-"Barrel of a Gun": The opening track is perhaps the most edgy, and ranks up there with songs like "I Feel You," and "Rush." The guitars are very raw and the rhythm is very pulsing. This song is the kind of song to bang your head to in a goth club. The vocals punchy and aggressive, this is one of DM's best singles.

-"The Love Thieves": Now this is a very sad and kinda jazzy song. It was featured in the TV show "La Femme Nikita" and was used very expertly to portray a brooding character. Very appropriate, and the song just fits those moods of sad solitude. The kind of song to listen to after a bitter breakup. It's sadness is the type that just might uplift your spirits...

-"Home": Beautiful is all I have to say about this song. Martin's vocals are great, and the use of a string quartet to close out the song adds that lovely ambience. A very pleasant and beautiful song.

-"It's No Good": The breakthrough single. When I first heard this song, I at first thought DM was some brand new band with that Zoo-TV image that U2 cultivate in the early '90's. Not too far off, except this song revels in its dancehall beats and sonic darkness. This is the song that started my obssession with DM, and it will forever remain my second favorite song by them (next to "Enjoy the Silence").

-"Useless": Tin Simenon's influence can be heard especially on this track, as it is very reminiscent of Curve, another band Tim has worked with. A great song.

-"Sister of Night": Now this song is a guilty pleasure. It is perhaps Gahan's best vocal performance on the album, and ironically it is the last song he ever performed while still under the influence of drugs. While it is wonderful that his much publicized bout with heroin is over after this song, there is still something to be said about the passion in his voice on this song.

-"Freestate": Another favorite of mine. The guitars are very edgy, and the use of acoustic slide is just impressive. A very underrated song that should've been a single.

-"The Bottom Line": Gore's other vocal on the album, and probably the closest DM will ever get to recording a country song, and it's still based in their distinguishably gothic synthesized style. A qunadary of a song, but still worthy of DM's talents.

-"Insight": The return of that gospel sound that made "Condemnation" and "Get Right With Me" great, trimmed down to an inspirational closer that ends the album on an upnote towards DM's future without Wilder, without Gahan's drug problems, and without the obstacles of arrogant youth. Only the clear road of musical excellence and mature progression.

The instrumental breaks, "Uselink," "Jazz Thieves," and the hidden track, "Junior Painkiller" (which can be heard in it's full version as the B-side to "Barrel of a Gun") are reminiscent of the interludes from "Violator," but with that atmosphere that surrounds this album with musical passion. "Ultra" is without a doubt the best album DM have ever released, both in terms of the songs, the music, and the band itself. This album is one of the best ever produced...period. To those who miss Alan Wilder...listen to Recoil's albums...they're also great, but don't think he made DM what it was. DM was a combination of people, and when one person leaves, they readjust the combination into something else...and that something else is this jewel of an album. "Ultra" Cool!

Matured Mode
After listening to this album, my first impression was that even Depeche Mode could not escape the need to grow and mature. The songs are more matured on this album, darker and gloomier too. Songs like 'Barrel of a Gun' might take some time to catch on, but after a few listening, you just start to realize how good it is. Dave Gahan sang this song after his near-death experience with drugs and you can really feel his agony in it. 'It's No Good' is another of those infectious Mode tunes that they are so famous for. But yet, no longer is there any sign of immaturity. 'Useless' is another great track. Some old fans feel that since 'Violator', Mode's songs have lost the 'fun side' of the earlier albums. But, think about it. Where are groups like OMD, Human League or Duran Duran now? Those were the groups that shared their peak of popularity with Depeche Mode but have since faded away. The fact that DM is still around today and as popular as ever shows that they have not made the wrong move in maturing.

The album that gave me Depeche Mode back!
Ultra is the album that made me revisit Depeche Mode after a hiatus of more than 10 years not listening to their music AT ALL. I used to be a HUGE fan back in the 80s and own every record they released from 1981 to 1990. But after Violator I lost touch with the band; I wasn't too thrilled with Songs of Faith and Devotion back in 1993, and I began listening to other stuff instead... Until I somehow came across Ultra. Am I glad that I did!

In Ultra I find again all the elements that made me a Depeche Mode fan back in the 80s: their ability to touch me with the lyrics and the atmospheres created throughout the album, Dave's fantastic voice and interpretation, the beautiful melodies that stick to your head and don't let you go, the musical style so unique to Depeche Mode... There is nothing quite like these guys out there (there never was) and in Ultra they manage to be themselves, but to reinvent themselves so as to not sound the same.

I was not aware of all the problems the band went through during the 90s, but knowing now, I am truly amazed that they could pick themselves up and create this beautiful piece of music. As a reviewer said before me, there's not one song that I don't like in this record. And that is something that had never been the case before: even in masterpieces like Black Celebration or Violator there were tracks that didn't do it for me (although that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the records). This doesn't happen in Ultra.

It can be argued endlessly about this album not being Violator or Black Celebration. Why expect a Violator clone from a band that has always succeeded in sounding different with each album?I can understand if people don't like the particular direction taken by the guys here, but let's not destroy the album "because it is no Violator". I'd rather value this effort for its own worth, and I think it is one hell of an album: these guys have lived, have progressed as artists and human beings, and this creative growth shows in Ultra.

cool
this was the first dm album that i bought (in 1997), and i'm really glad i did,'cause this was the one that opened my eyes to good music...it shaped my current taste for all real things not crappy wannabe popstars like those that my friends adore.. i was only 12 years old but this album never left my stereo...everytime i listen to it i feel great..shame about the exciter album, don't get me wrong but something is missing in it.. this one is a bloody masterpiece..do yourself a favour and buy it. look also for these albuns: black celebration; music for the masses; 101(great live album); violator; songs of faith and devotion..

Been staring down the Barrel of a Gun
After four years of patient waiting and two of patient making, this is another controversial album, although as critics liked to point out: a miracle it ever saw the light. You see, this is the period when Dave became a drug addict, and as has often been hinted, the other members had a few problems themselves. Stability wasn't the thing that came out from the Songs Of Faith And Devotion album and tour. Nowadays they even remember those two years as the worst in their lives.

Anyway, they made it. And it is true that it is almost enough. Ultra is much, much better than the band splitting. But as the all-new album after four years of silence, it could have been better.

I think, and this fans could argue for hours, that it doesn't reach the previous album's height. But it still offers some really good songs. Let's see.

Barrel Of A Gun, the first single (released a few months before the album) is a great forerunner. The conflict, the emptiness, a sense of obscurity taking over, and finally, not redemption (as in Songs...) but resignation. Dave's rough vocals and the heaviest guitar sounds they have ever recorded find their way over some synthesiser layers, and programmed drums that sound like what The Cure is up to these days (they even recorded a cover of World In My Eyes for the tribute album Various Artists For The Masses). On a side note, the song's video, directed by Anton Corbijn as usual, is a true masterpiece.

Home, the third single is another Martin Gore vocals great standard. A critic once labelled it the best DM single of all time. I don't think that is necessarily true, but we are still left with a beautiful song. The variations in the melody (singing to fourths and thirds) get the very interesting hook of building to a fifth and then to an augmented fifth, this modelling a song with no precedent in their back catalogue. It is also, the other great video, a la Wenders, for this album.

Uselink and The Jazz Thieves are instrumental pastiches. Not bad as short musical passages between the songs, but they shouldn't be listed as songs. The second one is the most odd of the couple, with Martin's very own weird jazz sense.

Useless is the kind of song that you love and hate, both things at the same time. It could have been one of the greatest, but although still good (and for me reminiscent of A Question Of Time) it lacks refinement. The single version works a little better, adding some very welcomed percussion and keyboard layers. But the one on the album, being a hard rock with simplest drum patterns and heavy distorted guitar riff, lacks some final production. Bass is really good in the song, though, recorded by ex-Living Colour bassist. Dave sings a difficult but well worked out melody, with Martin singing background to get things higher. Also, very weird and not entirely convincing is the grunge guitar fill-in, mostly at the end when it repeats over the vocals.

Freestate is a nice number, with very interesting guitar work by Martin. Sister Of Night being the most typically approached song goes from an opening reminiscent of Kaleid (Policy Of Truth's b-side) to a fragile ballad. Here Dave's vocals turn all soft and warm beginning what seems to be the singing style he will adopt in the future.

The Bottom Line is a great song on the album, being Martin's other take on vocals. Here he goes for a lower tone that still showcases his beautiful voice singing some of the best lines in the album [Like a pawn on the eternal board / Who's never quite sure what he's moved towards / I walk blindly on ] accompanied by Bj Cole's masterful guitar work (for quick reference listen to Roger Water's Amused To Death, also featuring Bj).

Insight, the final song (though final number is the hidden Painkiller Jr, a not-so-interesting reworking of Barrel Of A Gun's b-side) is a nice closing tune. Dave's vocals are all surrounded by Martin's own, in a sweet arrange that breaks in the colder, stronger and more typical chorus. Still a good counterpart, not quite a great song in itself.

There are two other songs, far weaker than the rest: The Love Thieves and It's No Good. The first one is a peaceful attempt but not a complete song in the way it's been produced. You see, a great verse flowing to an absolute dead chorus with no emotional factor whatsoever and lacking any sense of why it should be that way. And the second one, also the second single, is typical DM hit that doesn't show in any way what the band is all about. It sounds good, that's true. But the basic premise, as well as the obvious chorus make it a song that belongs to the past and should not have been in the same album that features Barrel Of A Gun, Home or The Bottom Line.

The conclusion: it's not USELESS and it certainly isn't a NO-GOOD. THE BOTTOM LINE: offers some INSIGHT into the band's recovering phase and ultimate quest for HOME.
In the bestselling DM canon, this is one of their very best--mature, Euro-elegant, smartly contemporary (thanks to producer Tim "Bomb the Bass" Simenon), honest ("Insight"), edgy ("Barrel of a Gun"), and armed with at least one killer single in "It's No Good." --Jeff Bateman