Here's a  transcription of  the interview Robert did for the Rocktropolis For The Masses special

Robert:We've bumped into Depeche over the years, a lot. And they've bumped into us. They've been to see us
play quite a few times, we've been to see them play, um and there's lots of other connections kinda behind the
scenes. Perry, our guitarist, went to school with most of Depeche and so has known them from the days when they
were, uh pre-New Romantic or whatever the hell they were when they started. So yeah we've know each other for
a long, long time. In fact they were probably among our very few showbiz friends.

That's Robert Smith of the Cure explaining why his band decided to contribute a Depeche Mode cover for the
album. Smith had his choice of several songs, but eventually chose World in My Eyes and here's why.

Robert: For me it was a straight choice between World in My Eyes and um, (Robert sings) "Try walking in my
shoes.." 'cause very much my favorite song really. And I thought they, both those songs I could kinda get into
them lyrically, and I thought they'd suit my voice and I thought I could do an interpretation that would sort of at
least throw another light on the song. And I went for World in My Eyes in the end because it felt more natural, I
tried both of them at home and that just worked straight away.

Here's the Cure's version of World in My Eyes.

(The Cure - World in My Eyes is played)

That's The Cure with World in My Eyes from the Depeche Mode Tribute album For the Masses.Interestingly
The Cure's Robert Smith isn't that concerned what Depeche Mode thinks of that track.

Robert: Some of them have heard it, Dave's heard it, Martin likes it. I'm sure they all like it, but I wouldn't say
they didn't, even if they didn't. But I hope they like it, you know. But I mean I don't think that was really, you
know it wasn't a big concern because that might have stopped us doing something, like thinking "Are they gonna
like it?". I think it was more important for us to do something that we liked really. But I'm glad that they do like
it, I mean it would be unsettling if they didn't.

We'll have more with Robert Smith of The Cure a little later.

Leading off For The Masses is the Smashing Pumpkins version of Never Let Me Down Again which is a
particular favorite of The Cure's Robert Smith.

Robert: I think the Smashing Pumpkins one is really good, I think the first four are really good <laughs>.

The best person to offer a sense of perspective on the Depeche Mode tribute album is Robert Smith of the Cure,
because he's a contemporary of theirs. The Cure have had their own tribute albums, so Smith knows a bit about
it.

Robert: There have a couple of Cure tribute albums in the past 3 or 4 years. One came from Scandinavia and
one came out of America, but they were both very low key, I mean not really comparable,I shouldn't dismiss
them because they were done by bands who like The Cure and wanted to um, it's kinda more of a thank you I
think. There were bits that I liked about it, it's sort of strange, I mean I don't know how Depeche feel about a
tribute album, it's kind of, it's almost like an end of career thing. It's like this is your legacy. But I listened to
them, and I wrote to the groups involved thanking them for their efforts. It was alright, I dunno, it's a difficult
subject actually.

On that point, the people who, the bands who covered us tried to sound more like us. And I think what makes
this tribute album as good as it is, is that most of the bands aren't trying to sound like Depeche, they're actually
trying to sound like themselves doing Depeche songs, and that's why it works. But I think probably like a lot
of the bands on there have got more identity, 'cause there's a lot more recognizable bands on this, so they've
kind of established an identity for themselves, so I think it's easier. Whereas the couple of albums that have
been done so far for us have mainly been kinda fan based, so it's not really the same thing.

Robert Smith believes that Depeche Mode deserves this tribute record because they are that rare band that
has achieved both critical acclaim and huge popularity.

Robert: They occupy an unusual position in that they've developed out of what I would consider to be a pretty,
uh, I mean I don't know how to put this nicely, but there are some things that they did when they first started
out in the first couple of years, kind of image wise and musically, which live and haunt and then have lived and
haunted many other groups. You know you kinda look back and most groups don't recover from that kind of
beginning. I think they've done really well in that they've managed to kinda develop into a critically acclaimed
group but one that is also hugely popular, and there's very few groups that manage that, I mean I don't think
The Cure's every really occupied that kind of position, we've generally been critically hated as we've become
popular. I think a lot of that ties into how they've kinda manipulated their image, and they've always used like
Anton Corbjin, I think it's very clever the whole kind of way it's put together, it's not contrived, it's just like a
very natural kind of thing that comes out of the members of the band and personalities, but its worked really
well.

So what's the most interesting aspect of Depeche Mode according to Robert Smith?

Robert: It's the way that Martin's words and the kind of like, the emotion that's in a lot of the lyrics is married
to a very, almost soulless kind of music. I think our favorite Depeche songs are ones that are very clinical
sounding, but actually like, got a lot of emotion lyrically. And it's a weird combination, they're probably, its a
very unique Depeche thing, that's what drew me toward them, 'cause I wasn't originally a big Depeche fan,
certainly in the 80's, it's only really since about '89 that I've thought they turned into a really good group.
There's always like 2 or 3 songs on every Depeche album which are very memorable and are really well put
together and just like stand up to any kind of interpretation which is the sign of a good song, you know you can
kinda play it on an acoustic guitar, blah ,blah, blah, which I think comes from the way Martin writes. I mean a
lot of what Depeche do is sort of based on the sounds and it's like the songs are tied up with the sounds, but the
really, really good songs, once you take all the sounds away, the songs still there.

How about another one of Robert Smith's favorite tracks, Veruca Salt's version of Somebody?

Robert: I really like Veruca Salt, I think it's really different, sort of a nice little change of tone.

For a final word on the album, let's check back in with The Cure's Robert Smith

Robert: I really like the songs, most of the songs on there are my favorite Depeche songs, so you can't really
go wrong.