Dave Gahan & Soulsavers

Angels & Ghosts Columbia

Despite a life well-lived (and often badly and somewhat precariously as well) Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan retains some of the boyishness that made him such an appealing frontman in the days when his other job was to switch on the ghetto-blaster on which Martin Gore (or Vince Clarke) had recorded the drum track.

There is something of the kid-in-the-sweetie-shop about his work with Rich Machin of Soulsavers (the alias of his production duo with Ian Glover), where his altogether cheerier persona, if less automatically lauded voice, has replaced that of lugubrious Mark Lanegan. It seems that it is Gahan who has originated many of these compositions at home in New York City, which are then brought to fruition by Machin in Northern England, although the final recordings have been a globe-trotting affair.

With a very fine gospel backing trio on all of the tracks, Gahan’s baritone is in excellent shape, and at its best Angels & Ghosts sounds not unlike the lighter moments in the back catalogue of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is certainly rather rootsier than anywhere Depeche Mode have gone in their journey from synth-pop to stadium, and tracks like Lately the work of a talent more mature than the image.

Keith Bruce