** Various Artists

FOR THE MASSES

(1500/A&M)

Depeche Mode have been making sonically inventive hits for nearly 15 years. Those who've colored this very English outfit pop wimps because of gentle vocals and simple rhymes have missed Mode's dark wit and pioneering use of samples and found sounds in mainstream music.

Some of the artists paying tribute to Depeche Mode on this 16-track CD also miss the point. Rabbit in the Moon's "Waiting for the Night" gets lost in a lukewarm bath of generic trip-hip. The humor of "Stripped" eludes Rammstein (no surprise). And Veruca Salt -- in one of their final appearances -- ruin "Somebody" by eschewing their trademark loud guitars for a near a cappella treatment. See, one point about Depeche Mode that's been lost on rockers is how well their songs take to guitars. Billy Corgan knows this, so Smashing Pumpkins' "Never Let Me Down Again" plays like a beautiful missing track from the Pumpkins' own recent CD. The Deftones also come on Marshall-strong, as do Dishwalla. God Live Underwater hew faithfully well to the dour classic "Fly on a Windscreen," but the same strategy makes Meat Beat Manifesto sound unimaginative. Ultimately, For the Masses has too many misses.

-- Ted Drozdowski