Your reviewer still thinks it's one of the year's stranger juxtapositions that when Depeche Mode's previously none-songwriting frontman Dave Gahan should choose his solo album to hit a vein of rich songwriting form while his regular tune provider MARTIN .L. GORE should decide to dip into his own record collection to divine inspiration for his own solo outing. Like, go figure, huh?
Still, "Counterfeit"s not a bad collection of songs and "Loverman" is now released from it in several formats. One is the DVD version which includes several live tracks and an interview, while the 12" and second CD adds the requisite remixes.
Your reviewer's dug CD2 out of the bag, so that's what we'll concentrate on here and find Martin covering his old label mate Nick Cave's "Loverman" in a manner entirely like Nick Cave.....being covered by Depeche Mode. Oh, OK then. But actually it's fine, although Martin does sound a mite too polite when mouthing these hellfire and brimstone lyrics and the whole thing is a walk in the park compared to the original. There again, being trapped in a tiny room full of cobras is probably less scary than the original, so I guess that's a pointless comparison.
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Meanwhile, there's few stranger ways of spending a wet Tuesday afternoon than being serenaded in German by Martin Gore, but, hey, you could do worse, and you could certainly do far worse than these two mixes of his take on Nico's "Das Lieb Vom Einsamen Madchen", from her criminally under-rated "Camera Obscura" album. The 'Turner Mix' gets all clinical and Kraftwerk-y on our ass while the 'Lawrence Mix' prefers Berlin's Stefan Betke as its' Teutonic inspiration and bathes in raindrop splash electronica, drifting chords and attractive ambienta to makes its' point subtly. Hardly radio material, granted, but in my book far more interesting than the A-side. There's a moral there, kids: check those extra tracks.
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