"Speak And Spell" by DEPECHE MODE – October 1981 UK Debut Album on Mute Records featuring Dave Gahan, Vince Clarke, Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore (March 2009 UK Mute 'CD + DVD Collectors Edition' Reissue with Kevin Van Bergen and Simon Heyworth Remasters and 5.1 Remixes) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Just Can't Get Enough..."

 

I worked for about a year in a huge Mail Order Company called Quickstep (named after a Thompson Twins track) who used to run up to 10 whole pages of line-by-line adverts in the old style Record Collector magazine. This would have been around 1990 and 1991 and they had HUGE artists with legions of collectors for them. Quickstep was your first stop for a multiple formats fix.

 

There was the Pet Shop Boys of course, Madonna, New Kids On The Block and even Bros where every seven-inch, twelve-inch, picture-disc, remix and foreign artwork picture sleeve (that was different) was devoured. But the Big Daddy of all collectable bands at that time - especially in the Electronica and Synth Rock fields - was Basildon's DEPECHE MODE.

 

Like Island Records' U2, Mute's DM were and still are to a large degree the very definition of cult and the band's devotees beyond the pale of looneytunes. I have never met a genuine DM fan that didn't actually froth at the mouth with excitement at the mere mention of their name or a flash of Dave Gahan's pearly whites (his underpants came later).

 

Right from the get go and in accordance with the Satanic Manuel of Debaucherous Allegiance (you can order a copy at a library near you) - Depeche Mode Fans had to have everything their pimple-faced heroes did and Hammersmith's Mute Records knew it. "Just Can't Get Enough" wasn't just a No. 8 Top-Ten Indie hit in September 1981 - it was actually a statement of intent as far as disciples of Depeche Mode were concerned. 

 

Which brings us to the start of all that mania, the pre excess-all-areas years. Their October 1981 debut album "Speak And Spell" is eons away from what DM became with "Violator" (1990), "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" (1993) and "Ultra" (1997) - the last two hitting the number one spot with ease whilst "Violator" and its notorious aftermath tour was a mere number two. Re-hearing this Eighties Synth and Electronica LP reminds me of Top Of The Pops and how Depeche were always thrown in with the New Romantics - essentially any Rock Band with a man standing behind a Synth (a term Daniel Miller flatly denies in his superb liner notes, he calls them futurists). For God's sake, 1981 hit its 40th Anniversary last year, 2021. Can it really have been that far back, and how young were we then? And where did all that hairspray go? And I wish I hadn't ripped down all those posters from the walls – they'd be worth dosh now...

 

But more importantly, let's call "Speak And Spell" what it is – a cracking Pop start chockers with chunes as hooky as carpet nail tacks - even if it does sounds a tad naïve now in the cold light of 2022. Time to plot out this multi-format reissue...

 

UK released 16 March 2009 - "Speak And Spell" by DEPECHE MODE on Mute DMCDX1 (Barcode 5099969432521) is a CD + DVD Collectors Edition Reissue and Remaster with Documentary Material and 5.1 Surround Sound Remixes (DVD) that plays out as follows:

 

CD (43:45 minutes):

1. New Life [Side 1]

2. I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead 

3. Puppets

4. Boyssaygo!

5. Nodisco

6. What's Your Name?

7. Photographic [Side 2]

8. Tora! Tora! Tora!

9. Big Muff 

10. Any Second Now (Voices)

11. Just Can't Get Enough 

12. Dreaming Of Me 

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "Speak And Spell" - released 5 October 1981 in the UK on Mute Records STUMM 5.

CD NOTES: The American LP on Sire Records SRK 3642 (same release date) replaced "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" (Track 3) with "Dreaming Of Me" - hence its inclusion here as Track 12 (the Single Mix at 4:01 minutes that doesn't fade out). Also, most US copies of the LP carried the Schizo Mix of "Just Can't Get Enough" at 6:44 minutes compared to the UK LP version of 3:44 minutes without the packaging saying this. So the Schizo Mix is included also, but only on the DVD-Audio Disc.

 

DVD 

A SHORT FILM 

1. Depeche Mode: 1980-1981 (Do We Really Have To Give Up Our Day Jobs?)

28:24 minute film Directed by Phillip Michael Lane and Ross Hallard  

 

SPEAK AND SPELL ALBUM in 5.1 and STEREO 

Tracks 2 to 13 are per line-up of the CD

 

ADDITIONAL TRACKS 

14. Ice Machine (released March 1981, Non-LP B-side of their debut UK 45-single "Dreaming Of Me" on Mute 013)

15. Shout (released June 1981, Non-LP B-side of their second UK 45-single "New Life" on Mute 014)

16. Any Second Now (released September 1981, Non-LP B-side of their third UK 45-single "Just Can't Get Enough" on Mute 016) 

17. Just Can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix) - on US LPs (see Notes above)

DVD NOTES: 

A Short Film in PCM Stereo
Speak And Spell in 5.1 and Stereo: DTS 5.1 (24bit/96k) / Dolby Digital 5.1 (24bit/48k) / PCM Stereo
Additional Tracks: DTS 5.1 (24bit/96k) / Dolby Digital 5.1 (24bit/48k) / PCM Stereo

The foldout card digipak is pretty without being a whole lot more, but at least Mute Records label found DANIEL MILLER does a properly thorough job of describing those years of 1980 and 1981 when he first saw the band live and took them on without lawyers and contracts. The black and white photos of the young band in shirts and ties and on boats and in parks with wooden crosses are a hoot and its cool to see the lyrics too.

 

Miller is quite rightly proud of his judgement back in the day. The buzz around Depeche Mode was rewarded right from the horse's gates and everything they've done ever since has been gold for Mute (Miller sold to EMI in 2002). Mute have had Yazoo, Erasure, New Order, Goldfrapp, Nick Cave and many more, but the label will forever be the spiritual home of Depeche Mode (Vince Clarke would form another synth-based group Yazoo with the superlative singer Alison Moyet shortly after leaving DM and go on to have huge success with them and the short-lived group The Assembly). 

KEVIN VAN BERGEN and SIMON HEYWORTH did the Remasters and 5.1 Remixes for the DVD-A from original tapes - clean, ballsy and bright like a new bulb. I'm kind of amazed though that this Collectors Edition Reissue only puts the B-sides on the DVD disc? Everyone whose anyone who lived through the 90s promo-only 12" single craze knows there are remixes of remixes of Mute tracks and yet not one has shown up as a genuine collector's bonus on the CD? To be milked at a later date fans will no doubt fear? 

Still a cool reminder and I'm damned if I didn't bop around my living room re-hearing "New Life" - what a hoot...