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Editorial Reviews

It may seem curious for the principal songwriter behind the world's best-known synth-pop band to record a solo album of darkly introspective covers, but this disc makes incongruity its calling card. Depeche Mode won global popularity with tunes that explored life's painful and seedy underbelly, and that's the aspect of Gore's interest that rises to the fore on Counterfeit², which arrives 14 years after its predecessor, the Counterfeit EP. His song selection paints a music fan whose interests span decades of underground rock back to old blues and country gems -- check his reading of the aching "In My Time of Dying" (which has been recorded by Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin) over a bleak electronic backdrop. No matter the source, Gore applies a similar technique: crafting richly textured, synth-based settings that reveal a link to the bedroom noodlings of Aphex Twin and Autechre, and applying his unadorned, evocative vocals. This works with equal effect on the Velvet Underground's self-loathing "Candy Says" and the meditative "Below the Surface" by Brian Eno, surely a huge influence on Gore's work here. He stretches out on a dramatic interpretation of Kurt Weill's "Lost in the Stars," sings in German on Nico's "Das Lied vom Einsamen Madchen," and offers a ray of optimism in this otherwise bleak universe on John Lennon's wide-eyed ode "Oh My Love." There's nothing counterfeit about Gore's devotion to these songs, or his passion for challenging fans and detractors alike. Lydia Vanderloo, Barnes & Noble

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