The Worst Crime - Depeche Mode | REACTION 

I actually like this one, just for it's minimalist approach, like Somebody but on guitar. I'm glad they have a song like this in their canon. I like the descending scale Martin does, it's very mournful. People keep me your prayers, I just lost my job, speaking of hard times.

the worst crime is killing our world.... Martin Gore told Classic Pop Magazine: "Usually I don't talk about the songs too much but I will about this one a little bit. It's metaphorical and about climate change and us destroying the world, and how we are all guilty... so the lynching is us, we are all being lynched."

I like Spirit album. I have it on vinyl record. Last with Andy.

I like it 😊

Man, there's a lot of songs yet! Haha

This album should be outside of Depeche Mode's musical discography due to the political direction it entails and be proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize.,, that's it i say it,,

es un temon!!! infravalorado de DM

I always thought this one was lyrically directly influenced by the terrible terror rule of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but in a metaphorical sense, it fits every society where people are easily condemned and sentenced, and everybody feels like they need to participate without questioning or daring to oppose. The next song, „Scum“, will probably not be for you due to the heavy distortion on the voice, but it is one of the fan favorites on Spirit, just that you know 😊 And about your question:,I actually really liked this album when it came out. It is not half as good as Memento Mori, so today I am more critical about it, but back in 2017 it hit a nerve. The world was in a sorry state, and DM reflected that, lyrically. Not to everyone’s taste, of course, it is very dark. But imo you don’t need to be overly „political“ to feel what they want to say with it.

Great reaction seph. You definitely need to be in the right mood for some of the tracks on this one. Have been told that in some places if you are in the square where they are going to hang someone you have too stay and watch 😮

I enjoyed spirit so much when it came out. Much more than Delta Machine.

Keep going……it all comes good on the next album👍👍

Depeche is political in this album and the next songs of that record could be the same, but the next album Memento Mori isn't political anymore.

Depeche Mode hatte nie die Idee sich zu wiederholen. Es sollte immer was anderes sein und trotzdem soll es sich nach Depeche Mode anhören. Die neuen Wege gefallen nicht allen, aber langweilig wird es dadurch nicht. Viele andere Bands haben es nicht geschafft, da hört sich ein Album wie das andere an. Hier hebt sich Depeche Mode positiv von vielen anderen Bands ab. Außerdem haben sie es immer geschafft auch die Qualität auf einem hohen Niveau zu halten. Natürlich sind einige Alben schwächer wie andere und dazu gehört Spirit sicherlich auch und ich habe es schon mal geschrieben, Spirit ist eines der schwächeren Alben und trotzdem gut. Auch die politischen Texte sind nicht jedermanns Geschmack, aber es passt alles zusammen. Beim letzten Album "Memento Mori " geht es halt in erster Linie um das Thema Tod, ja, das mag Makaber sein und wie die Fans wissen, hatte es nichts mit dem Tod von Fletsch zu tun. Das Album war da schon fertig geschrieben. Aber "Memento Mori" ist noch nicht dran, es kommen noch 9 Songs von Spirit und ich hoffe, dass Dir lieber Seph auch noch der eine oder andere Song gefällt 😊😊😊

Totally off-topic question for the fans, and Seph of course. Do you associate Shake the Disease and It's Called a Heart with Some Great Reward or Black Celebration? I've always put them with Some Great Reward because they were on The Singles 81-85, they're more part of that Era. Also, what about Death's Door? Violator or Songs of Faith?

Get the balance right, 35 years ago people were more human, now 2020, we have NOTHING INSIDE, sometimes thruth hurts,,,,

I LOVE THIS ALBUM, It's political all the way through with every song and the worst crime is about how humanity has allowed these things to happen without standing up for what's right my guess is you'll dislike the rest of the album

Dave already worked together with Soulsavers (2 albums - The Light the Dead See and Angels & Ghosts) at that point, and, IMHO, this song fits better to one of those albums than "Spirit". Concerning the "Spirit" album as a whole - usually I listen to "Fail", then "No More (This Is the Last Time)", rarely "You Move" and "Cover Me"

Wow! This ❤️ sounds very obscure, whatever 🙄 🤔 this song 🎵 is 😕 all about, don't get me wrong... well this is just the first time I heard this song (from their collection 😳)... BTW thank you (it might be their best but it's okay).😢

I think from memory i only ever liked cover me and maybe poison heart but it's not an album i revisit much tbh

Quite beautiful, mildly atmospheric, verse on this one. Beautiful chords until the jerky chorus lines where the song loses its flow. Nor raspy and shrill for once, and Dave sings with a relaxed voice - quite pleasant. Personally, I give The worst crime a three (if I'm being kind) - on a five-point scale.

I always reckoned the worst crime to be killing the planet, not doing anything to combat climate change - "we had so much time"...

Hi Seph, I guess we all become more cynical with age 🤷‍♀️. Never listened to the album when it came out. I have listened to bits and pieces of it a couple of years ago and I enjoy a few songs. Since Exciter there are no real highlights anymore (MM being the exception). Maybe Martin needed the alcohol to be a good songwriter, who knows. But they really missed good producers the last 20 years.

I didn’t like Delta Machine and Sounds of the Universe when they first came out. Initially, I started to become a fan in the playing the angel era - it had been already released, but my mum got concert tickets and a CD and played it all day long. So my first real album was PTA - I really liked this. 4 years later I wanted to experience the whole release atmosphere - it’s very cult-like and a heated atmosphere. Needless to say that I was truly disappointed when I first heard the album SOTU. Another 4 years later - Delta machine - same procedure - same hopes - same disappointment. So for spirit I anticipated nothing but to be at least slightly better. And that’s exactly how I felt about this album in 2017. it’s slightly better than Delta. Do I like it? No. Do I hate it? Also no. For me, „Going backwards“ is the best opener they’ve had in a long time and I still consider this song one of their best. But the rest of the album is just okay for me now. As I previously commented below one of your reactions of delta machine: delta took 11 years to evolve - I like it now and prefer it over spirit. Back in 2017 it was other way around. However, spirit has its nice sides. And I agree with all the others saying that memento mori (the next album) isn’t crap mode - it’s dark mode again. Thus, memento mori is one of my top 3 albums now and I have been listening to it almost every week for over a year

DM is against humanity on that album

The tune/music to this one I can appreciate but don't love. Well written, imo, and the lyrics I think were excellent and while I find the sad, dark place Martin was going in on this album is hard but not one I'd throw on for myself randomly because it's so heavy. But I agree on how on this one, as with so many during recent years, Dave's voice has improved. I felt like there was a lull period where both of their voices fell in quality for a bit and then by practice, health, study, age (as the male larynx goes through significant changes at various ages on top of general other things), both of them had a huge upturn in quality. Dave seemed to have added to his skillset, too, it seems.... like the flips on You Should Be Higher; He's always had a much wider range than he tends to use and that jump isn't even particularly large, but him combining the jump in a flip so cleanly was a new flashy moment to reproduce multiple times in a song - especially as it's performed live by him, too. To your general question of "did anyone really like this album when it came out?" my answer is a generalized "yes, me" but with the note that the heavy nature of it and the composition choices make it not high on my rating list of DM albums or something I'd with any regularity sit and play through fully.... there are some songs I would (and do) have in certain playlists (I'm an over-organizer so I've a lot for different moods, activities, et cetera lol) but this is an album I can respect but not love.

This album came out in 2016. American politics especially the trump vs Hillary campaign had to Have had a influence on this album

Siempre han metido la política en sus álbumes, en mayor o menor medida, precisamente esta canción crítica y aduce a un verdadero crimen quien vive en la superficialidad y no es capaz de profundizar en el mundo en el que vive, ya que nosotros gracias a nuestros votos somos capaces de decidir nuestro futuro y el de nuestros hijos, por lo que debemos informarnos y saber que queremos y porque.

Climate change - according to a quote from Martin. The crime we are all committing against the planet. Martin said maybe it was too subtle though. I love the political nature of the album, that they care about the world not just themselves.

Next one "Scum" is very, very intense! But Dave's voice is very much processed.

Se que no te va a gustar este disco y el siguiente la mitad, pero en Spirit hay canciones sublimes como Cover Me, Eternal, Fail. No pensaba que casi 40 años después, fueran a sacar una canción como Cover me ( por cierto escucha la versión del disco y no la del vídeo que está recortada, el final de la canción de la versión original es épico ). Este disco es una Obra maestra, aunque hay algunas canciones olvidables, como Scum.

Hang in there seph, the next album is TOP top tier DM.

This álbum...

In my opinion, I had to be choosy with this album... Only a couple of songs I will come back and hear from it.

I have written recently that this album is the worst from DM. The next one is fine :)

Like I said before, the first song is the only decent one on the album. I’m glad the newest one was a step back towards good DM.

Agree with you on this one Seph. I like the album but I nearly always skip this track and Where's the Revolution. I like a political message but these lyrics are just too clunky and without any interesting musical development either. Some good tunes still to come though in my opinion

Mir gefällt Spirit, ich höre es noch immer gern. Warum erwartest du, dass ein Song aus dem Jahr 2017 so klingen muss wie Songs aus den 80igern? Depeche Mode wollten sich nie wiederholen. Auch die Band wird älter und der Horizont erweitert sich. Spirit ist ein Album, welches sich mit den Veränderungen der Welt auseinander setzt und deswegen etwas ernst klingt. Ich kann mir Spirit mit fröhlichen Melodien nicht vorstellen, das passt nicht zusammen.

I like this album, it was much better than Delta, okay it has a few weak songs although this isn't one of them in my opinion, I always thought this song was about the actual environment and what we have done to it and also what some people think that terms like Global warming don't exist (uneducated readers).

NEXT pls 🎉😂

Really find this track heavy going. I fast forward. Not a fan sadly. New dress - Blue dress - Dressed in black - all infinitely preferable

Mir gefällt Spirit und ich höre es noch immer gern. Warum erwartest du, dass Songs aus dem Jahr 2017 so klingen sollten wie Songs aus den 80igern? Depeche Mode wollten sich nie wiederholen. Auch die Band wird älter und der Horizont erweitert sich. Spirit setzt sich mit den negativen Veränderungen in der Welt auseinander, deswegen klingt es etwas ernst. Ich kann mir diese Songs nicht mit fröhlichen Melodien vorstellen, das passt nicht zusammen.

As a lifelong depeche mode fan I have to say this for me was my least favourite album, luckily the next one (album) more than makes up for it.

Spirit: Limousine bolshevism at its worst.

While recording this album, Dave and Martin had conflicts with each other, and supposedly the overall atmosphere was bad, so maybe that's why the album didn't turn out as expected.

Spirit Is the worst for the fans (the tour was amazing). But be calm, Memento Mori is the best of this century

Yeah this song is a snoozer, very dull as far as I'm concerned .

The Worst Crime was this album was made, but I’m glad it has its fans. With the exception of a few mediocre tracks, the album is utter trash for me.

These lyrics are so clumsy and vocals so plodding. I'm embarrassed for them. However, I did enjoy watching you fidget as you struggled to get through this. And your sighs. (3:16) (4:58) You didn't have to say that you didn't dig it. It was written all over your face. Crap Mode Regarding the left versus right sides of the political spectrum, it sounds like politics wasn't part of your upbringing. I was part of mine. My folks loved to listen to news on the radio and watch local and cable news. Do you listen to BBC radio? I'm a bit of a news, podcast, and politics junky. I listen to NPR in the morning and podcasts all day. How do you typically like to fill your day with such things? Is it mostly music at the moment?

Spirit is better than Delta Machine, but that's not saying much.

I think this happened to most of us, it is an album that is difficult to digest at first, and I think it is one of the band's worst, but I don't consider it bad, I even like this song...and I think its minimalist sound is Okay, I liked Dave's guitar and bad vocals, but I wouldn't say that this album has songs that drive me crazy and that I love. The first time Spirit came out and I listened to it I was lying down, I remember that more than halfway through the album I fell asleep, something similar happened to me with Exciter. They are certainly the most boring for my taste, without being bad albums. something I noticed is that after Alan's departure, Depeche seems to have a pattern in their albums, one good and one not so good - Ultra - Good -Exciter - Not so good -Playing the Angel - Good -Sound Of The Universe - Not Tan Burno - Delta Machine - Good - Spirit - Not So Good - Memento Mori - you can intuit the result without me saying it

So sorry but spirit is my least listen album of depeche mode..I just dont feel it at all 😢😢...their worst work ever in my opion...

Can’t listen to the end of song, so boring.

Don’t like this track. Very political album. The next album. “Memento Mori” is a very spiritual album. Far better than this one.

The worst album in DM History