2015 Week 12: Ambiguous Angst and Ennui

I did not take this picture of Depeche Mode.

Back in 93, I saw Depeche Mode live during their Devotional Tour, supporting their album Songs of Faith and Devotion. I remember they played the whole first song from behind a translucent curtain with their silhouettes cast gigantically on it. Once in a while, you'd get a glimpse of Dave Gahan's arm or leg pop out, until he finally emerged, doing his tall skinny guy dance. It was a great show. Anyway, I think that was the first time they played guitars live and now Johnny Marrr covered "I Feel You" which was the first single off that album. Still a great song. He didn't change it up, really, but it fits him well anyway. Check it out.

It's a simple song. Very simple repetitive riff that somehow carries major attitude. I'm sure it's a riff I've heard in other songs, but somehow it doesn't matter. I recently read this article at Wired about how many possible songs there are, and within it the author worked out a song that uses every possible note combination that fit his minimal definition of a song. What's funny is that I heard it, it made me think of early Depeche Mode. Go read the article and listen for yourself.

Anyway, this week's Spotify playlist has nothing to do with any of that. This one was truly random throughout the week finds. In the end, though, I think it loosely captured a state of mind. An anxious yet almost indifferent state of mind. Like a nervous Sunday night before facing a bully on Monday morning on the playground, but somehow also about something else entirely, though I couldn't say what. Kind of like looking at life from behind a translucent curtain that never drops. It's just ambiguously about the ambiguity of existence, I guess. So let's call Ambiguous Angst and Ennui and move along.