Songs of Faith and Devotion by Depeche Mode

Songs of Faith and Devotion, Depeche Mode's eighth album, came out on Mute on 22 March 1993, with Sire and Reprise putting it out in the US a day later, and it's the sound of a synth band that has been listening hard to the guitar racket coming out of America. After the sleek gloom of Violator, Flood and the band went darker and rougher, letting grunge and alternative rock bleed into the machines: Martin Gore's guitar slashing through the mix, Dave Gahan howling like a preacher at the end of his rope.

"I Feel You" kicks the doors down with a squall of distortion and a bluesy strut, while "Walking in My Shoes" is all stately, doom-laden grandeur. The whole record aches with guilt and longing, which suits that churchy title.

It was a fraught time. Gahan was battling a heroin addiction while it was being made, and the tensions it stirred up inside the band only grew on the road. A fan leaked the whole album online months before release, one of the first leaks the business had seen, yet it still debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, a first for the band, and went on to sell more than 5 million copies around the world. The Devotional Tour that followed ran for more than a year across two legs, the biggest they had ever mounted, and spawned a concert video and a live album. It was the last record with Alan Wilder, who quit in June 1995, and the last by Depeche Mode as a four-piece.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.