Depeche Mode, "Two Minute Warning" (Track of Week)

Like a lot of other people my age, I have been revisiting the nuclear-themed music of my 80s childhood. Current events have brought back the familiar feelings of fear and helplessness in the face of world events that could lead to the red button. The music helps me deal with these familiar emotions. It only goes so far, of course, because even without the bomb being dropped Ukraine is being brutalized. That's got me thinking back to the evening news back in the early 80s, with a nightly report from Beirut or Belfast with blood on the streets.

I also remember a nightly news report after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the reporter talking to a radio DJ about what music they would be playing now. Depeche Mode's Music for the Masses was one record the DJ showed the reporter, to the reporter's evident bewilderment. (American radio was so basic at the time that even Depeche Mode was out of bounds.) My host brother from the former East Germany, who came for his visit in 1993, also adored the band. This was a great moment of bonding between the two of us since Violater had been in constant rotation in my CD player. At the time it seemed like they were the Beatles in Europe. 

I'd missed "Two Minute Warning," which came out in 1983 when I was still only listening to Top 40. I've discovered it in middle age as a particularly good atomic war song. David Gahan's singing on the chorus is wonderfully eerie. The title is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, something I paid attention to quite a bit back in those days. Maybe it's time to bring it back. In the meantime, I will listen to Depeche Mode.