*** DEPECHE MODE “Violator” <i> Sire/Reprise</i> :<i> Album scale: one star (poor) to five (a classic.)</i>

Has success altered Depressed Mood? The Anglo-Angsters’ latest starts with “World in My Eyes,” a downright sensual invocation. The already-been-a-hit “Personal Jesus” is apparently an honest-to, well, -God invitation to prayer, and “Waiting for the Night” talks mistily about a guiding star.

Not so fast. “World in My Eyes” ultimately keys on the line “That’s all there is, nothing more than you can feel now,” “Jesus” is followed by the Apocalypse-welcoming “Halo” and “Night” anticipates “when everything’s dark / keeps us from the stark reality.” And it’s all presented with a tone of resigned disgust (see album title). Yes, the world of DM is still bleak ‘n’ blue, colored by that particularly adolescent (but--let’s face it--fairly universal) inability to relate to anything except others who feel the same as you.

But solipsistic as it may be, it is a universal feeling, and the Mode has captured it as well as ever. On the other hand, “Violator” offers little the band hasn’t served up before. The music is more Kraftwerkian than ever but the melodies remain dirge-like, David Gahan’s vocals stay unvaryingly somber, and the explicit cathartic quality of the songs is still no more forceful than the implicit permission to wallow.