Speak & Spell

I did not enjoy this album. I usually love DM, but this was not a good debut.

A Depeche Mode album in name only, it serves as an interesting experiment of fusing Vince Clarke’s songs with Dave Gahan’s vocals and Martin Gore’s dark sensibilities. Infectious pop melodies and hooks permeate this entire album. And not only the most popular songs most people know, but even the lesser known gems like “Puppets”, “Photographic” and “Tora Tora Tora”- one of Martin Gore’s compositions which would serve as a dark preview of what was to come for Depeche later. Forget the bad haircuts and an overall ridiculous image from his time that haunted them for years…they were kids trying to find their way. But if you just listen to the music, it still holds up today and serves as a perfect time capsule for that era. The simple keyboard electronics combined with Dave Gahan's youthful exuberence defined the sound of an entire new movement. "Dreaming of Me' and "New Life" are infectious dance songs, and no song defines the era better than "Just Can't Get Enough". Thoe opening keyboard riff ha, and forever will be short-hand for all things fun and carefree in the 80s.

Hard to imagine that this is where it began. Fresh, upbeat, simple driving synth rock. It doesn't get much better than this.

I was mainly introduced to DM through everthing counts feature on gta: vice city stories. But i had listened to just can't get enough in the past. Seeing the US version of this album makes me feel ripped off that the british reissue got the b-sides. Anyways this itunes version might be worth it, since it appears they placed the "Some Bizzare Album" version of "Photgraphic" here instead of the version that is apparantly on all others. Anyways getting back to the point, great album.

No Disco best track on this album. Thank you Vince for a great album.

Yes, it's original Depeche Mode, and it's got great songs like Photographic, Just Can't Get Enough and actually every other song on here (although I could do without What's Your Name?), I have to say that it's not really a good intro into Depeche Mode's music. All of the songs except for Tora! Tora! Tora! were written by Vince Clark of Erasure fame, and he left the band before their second album. He was replaced by Alan Wilder, and Martin Gore took over the songwriting. That's why it sounds more poppy and cheery than all of DM's other albums. Still, it's a great album with some classic songs. Buy it, love it.