"Condemnation" is a song by English

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

band

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

, released on 13 September 1993 by

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure (duo), Erasure, Einstürze ...

as the third single from the band eighth studio album, ''

Songs of Faith and Devotion ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'' is the eighth studio album by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was first released on 22 March 1993 in the United Kingdom by Mute Records and a day later in the United States by Sire Records and ...

'' (1993). The song reached 9 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 3 in Sweden, and No. 1 in Portugal. Its music video was directed by

Anton Corbijn Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (; born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, film director, and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2,Pitman, Joanna"The silent partner" ...

. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

s to the "Condemnation" single are remixes of "Death's Door" and "Rush" plus some live tracks from the Devotional Tour. "Death's Door" is a song from the 1991 '' Until the End of the World'' soundtrack. The original version, recorded by

Martin Gore Martin Lee Gore (born 23 July 1961) is an English musician and songwriter. He is one of the founding members of the electronic music band Depeche Mode and is the band's main songwriter. He is the band's guitarist and keyboardist, and occasiona ...

and

Alan Wilder Alan Charles Wilder (born 1 June 1959) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer and member of the electronic band Depeche Mode from 1982 to 1995. After his departure from the band, the musical project Recoil became his pri ...

after the

World Violation Tour The World Violation Tour was a 1990 concert tour by English electronic group Depeche Mode in support of the act's seventh studio album, '' Violator''. It was estimated that by the end of the tour, Depeche Mode had toured to 1.2 million fans. ...

was over, was exclusive to that album until the 2020s ''MODE'' box compilation.

Critical reception

In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worke ...

described the song as "a haunting, beautiful

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

of the type they do so well".

David Fricke David Fricke (born ) is an American music journalist who serves as the senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, where he writes predominantly about rock music. One of the best known names in rock journalism, his career has spanned over 40 ye ...

from ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' viewed it as "typical, a song that ''almost'' makes it, a sly Anglican

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

take on

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...

experiment "

Everybody Hurts "Everybody Hurts" is a song by American rock band R.E.M. from their eighth studio album, '' Automatic for the People'' (1992), and released as a single in April 1993 by Warner Bros. Records. It was written by the band and produced by them with ...

" that stumbles basically because

Dave Gahan David Gahan ( ; né Callcott; born 9 May 1962) is an English singer best known as the lead singer of electronic music band Depeche Mode since their formation in 1980. Noted for his commanding stage presence and unique baritone voice, Gahan was ...

doesn't have the vocal authority to bring it home." On the magazine's single review, music critic

Peter Paphides Peter Paphides (born 1969 as Panayiotakis Paphides or Panayiotis Paphides) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Early life Paphides was born in Birmingham to a Greek Cypriot father, Chris, and a Greek mother, Victoria. He has an elder bro ...

said, "And it's all very anguished, intense and protracted, with lots of gospel singing going on in the background and a bit of real piano, none of your fancy keyboards, and

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

will play it every 10 minutes until the end of the century." Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' gave it four out of five, writing, "One of the more atypical singles in Depeche Mode's career, this slow gospel-style song bears a lusty, full force vocal, but a reverential and reserved instrumental track. Subtle and stylish." Sam Wood from ''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' noted that the band "appropriates gospel harmonies and the rhythms of Southern slave chants for "Condemnation", a song that defies the judgment of some unnamed

Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

accuser". Andrew Harrison from '' Select'' named it the low point of the album, "with Gahan in the dock for some unspecified crime of the heart and the Mode doing an acceptable deep South spiritual thing, all clanking chains and heartfelt groaning." Tom Doyle from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' also gave the song four out of five, adding, "You always expect the strangest things to happen in the world of pop, but Depeche Mode going gospel?! The Bizarre thing is, it really works too. Dave Gahan is joined by a gospel choir and the result is quite the best thing since, well, the last Depeche Mode single. Life is weird."

Music video

A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Dutch photographer, film director and music video director

. It was later made available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in July 2019. For unknown reasons, the music video did not appear on Depeche Mode's music video compilation, '' The Videos 86>98'', in 1998, replaced by the live version from '' Devotional''. The original video eventually resurfaced on the compilation's 2002 re-release (''Videos 86>98 +''). Both videos appear on the ''Devotional'' DVD re-release from 2004 (although the live video was edited so that it wasn't identical to the one in the main ''Devotional'' movie).

Track listings

All songs were written by

. All live tracks were recorded at The Forum (

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy) in 1993. * UK and Japanese CD single # "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:21 # "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38 # "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance mix) – 5:31 # "Rush" (Amylnitrate mix – instrumental) – 7:43 * UK limited-edition CD and 12-inch single # "Condemnation" (live) – 4:10 # "

Personal Jesus "Personal Jesus" is a song by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from their seventh studio album, '' Violator'' (1990), in 1989. It reached 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the US ''B ...

" (live) – 6:00 # " Enjoy the Silence" (live) – 6:46 # "Halo" (live) – 4:54 * UK 12-inch single :A1. "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:21 :A2. "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38 :B1. "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance mix) – 5:31 :B2. "Rush" (Amylnitrate mix – instrumental) – 7:43 :B3. "Rush" (Wild Planet mix – vocal) – 6:23 * UK cassette single # "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:21 # "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38 * US maxi-CD single # "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:22 # "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance mix) – 5:30 # "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38 # "Rush" (Nitrate mix) – 7:41 # "Enjoy the Silence" (live) – 6:47 # "Halo" (live) – 4:54 # "Condemnation" (live) – 4:08 * US 12-inch single :A1. "Condemnation" (live) – 4:08 :A2. "Enjoy the Silence" (live) – 6:47 :A3. "Halo" (live) – 4:54 :A4. "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38 :B1. "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance mix) – 5:30 :B2. "Rush" (Nitrate mix) – 7:41 :B3. "Rush" (Wild Planet mix) – 6:23 :B4. "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:22 * US maxi-cassette single :A1. "Condemnation" (Paris mix) – 3:22 :A2. "Enjoy the Silence" (live) – 6:47 :A3. "Halo" (live) – 4:54 :A4. "Condemnation" (live) – 4:08 :B1. "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance mix) – 5:30 :B2. "Rush" (Nitrate mix) – 7:41 :B3. "Rush" (Wild Planet mix) – 6:23 :B4. "Death's Door" (Jazz mix) – 6:38

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

External links

Single information from the official Depeche Mode web site

AllMusic review
{{Authority control 1993 singles 1993 songs Depeche Mode songs Music videos directed by Anton Corbijn Mute Records singles Number-one singles in Portugal Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Songs written by Martin Gore Gospel songs