Artist: Depeche Mode
Label: Mute Records
Release: 1981
Rating: 2/5
It’s been 25 years since the release of “Speak And Spell”, and back in 1981 this album was an outrageous provocation, though today it’s viewed in a completely different light. Given that the album was spreading its popularity at the time thanks to the hits Just Can’t Get Enough and New Life, taken as a whole “Speak And Spell” was actually a revolution. Depeche Mode shoved the entire legacy of rock n’ roll onto synthesizers. All the guitar riffs, bass lines, drum work. All those jobs were now taken over by synthesizers. On top of them they added the highly recognizable vocals of Dave Gahan, the last to join the band. His voice was just the right one, injecting the music with a rebellious spirit of “naughty boys who are allowed anything”, along with all the unclichéd, controversial musicality, plus a pinch of punk arrogance. Depeche Mode came out of the underground, they were a completely alternative band. With all their weirdness, they appealed especially to young listeners!
Of course, to hardened rockers, “Speak And Spell” was nothing but an unparalleled scandal and a shameless undermining of good musical taste. But punk had happened, the N.W.O.B.H.M. and the New Romantics were going on, so why not open yet another new front. Depeche Mode picked up the instructions of pioneering Kraftwerk, mixed in a little Brian Eno, and went on playing around creatively with electronic tricks in their own distinctive way. They combined these synthetic approaches with a punk ethic (especially the clothing), adding a touch of their own pallid androgyny and obscurity. Rock n’ roll was stripped down and worn threadbare, its essence minimized into a sound not much different from what came out of the first PCs a la ZX Spectrum. Of course, the band leaned in many ways on existing references, carried by disco, which was increasingly infused with electronics itself, and that shows in tracks like Boys Say Go! or Nodisco, while at the same time, with tracks like the bombastic Tora! Tora! Tora!, then Big Muff or the atmospheric Photographic, they offered a totally new, unusual approach that was downright shocking for the uninitiated. So the sound and style were completely different from anything popular at the time, which makes “Speak And Spell” an album of total innovation in popular music, boldly flinging wide open new dimensional doors in the world of music. The songs were still structured in a way that, synths aside, you could easily tell their roots were in rock n’ roll, but everything sounded so different, so appealingly shocking, and on top of that wrapped in the infectiously friendly tones of electro pop dance. Vince Clarke, as the creative mastermind and sound chief of early Depeche Mode, was a razor-sharp, talented lad. Many of the elements he staked out in early Depeche Mode he later carried over effectively to Yazoo and Erasure.
“Speak And Spell” is the big bang and ground zero. The point that laid the foundations of British synth – pop. An ugly duckling on release, with the scope of a revolutionary transformation of how the masses perceived popular music. The boys radiate incredible inspiration, enthusiasm and drive. By all the standards and codes of what was then known and reasonable, they showed an unbelievable degree of courage for the time, coming out with such shockingly revolutionary stuff, whose quirks and game-changing potential they themselves didn’t fully grasp back then. The more strictly Depeche Mode limited their innovation to synths alone, the more “filtered” the whole sonic picture turned out, radiating an enormous emptiness, especially in the low end. But with all the groundbreaking difference they offered with “Speak And Spell”, this is something you can happily overlook. It was one small step for Depeche Mode, but a giant leap for music.
This reissue contains the remastered “Speak And Spell” CD plus a bonus DVD with a half-hour documentary showing the band in the studio recording the album, their first steps, comments from the band members and producer Daniel Miller, and an audio track in Digital Dolby stereo 5.1 “surround”. On top of that, it includes bonus tracks that have never before been released on CD. The booklet is hefty, with photos of the baby-faced innovators Dave, Martin, Vince and “Fletch” that’ll make your eyes pop. A must-buy for every Depeche Mode fan.
Line-up
Dave Gahan – vocals
Vince Clarke – keyboards
Martin Gore – keyboards
Andrew Fletcher – keyboards
Production
Daniel Miller
Track list
Disc 1 – SACD:
01. New Life
02. I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead
03. Puppets
04. Boys Say Go!
05. Nodisco
06. What’s Your Name?
07. Photographic
08. Tora! Tora! Tora!
09. Big Muff
10. Any Second Now (Voices)
11. Just Can’t Get Enough
12. Dreaming Of Me
Disc 2 -DVD:
01. New Life
02. I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead
03. Puppets
04. Boys Say Go!
05. Nodisco
06. What’s Your Name?
07. Photographic
08. Tora! Tora! Tora!
09. Big Muff
10. Any Second Now
11. Just Can’t Get Enough
12. Dreaming Of Me
Extra Material: (DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM Stereo)
01. Ice Machine
02. Shout
03. Any Second Now
04. Just Can’t Get Enough (Schizo Mix)
