Genre: Rock/Electronic Year: 2003 Country: USA Official Site: Dave Gahan Details: Tracks & Audio Label: Reprise Records
Dave Gahan's first solo effort wasn't awaited with much anticipation, as Martin Gore the maestro and one-man band of Depeche Mode, has never succeeded in getting over the hurdle with his Counterfeits, except for the single "In a Manner of Speaking". Without being revolutionary, however, Dave Gahan surprises with Paper Monsters, a naïve, tormented and much more convincing work than the group's last album Exciter.
Under the supervision of Ken Thomas, who produced Sigur Rós, and shouldered by Knox Chandler, the ex-guitarist from Psychedelic Furs and Siouxsie & the Banshees, Gahan has created a record with multiple facets, oscillating between the fat sound of Depeche Mode, during the Songs Of Faith & Devotion period, and intimate, electro-psychedelic sophisticated ballads. And it's precisely there, when Gahan ventures off the beaten "modesque" path that Paper Monsters grows in scale, revealing its beauty in an unfeigned vulnerability. Combined with Thomas's atmospheric, bewitching textures, Gahan's voice manages to transport, when abandoning the sometimes showy side of rock for fragility, all with restraint. Bypassing the silliness of certain lyrics "Maybe one day we'll all be free", what's especially memorable is the sincerity of this record, a sort of private diary of a wounded man, spelled on the mode of confidence.
If songs like "Dirty Sticky Floors", "Hold On", "Bottle Living" and "Black And Blue Again" will probably satisfy Depeche Mode fans, especially memorable is the sublime, evanescent "Stay" an echo of Ennio Morricone's State of Grace theme. "Hidden Horses" also emerges as an unexpected crossing of Gahan's muscular vocal style and Sigur Rós-style psychedelic textures, without forgetting "A Little Piece", "Hold On" and the orchestral "Bitter Apple". Everything ends with "Goodbye", where after a few minutes the apparent tranquillity suddenly gives way to raging guitars, perfectly representing the atmospheric and emotional variety of Paper Monsters.
Dave Gahan Paper Monsters
