Lie Spotting

There was a time when you could walk into your average record store and find the singles section by spotting the big block of black rows. These rows signaled the whereabouts of the Ds and tended to eat up a disproportionate space of the singles section. In 2004, the Mute label condensed all of these releases into Remixes 81-04, which itself was ironically (or fittingly) presented in multiple versions. This particular version is a triple-disc set that attempts to function as a representative sampling of Depeche Mode's innumerable remixes. It does an admirable job, making a point to highlight glorified extended versions and radical reworkings alike.

One comment from Amazon: "If the other reviewers are right and Siegel's prior work is even better, I can't wait to read those novels. Siegel kept me half a step behind every minute, as his narrator Tom Valle sought redemption and tried to figure out what had happened in the flooded town north of his home of exile. Characterization was terrific for everybody, the narrator was legitimately sympathetic and suspiciously unreliable to keep me wondering, and everyone in the story acted in ways that were completely believable. This is a fantastic story."