gore's songwriting, all guilt, desire and redemption, never snaps. Gahan's baritone ties it together, growing from boyish croon to full-blown preacher.

Owners of the studio albums get a party record. Everyone else gets the ideal first step into one of electronic music's most devoted cults.