Now around the 40 year-old mark it can only be expected that the creative juices of the kings of electro-rock should start drying up now. After three largely excellent, evolving albums in the 1990's 'Exciter' demonstrates that the Basildon trio are beginning to tread water and suddenly they have lost the ability to be innovative. Having said that this album is something of a grower and has fine, quietly great moments despite its lack of ambition. On 'When The Body Speaks' Dave Gahan delivers one of his most vulnerable vocals yet and is perhaps the only song on this album that can be described as spine-tingling. Elsewhere a mood of effortless cool is predominant with 'I Am You', 'Comatose' and 'Freelove' standing out as tortoise-paced electro-pop numbers. The only moment of teeth-grinding irritation stems from 'The Dead Of Night'; a horrible industrial goth-rock dirge which they really shouldn't have recorded. So, overall, it's a good album on its own terms but calling it 'Exciter' just doesn't seem to fit the contents on offer.