Depeche Mode entered a new phase with Black Celebration, beginning to ease back from the technical hyperdetail of Some Great Reward to sounds that embraced darker, more open atmospheres, stretching electronics and sampling to fill the bigger venues they were starting to play. Martin Gore’s lyrics followed suit while Dave Gahan’s vocals hit even darker croon levels, and they just kept building a now near-rabid fanbase, with songs like “A Question of Lust,” “A Question of Time” and especially the walloping roil of “Stripped” entering their canon.

– Ned Raggett