After 22 years of fronting Depeche Mode Dave Gahan has finally struck out alone, albeit temporarily, and recorded his solo debut album. He has roped in multi instrumentalist friend Knox Chandler to deal with the fiddly bits, leaving himself free to concentrate on the misery.
At the end of the nineties Gahan won his battle against drug addiction and thisfight against his demons infuses ‘Paper Monsters’. Ten songs of defiantdesperation highlight his self-inflicted pain, on ‘Dirty Sticky Floors’ Gahanoffers what is perhaps an all too familiar image: “I’ll soon be lyingon my own; On some dirty sticky floor”. A good choice as the first single,it is the most up-tempo song on the album, with strong guitar inflections fromChandler.