Music for the Masses
The album was supported by the Music for the Masses Tour, which launched their fame in the United States when they performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.Depeche Mode had released their album Black Celebration in early 1986,[7] followed up with a supporting tour which lasted through the middle of that year,[8] and contributed the song "But Not Tonight" to the soundtrack to the movie Modern Girls (1986).[10] With Miller's approval, the band approached David Bascombe to co-produce Music for the Masses, who had previously worked as a recording engineer with Tears for Fears and Peter Gabriel.In January 1988, the group played an eleven-date UK tour, which was followed by further dates in Europe beginning in Hamburg, West Germany in early February.The entire tour concluded mid-June with a concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where the band performed in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 80,000 people,[13] released as the live album 101 in 1988.Robert Christgau complimented the abnormal road symbolism of the lyrics, particularly on "Little 15", and believed that apart from the sadomasochistic metaphors, Depeche Mode succeeded in turning "adolescent Weltschmerz into something catchy, sexy and seemingly significant".[30] NME's Jane Solanas felt Gore was "at his obsessive best" on Music for the Masses, particularly on "Never Let Me Down Again", which she called "an intriguing masterpiece, combining homo-eroticism with drug euphoria."[31] In a less enthusiastic review, Paul Mathur from Melody Maker was ambivalent towards the group's more mature, minimalist aesthetic and said although they had departed from their simpler pop sound, the record was "seamless, fluid, and, once the lights are out, particularly dull."[23] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani said that Music for the Masses showed the gloomier side of the "post-punk synthpop" scene during the 1980s and was a success with both critics and consumers.[33] Alternative Press called the record "articulate, intricate electronic music that lacked the tinny feel of DM's early synth pop".