Ranking Depeche Mode Albums - Emotion Vs. Science*

What's your favorite Depeche Mode album? Chances are, when asked that question, you have an easy answer. You may even be able to rattle off your top five albums with ease. 

But what goes into choosing a favorite album? Usually, it's emotion. We love the songs. The music, the lyrics, the production - they all move us in ways that other albums don't do. They might also be our favorites because of the time in our life when we heard them. Maybe it was our first album. Maybe it's because of the B-sides and remixes available. Maybe it makes us think of the relationships in our life - friends, family, romantic partners. Maybe it was the album that prompted your first or favorite concert. 

What if you put all that aside and focus on the songs. How do you feel when you listen to the albums without emotional ties or preconceived ideas? And is that even possible? 

It's something I tried to challenge myself to do. Are the albums I list as my top five really my top five? Are the albums I consider my least favorite accurate? Do I think of them as my least favorite because I don't, or haven't, listened to them much? Or is that why I don't listen to them that often?

For this experiment, I listened to all 15 studio albums, from the first release to the latest release. I used a super scientific method for rating the songs. Then, on a scale of 1-5, based on my super scientific* method, I calculated the average rating for each album and found my ultimate Depeche Mode album ranking. How would my emotion-based ranking compare to my science-based ranking? Would they be similar? Or would they be drastically different? Let's take a look.

First, the Super Scientific Method Rules I Followed:

Basic Studio Album Releases Only. No B-sides. No Remixes. No Live. No "Best of"/Singles Compilations. 
Each song to be ranked by the following category:
Love 

Like 

OK

Meh
NO

Love = 5; Like = 4; OK = 3; Meh = 2; NO = 1

Songs could fall in half categories - i.e., it falls between Like and Love or Meh and OK, etc. 

The total score is added and divided by the number of songs on the album. 

Here we go...Remember, this is purely for my scientific (entertainment) purposes only. 

My Top 5 Ranking:

Super Scientific Top 5 Ranking:

The top 3 are the same, which does not surprise me. ULTRA and BC actually tied with the same score in my scientific ranking. The bottom two on the super scientific list kind of took me by surprise. I love both albums, but I typically think of them in my second-tier 5 albums. 

Super Scientific Final Ranking for all 15 Albums:

This feels about right to me. I think the emotional ranking side of me would maybe put some of them in a different order, but they essentially fall into similar groupings of 5 if I were to list them on my own. The instrumentals on some of these albums dropped their final rankings lower than I think they would have had without them.

Taking emotion and preconceived ideas out of listening and ranking each song was difficult. But I did my best to listen to each song with a new perspective, open mind, and clear thoughts. 

Think about doing this yourself. See where the differences are and if you can figure out why. It's a challenge. But it's worth it. 

And remember - your rankings, emotional or scientific, are YOUR rankings. And it's OK for them to be different from everyone else. The beauty of art, in all of its forms, is that it's subjective. What moves you might not move someone else. And that's how it should be. If we all liked all the same things, what a boring life this would be. 

Thanks for reading!

*Super Scientific is being used here lightly. This was all just for fun because sometimes I can be a bit nerdy like this.