MODE

A couple of months ago, a Polish website had a placeholder for the Violator 12″ box set, but it soon went away. Instead, multiple sites across Europe soon had placeholders for an “18 disc” set with prices that varied from €200 to €300. A set with all their studio albums was the most obvious assumption, but it wouldn’t account to 18 CDs.

So, after much conjecture, Depeche Mode announced last week a career-spanning box set containing all of their studio albums, plus 4 CDs with all of their B-sides with a surprise here and there (and also some omissions in the same proportion). It comes with a 227-page booklet, all album covers were also changed to greyscale. All of this inside a 7″x7″x7″ cube all in black. What a surprising palette!

Now, seriously, this box set is not for me, and that’s fine. I already have 99% of the contents here. I don’t really know what is the target audience of this. Maybe new fans that love the band enough to spend €250, because they own nothing at all and, yet, still buy CDs in 2019.

At least it helps my piggy bank for when the Violator 12″ box set comes out later.