Book review: Jonathan Miller's "Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode

Please excuse the tardiness of this post as I've just moved to Boise. Man, that's a bit of a headache and it really does force me to see just how many books I own. Maybe not for long?

Anyhoo, I've just read a band biography about Depeche Mode, this book, specifically. I found it to be a pretty extensive account of the development of DM throughout the years. Some may find all the info on Vince Clarke's post-Depeche career a little irrelevant, but I appreciated it if only because I'm a bit curious about Erasure at this point in time.

This book is mostly cobbled together through interviews originally published in music magazines, such as Smash Hits, New Musical Express, and Melody Maker. But don't let that fact keep you from thinking that this book has nothing more to offer. Miller interviewed many people himself to flesh out the book and to get other sides to the story. He interviewed Vince Clarke, Jo Gahan, Gareth Jones (producer), and many of the band's old acquaintances from their days living in Basildon.

Miller is a sympathetic narrator and one that's easy to follow. I found his writing style effective. He obviously put in a lot of work, "2,000 man hours" as he put it. All that work is reflected in the text and in the bibliography. The reader comes away feeling like they have a fairly accurate story of Depeche Mode.

This book made me, as a relatively new fan, aware of the personalities of all the band members. Surely old fans who actively sought out interviews already knew a bit about all the musicians, but I found it nice. One Amazon reviewer surmised that Alan Wilder wouldn't appreciate the author for making him seem "arrogant, filled with self importance." I just found him delightfully acerbic and funny as hell, but I'm a bit biased in Wilder's favor. I found him to be sensible and matter-of-fact, not self-important. It seems like he holds no hard feelings about the departure and neither does the rest of the group. Maybe he's a bit hard on Fletch, but everyone had their turn being hard on Fletch.

This is surely a hefty read. The main part of the book is 518 pages and the bibliography and discography punches it up to 596 pages. Despite its length, it's still an engrossing read. One gripe that my sister and an Amazon reviewer shared is the fact that Miller spent more time and words on the early days and sped through the more recent years and albums.

If you want some sort of rating system, I would give this book 4/5 stars.