Black Celebration

Black Celebration
Studio album by
Depeche Mode
Released17 March 1986 (1986-03-17)
RecordedNovember 1985 – January 1986
Studio
Genre
Length41:01
LabelMute
Producer
Depeche Mode chronology
Catching Up with Depeche Mode
(1985) 		Black Celebration
(1986) 		Greatest Hits
(1987)
Singles from Black Celebration
  1. "Stripped"
    Released: 10 February 1986
  2. "A Question of Lust"
    Released: 14 April 1986
  3. "A Question of Time"
    Released: 11 August 1986
  4. "But Not Tonight"
    Released: 22 October 1986

Black Celebration is the fifth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 17 March 1986 by Mute Records. The album's co-producer Daniel Miller devised "a plan to capture the essence of the dark works" that Martin Gore created because Martin Gore had no intention of compromising the mood that his demos had set. Miller and Gareth Jones produced the album to be more like an environment rather than a collection of songs. Their production created "a tech-noir future dystopia" that "glitters of gloom".[3]

Black Celebration reached number four on the UK Albums Chart, and has been cited as one of the most influential albums of the 1980s.[4] To promote the album, the band embarked on the Black Celebration Tour. Three years after its release, Spin ranked it at number 15 on its "25 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[5]

The album was promoted by the single "Stripped" released 10 February, and was followed by "A Question of Lust", released 14 April, "A Question of Time" released 11 August. Instead of "Stripped", "But Not Tonight" was released as a single in the US, due to its more commercial appeal, on 22 October.

  1. ^ Zaleski, Annie (26 February 2015). "Where to start with '80s U.K. synth-pop". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 24 January 2019. A late-night record alternating between brittle ballads and industrial-sounding synth-pop—a poignant tug of war between man and machine.
  2. ^ Cinquemani, Sal (29 September 2003). "Review: Depeche Mode, Violator". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  3. ^ Lindsay, Matthew (30 May 2022). "Making Depeche Mode – Black Celebration". Classic Pop Magazine. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  4. ^ "Xfm launches '25' series for influential albums". Music-News.com. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  5. ^ "The 25 Greatest Albums Of All Time". SPIN. Vol. Five, no. One. April 1989. p. 46. Retrieved 15 July 2024.