De/vision "Noob"

I picked up De/vision's Noob this weekend. Although it's been out for a few months now, I've been kinda out of touch with the synthpop world and De/vision in particular, since finding 6 Feet Underground and Subkutan both somewhat disappointing and bland. Noob so far strikes me as harking back to their classic heyday---but I haven't heard enough of it yet to say definatively. I can say that my first listen through was considerably boring than my first listen through on either of their last two.

In case you don't know, De/vision is one of the longest running and most successful of the Depeche Mode imitators, who were unfortunate enough to come along a little bit too late to ride the synthpop wave to mainstream recognizabability. They're not terribly different in many ways to Red Flag, Camouflage, Seven Red Seven or Cause and Effect, who managed to eke out at least a single or two and a full-length CD before synthpop was pushed underground by the ressurgence of Grunge. De/vision's first full-length CD came out in 1994; well too late for mainstream success.

They have, however, been very popular in their native Germany, and that success gradually propelled them to being one of the most popular bands in the indie-synthpop movement. In my opinion, they peaked in 1998 with their classic Monosex, but most of their CD's have had at least something to recommend them. I suspect Noob will linger long afterwards as one of their best.

Here's a quick and dirty list of their major full-length CDs. I've included three compilations because they included numerous rarities or at least rare remixes and alternate versions, but I did not include any of their two or three live albums.

• World Without End (1994)
• Unversed in Love (1995)
• Antiquity (1995)
• Fairyland? (1996)
• Monosex (1998)
• Zehn (1998)
• Void (2000)
• Two (2001)
• Remixed (2002)
• Devolution (2003)
• 6 Feet Underground (2004)
• Subkutan (2006)
• Best of... (2006)
• Noob (2007)