Depeche Mode

Repackaging exceptional 2009 Depeche Mode unauthorized documentary The Dark Progression along with dreadful 2009 bio The Ministry of Sound (which was a repackage of 2005's Random Access Memory), Rewind; 30 Years at the Edge is dubious even before the cellophane is cracked. Disc one (The Dark Progression) focuses largely on Depeche Mode's four classic LPs ― Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion ― not only offering a dissertation on the band's soaring popularity, but a look into the state of synth-pop and electronic music during that fruitful era. Excellently edited and conceived, featuring excerpts from DM music videos, concert footage (including scenes from D.A. Pennebaker's famed 101) and interviews with music journalists, producers and band biographer Jonathan Miller, Rewind becomes fascinating when DM contemporaries like Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby and OMD's Andy McCluskey chime in on the band's role in the '80s electronic and synth-pop scenes. On the other hand, disc two (The Ministry of Sound) comes off as an unqualified throwaway, leaving the viewer with second-rate Depeche Mode sound-alike stock music, still photos, interviews with school-time chums, a half-hearted narrator and a younger Jonathan Miller. For what it's worth, fans are better off tracking down the single disc The Dark Progression and pretending that Rewind; 30 Years of at the Edge never happened.