Master and Servant Master and Servant "Master and Servant" is Depeche Mode's eleventh UK single (released on 20 August 1984) and the second single from the "Some Great Reward" album. Its subject matter is BDSM relationships, which caused some controversy. It reached number 9 in the UK Singles Chart, number 49 in the American dance chart and number 87 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The overtly sexual, BDSM-themed lyrics of "Master and Servant" — complete with synthesized whip-and-chain sound effects — reportedly meant that the song was banned by many radio stations in the United States (although the song reached the "Billboard" Hot
Confessions of a Pop Group Eighties: One Day, One Decade", journalist Dylan Jones described "Confessions of a Pop Group" as the pinnacle of the band's career, and that Weller's only problem "was convincing other people that this was the case." Several writers have placed "Confessions of a Pop Group" within different contexts, both socially and within Weller's career. Writer Paolo Hewitt wrote that the album was Weller's attempt to obtain complete musical freedom, "not answering to anyone," describing it as "the strangest record Weller ever involved himself in." Liberal politics magazine the "New Statesman" found the album to provide proof that left-leaning bands in Britain