A Collection of musings on music, life, and the world as we know it by someone who shouldn't know better.
When I'm with you baby, I go out of my head...
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Damn, I’m old. This album came out twenty-six years ago! Depeche Mode arrived on at least the English music scene with the Speak And Spell album, subtly yet importantly changing the landscape of electronic music. Previously the habitat for gloomy navelgazers like Gary Numan and the like, original member Vince Clarke guided the band into a pop-influenced territory that is almost anarchistic to the point of being punk, yet too chipper to be totally in the “New Romantic” camp. Loaded with three UK hit singles, Speak & Spell was the start to a career that produces top-10 albums to this day. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Rhino Records re-introduced all their albums in double-disc special editions, containing the original version of the album, with a DVD containing a short film, a 5.1 DTS mix of the album, and four additional song originally only available as b-sides and 12” releases. Let me tell you first off, this series is one of the most frustrating reissues I’ve owned. Instead of including the bonus tracks on the CD, the band/record label/whatever decided to stick them onto the DVD. This means you can’t listen to them unless you stick them in a DVD player. WTF!? The album itself is short enough as it is, so it wasn’t for time constraints. Somebody (like me, for instance) is paying about 25$ for each of these babies, that’s a real letdown. Okay, enough griping.
As for the music itself, Speak & Spell is a mixed bag. I mean, I loves me my Depeche, and the album is groundbreaking for its time in terms of instrumentation and production to precede the new wave movement, but most of the album does consist of slight, fluffy, even embarrassingly dopey lyrics. For me to have to turn down my blaring car stereo, as in the case of the has-to-be-novelty-it’s-so-gay “What’s Your Name” with the “hey you’re such a pretty boy, you’re so pretty (p-r-e-double-t-y!)” chorus, it’s got to be bad, though the hook is freakishly damn infectious. Homoerotic overtones dominate the middle of the album, between that song, the naïve “Boys Say Go”, and the comically snarky “Nodisco”. Simple words rule on the likes of the ironically titled “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” and eerie “Photographic”. However, in all of these songs, the music is entrancing, and Clarke apparently just needed a lyricist to compliment that, which he did in Andy Bell when he left to form Erasure. The best of the set on here, though, compares to anything the group has done since. This include the classic “Just Can’t Get Enough”, which perfectly balances it’s trite romantic lyrics with its gigantic hook-laden melody, from the call-response verse to the subversively anthemic chorus. “New Life” bubbles with keyboards and as the album opener upgrades it greatly, letting the listener know just what a keyboard-only band can do. And closer “Dreaming Of Me” grew on me, from being kind of whiny to sort of sweet, in a narcissistic way. On the other hand, “Puppets” is appropriately creepy, in a dark svengali sort. And DM’s soft, lovey side is shown by “Any Second Now (Voices)”, which sounds more like the band’s later work than Clarke’s. Vince Clarke left the band shortly after this album was released, leaving songwriting to Martin Gore, who contributes only two songs here, the instrumental “Big Muff” and the campy “Tora Tora Tora”, neither of which foretold the talent he will develop. As a whole, Speak & Spell has a good start, a listenable yet adolescent middle, and a kick-ass end (“Just Can Get Enough” and “Dreaming Of Me”, that is). The 5.1 mix is punchy, but since the production is all-electronic, is doesn’t provide as much texture as that kind of mix could do. As for the bonus tracks, there's only four, with one being the "Schizo" remix of "Just Can't Get Enough" that's really good, as well as the toss-off "Ice Machine" and marginally better "Shout", and an instrumental version of the album's "Any Second Now". All of these could have been easily stuck on the end of the reissue like my older British CD. Oh well. All in all for fans an interesting, yet unnerving release.
Grade: B- Best Cuts: "Just Can't Get Enough", "New Life", "Dreaming Of Me" Weakest Links: "What's Your Name", "Big Muff"
Speak & Spell made #192 pop albums in the US and #10 in the UK. "Dreaming Of Me" hit #47 dance club play and #57 in the UK. "New Life" hit #29 dance club play and #11 in the UK. "Shout" made #29 dance club play as the B-side to "New Life". "Just Can't Get Enough" made #26 dance club play and #8 in the UK. "Nodisco" hit #26 dance club play as the B-side to "Just Can't Get Enough".
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