List | D | Depeche Mode | 'Speak & Spell' CD 1981

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	New Life	3:46
2.	I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead	2:18
3.	Puppets	3:58
4.	Boys Say Go!	3:07
5.	Nodisco	4:15
6.	What's Your Name?	2:45
7.	Photographic	4:44
8.	Tora! Tora! Tora!	4:37
9.	Big Muff	4:24
10.	Any Second Now Voices	2:35
11.	Just Can't Get Enough	3:44
12.	Dreaming Of Me	4:02
13.	Ice Machine	4:05
14.	Shout	3:46
15.	Any Second Now	3:08
16.	Just Can't Get Enough Schizo Mix	6:46
	Total	62:01

Comments:

This is very much a Vince Clarke album; very blippy, bouncy, happy synth pop. Vince left after this album to form Yazoo, then later The Assembly and Erasure, which left Martin Gore as lone songwriter. Martin wrote only 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and 'Big Muff' on this album, neither of which are particularly excellent.

If you're a fan of Depeche Mode, you might have noticed that this is not the original release, but rather the 1988 re-release 'Speak & Spell + extra tracks'. Why? Well, when this stuff was initially released I was just a small brat, still playing around with my Lego. I knew nothing about music, and even less about good music.

During my heavy metal period in the mid 80:s I hated Depeche Mode. I hated all synth music, because 'synths are wussy and guitars are cool'. Now I like both, but more in the favour of synths. Anyway, I didn't really discover Depeche Mode until they re-released Everything Counts (live) in 1987. "Hey", I thought, "didn't they have some other pretty good tracks as well, back in the early 80:s?". So, I taped all their albums from my older brother and sat down and listened. And listened. And listened. And then I bought all the albums myself. And then I bought all the singles. And then I bought all limited stuff I could find. I was hooked. This is the band that really got me into synth music; otherwise I still might be listening to top-40 stuff (well, maybe not).

So, what's good on this album? Well, if you like Vince's stuff you'll like it all, I guess. Personally, I think 'Photographic' is the best track, followed closely by 'Ice Machine' and then by a handful of others; mostly the singles but also 'I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead' and 'Any Second Now (voices)' (which is a lot better with the voices than the remixes on the Just Can't Get Enough single IMHO.

Just a small detail: this album was produced by the one and only Daniel Miller, founder of the label Mute and the man behind the bands The Normal and, perpaps more well-known, The Silicon Teens - a band that has influenced lots of other bands, including Swedish synth pop band Page.

Oh, another notability: back when this was released, this was really 'mainstream', just one of dozens of other bands with very similar sound and style. Kind of reminds me of the cheap, bad Euro-disco scene today. However, there's one major difference: I like this kind of music.

Addendum: I just recently got hold of the excellent Some Bizarre version of the great track 'Photographic' off this album. It kicks the crap out of this version. I really can't understand why it's not on this album.

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