Depeche Mode

Consider this a primer, because there is no way a career spanning 25 years can be summarized justifiably within the cramped space of an 80-minute disc. The Best of Depeche Mode, Vol. 1 takes a very selective skip through the group's past, and it leaves no room for anything off Black Celebration an album many fans (albeit the most depressive ones) cite as a favorite. While the relatively thorough Singles 81>85 and Singles 86>98 can be seen as the proper entry route, they don't have the benefit of covering 2001's Exciter or 2005's excellent Playing the Angel, so this disc as of 2006, at least is very nearly the best possible way to get a feel for the whole daunting discography.

Exciter | The 12" Singles, a collector's edition deluxe box set, contains eight 12" vinyl discs presenting four singles–Dream On, I Feel Loved, Freelove, and Goodnight Lovers–with B-sides, remixes, instrumentals, acoustic versions and other recordings contemporaneous to Depeche Mode's tenth studio album, Exciter, originally released in May 2001.

Music for the Masses is the sixth studio album by Depeche Mode. It was released by Mute Records on 28 September 1987. The album became the band's highest-charting in the US upon its release, reaching #35 on the Billboard 200. It also contained more hit singles than any of their previous releases. While there was no extremely popular single from the album ("People Are People" from Some Great Reward reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100), the three singles that were released all made it onto the Hot 100, a feat that hadn't been achieved by any Depeche Mode single after those from Some Great Reward. Moreover, all three singles achieved modest success on the chart.

Sounds Of The Universe | The 12" Singles, a deluxe collector's edition box set, contains seven 12" vinyl discs presenting singles–including Wrong, Peace, the double A-side Fragile Tension/Hole To Feed–alongside B-sides, remixes, dub versions and other recordings contemporaneous to Depeche Mode's 12th studio album, Sounds Of The Universe, originally released by Mute Records in April 2009.

"Playing The Angel | The 12" Singles" contains a total of ten 12" vinyl records in this collector's edition issued as a deluxe box set, representing the single releases from Depeche Mode's eleventh studio album "Playing The Angel" released in October 2005, and which, in addition to the actual tracks "Precious", "A Pain That I'm Used To", "Suffer Well" and "John The Revelator / Lilian", are also extensively equipped with B-sides, remixes, instrumental and dub versions, as well as other recordings from the album environment. The tenth and final disc, specially compiled for this collection, offers B-sides and remixes that were scattered on CDs and maxi-singles at the time