Music / Speak & Spell

"I just can't get enough."

Speak & Spell, released in 1981 through Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the US, is the debut studio album by English Synth-Pop band Depeche Mode. Their first and only album with keyboardist and songwriter Vince Clarke, who departed the following year, the album stands as a significant contrast to the material that the band would later become famous for. Owing to Clarke's personal songwriting preferences, the music on the album is much more minimalistic and bubbly compared to Depeche Mode's later brand of moody Alternative Dance, with Silly Love Songs all throughout the record. Only two songs on Speak & Spell were written by the band's longer-lasting chief songwriter Martin Gore, those being "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Big Muff".

Regarding the background to the album, Depeche Mode first courted around a number of labels, and in turn were courted by a number of big names in the music industry. However, not wanting to commit to the proposed multi-album contracts, the band turned them all down, eventually settling with nascent indie label Mute Records after grabbing the interest of head Daniel Miller, who had attended one of their gigs. The first result of this was the single "Dreaming of Me", which peaked at number 57 on the UK Singles chart; while this didn't equate to groundbreaking success, it was still big for a band as green as Depeche Mode, encouraging them to record and release the singles "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough", each of which were a successively greater success for the band. With "New Life", the band were able to make their first appearance on Top of the Pops, and "Just Can't Get Enough" proved to be the band's Breakthrough Hit in Britain, charting at number 8 on the UK Singles chart and leading to the release of Speak & Spell the following month.

Thus was the first chapter in the history of Depeche Mode, one that would veer into a radically different direction just one month after the release of this album thanks to the departure of one heavily disillusioned Vince Clarke. Clarke would later go on to form Yazoo in the immediate aftermath, and then Erasure just two years after that fell through.

Speak & Spell produced three singles: "Dreaming of Me" (in the US only^note the single was released in both the US and the UK, but was only included on the US release of Speak & Spell), "New Life", and "Just Can't Get Enough".

Tracklists:

UK Mute Records release:

Side One

1. "New Life" (3:43)
2. "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" (2:16)
3. "Puppets" (3:55)
4. "Boys Say Go!" (3:03)
5. "Nodisco" (4:11)
6. "What's Your Name?" (2:41)

Side Two

1. "Photographic" (4:44)
2. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (4:34)
3. "Big Muff" (4:20)
4. "Any Second Now (Voices)" (2:35)
5. "Just Can't Get Enough" (3:40)

US Sire Records release:

Side One

1. "New Life (Re Mix)" (3:56)
2. "Puppets" (3:57)
3. "Dreaming of Me" (3:42)
4. "Boys Say Go!" (3:04)
5. "Nodisco" (4:13)
6. "What's Your Name?" (2:41)

Side Two

1. "Photographic" (4:58)
2. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (4:24)
3. "Big Muff" (4:21)
4. "Any Second Now (Voices)" (2:33)
5. "Just Can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix)" (6:41)

Complicating circulating, new tropes, new tropes:

• Alternate Album Cover: The album's US release altered◊ the front cover art to slightly re-center the photo and replace the original logotype for the band name and album title with one based on the crown design on the back cover. Five years later, Mute Records would create another new cover◊ for their CD release of the album, featuring a zoom-in on the swan in the photo against a black backdrop.
• Author Appeal: Photography and motion picture imagery appear a number of times on the album, especially on the US version.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Probably one of the more extreme examples in popular music. Thanks to this being the only album to feature Vince Clarke as the primary songwriter (as opposed to Martin Gore, who took over songwriting duties after Clarke left), the songs are a lot bouncier and more minimalist than Depeche Mode's later, more brooding work, and there's an unusually high presence of Silly Love Songs. The album is also more straightforward Synth-Pop compared to the sample-heavy and industrial-influenced work of most of their later material.
• Epic Rocking: the Schizo Mix of "Just Can't Get Enough" on the US release.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Puppets", a song about controlling puppets.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Photographic" into "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
• Ho Yay: Invoked on "What's Your Name?"
• I Am the Band: If comparisons between Speak & Spell and Vince Clarke's work with Yazoo and Erasure are any indication, he basically was Depeche Mode on this album, the sole exceptions being the Martin Gore-penned "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Big Muff".
• Instrumental: "Big Muff"
• New Wave Music: This album explores the genre at its kitschiest, something that Vince Clarke would carry into his later work post-Depeche Mode.
• Non-Appearing Title: "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead", "Puppets", and "Any Second Now (Voices)". "Big Muff" also technically counts thanks to it being an instrumental, meaning there isn't actually a place to mention the title anywhere in the song.
• Non-Indicative Title: The song called "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" is actually a bouncy Silly Love Song.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Nodisco" quotes the chorus of "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads, in both the song and the title.
  • "Tora! Tora! Tora!" is one to the film of the same name, in both title and subject matter.
  • The album title itself is a shout-out to the Speak & Spell line of toy computers, which earned a Periphery Demographic among electronic musicians for the ability to modify it for use as a synthesizer.
• Silly Love Songs: Much of the album qualifies, but "Just Can't Get Enough" is perhaps the biggest example.
• Swans A-Swimming: The album art features a Whooper Swan wrapped in cellophane, mimicking a wedding veil.
• Synth-Pop: A hallmark album of the genre, and one of only two Depeche Mode albums (the other being A Broken Frame) to be straightforward examples of this trope.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: "Tora! Tora! Tora!", an uncharacteristically dour song about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on an album otherwise littered with bouncy, upbeat tracks. Tellingly, it was one of only two songs on the album written by Martin Gore, who would play a big role in developing Depeche Mode's Darker and Edgier direction after Clarke's departure.
• Updated Re Release: Mute Records' first CD reissue of the album adds in the "cold-end version" of "Dreaming of Me", the 12" mix of "Just Can't Get Enough" (originally included on the US release in lieu of the 7" version), and the B-sides to the album's associated singles as bonus tracks. The US CD, meanwhile, keeps the tracklist unaltered from the 1981 US LP.
• Word Salad Lyrics: A heavy feature of this album.

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