I think it's pretty self-explanatory; the ranking starts at the top with the lowest ranked album, and it gets better as we move down the file. The score is a relative one, not an absolute one. And I may yet flip Exciter and Spirit's place, although that probably doesn't matter that much.
More by coincidence than by any other reason, the albums break out into three chunks; a low, medium and high ranked chunk with each chunk being more or less equivalent in size.
The low ranked chunk is mostly made up of recent albums; with "recent" again being relevant, and more based on style than on actual recentish date. It includes Exciter, Spirit, Delta Machine, Sounds of the Universe, and Songs of Faith and Devotion. I know, I know—SOFAD had mainstream popularity, and Alan Wilder wasn't even gone yet! So what? It was the album that kicked off the "modern" album phase, with a lot of 90s zeitgeist toxins in it. Loads of noisiness and feedback, and grunge and fuzz. And the weirdo gospel influences, which I've never for the life of me understood.
The middle chunk, as I've said before, are all very different from each other, and the daylight between them can only be determined by photo finish. I've actually shuffled them a bit from where I'd originally placed them, but that shouldn't be seen as evidence that my opinion on them or my esteem for them has really changed much. These albums are Playing the Angel, which although it belongs to the modern group is the best of them, Ultra, which is a weird kind of pseudo-modern and pseudo-throwback album, Speak & Spell, which is essentially a different group altogether, given how much Vince Clark's influence was all through it, and A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again, where Martin Gore and Co. were trying to find their feet and their sound without Clark.
The top tier albums are Violator, Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, and Music for the Masses, in that order. I know most people would probably put Violator at the top of that heap, but I think its actually the least of the top tier albums for various reasons.
The real question too, of course, is where is the new album Memento Mori going to fit in here? It's still probably too early for me to make that determination with confidence, but I am pretty sure that it's going to end up in the middle chunk. It's, along with Playing the Angel, the best of the newer albums, and the best album since Playing the Angel. Whether I think i's actually better than Angel or not I'm not sure yet. Like many of the newer album, it only has one contender for a real top tier song, and I don't know for sure if I think "Ghosts Again" is going to make the cut as a truly top tier song or not. It's clearly the best on the album, and by a wide margin. The real determination is how does the rest of the "album filler" stack up? I think it's better than most. But I'll have to listen to it many more times before I'm certain where I think it belongs.
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