The singular genius of Depeche Mode's music might be the way their songs inspire a gut-wrenching personal response. The best music is, of course, meant to do this, but when Depeche Mode started their ...

After the electric guitar, no new instrument upended 20th-century popular music like the synthesizer. At first, the synth’s sounds were used to create ambient, otherworldly soundtracks or for epic ...

Early Depeche Mode albums were made by a band that looked and sounded like clean-cut choir boys. But by the time they rolled around to album number eight, they'd become snarling electronic grungers ...

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This ...