Sounds of The Universe - Reception

Reception

Sounds of the Universe received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 70, based on 28 reviews. Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt stated that on Sounds of the Universe, Depeche Mode "still sound genuinely inspired" and Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave the album four out of five stars, concluding: "Sounds of the Universe is a grower, relying on a few listens to fully take effect, but when it does, it shows Depeche Mode are still able to combine pop-hook accessibility and their own take on 'roots' music for an electronic age with sonic experimentation and recombination." Awarding the album five stars, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph noted that the album "shows up the imaginative constraints of most guitar-based rock."

However, Rolling Stone critic Melissa Maerz felt that "the result sounds like a time machine back to the Eighties", adding that "Depeche Mode should be poised for a comeback, but it's too soon to unpack those black turtlenecks." Bill Stewart of PopMatters rated the album five out of ten, saying Depeche Mode "tempt us with a strong first half and then dump us in a collection of tossed off b-sides." Jon Caramanica wrote for The New York Times that while the album "lacks the fragility of 1986's Some Great Reward or the earned attitude of 1990's Violator, it's unmistakably an attempt at revisiting the past, admirable either as an act of defiant stubbornness or tenacious commitment", but also opined that "even at its most imaginative, this is seamless Depeche Mode filler, music that could be made by any number of acolytes."

Sounds of the Universe debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart on sales of 30,537 copies—the band's highest position since 1997's chart-topping Ultra. In the United States, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 80,000 units in its first week. However, it only spent one week in the UK and US top ten, and like its predecessor Playing the Angel, it only spent four weeks on the UK chart altogether. Despite its high chart placing, Sounds of the Universe became the band's lowest selling studio album in the UK, and is their second album to fail to achieve a certification from the British Phonographic Industry, after 2001's Exciter. The album was ultimately ranked number 200 on the Billboard 200 year-end chart for 2009, and had sold 193,000 copies in the US by November 2012, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Sounds of the Universe was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards, but lost out to Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The album's sleeve design was voted number ten on the 2009 Best Art Vinyl poll.