Depeche Mode - Speak and Spell
#479
By Chris Roberts
October 5 1981
Depeche Mode
Speak and Spell
Genre: Biddi-biddi-biddi get down!
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Chris’ Rating: 3.75 of 5
Highlights:
Just Can’t Get Enough
New Life
I Sometimes Wish I Were Dead
Puppets
On his way to brewing up “Situation” and “Oh L’Amour,” Vince Clarke spilled his bubbly synth pop, leaving Speak & Spell so slick, it doesn’t sound like Depeche Mode. Dave Gahan is there, and some versions of the LP have a song called “I Sometimes Wish I Were Dead,” but that’s about it. Depeche Mode’s spiritual start could be 1982’s A Broken Frame, where Martin Gore took over the songwriting. Or maybe the industrial turn on 1983’s Construction Time Again, the first full album with Alan Wilder. But neither of those albums are as fun as Speak & Spell.
Speak & Spell was named after a kid’s electronic learning toy, and both album and device are candy-colored showcases for a new generation of synthetic joys. The first song, “New Life,” could be the Lost In Space robot’s audition for American Bandstand. “Dreaming of Me” might be the accompanying soundtrack to reviewing a Florentine Gardens blueprint rendered on a dot-matrix printer. From start to finish, Clarke’s melodies blink like a multi-colored LEDs, compared to DM’s anthemic black celebrations to come. There’s lots of Kraftwerk at werk, but the songs are mostly sugar spun. Forced to pick a favorite, I’d probably say “Puppets” or “I Sometimes Wish I Were Dead,” but I wouldn’t say it with gusto. Johnny Cash may have covered “Personal Jesus,” but he was never going to sing “Big Muff” or “Nodisco!” These robots aren’t the scary Cylons from the reboot pretending to be humans. These are the original BSG centurions, and like all the best boy bands, they’re shiny and cool, but empty voids behind that one bouncing red eye.
The key exception is “Just Can’t Get Enough,” the final song, and why Vince Clarke’s involvement in DM was crucial in the beginning. Putting JCGE at the end is a shame. Nothing filled KROQ Night dance floors like that opening synth, and it’s a blast to sing-along in concert. DM still plays it. Rhino Records named their fifteen volume 80’s New Wave Hits Collection after the song. It’s MASSIVE. Would DM have survived without JCGE? A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again are tedious records, building live gravitas but missing Clarke’s melodic touch. It isn’t until 1984, with “People Are People” and Some Great Reward that DM get traction, and not until “Enjoy The Silence” that DM gets a crossover hit. I’d argue that “Just Can’t Get Enough” is DM’s spiritual equivalent to Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Career-launching songs for careers that would require reboots, and become more successful in the wake of the departed.
XXX
Depeche Mode’s album covers got me interested in graphic design. Great use of balance, space and typography, with imagery that suggests themes and invites discussion without pushing. There’s never a band photo. I love how A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again could be the end results of two different art directors reading the same brief. And in both those case, the artwork makes the albums appear more meaningful than they are.
The swan sculpture on Speak & Spell is another thing entirely. While silly conceptually, it is striking against the fiery red sky; lit and framed to be sinister and looming. It’s insane. Famed photographer Brian Griffin claims he doesn’t know how he came up with the idea. The record company and DM didn’t like it. For awhile, it was considered one of the worst album covers, but by the late 80s, the influence is all over the place. The best example is the 4AD work of Vaughn Oliver who created his own odd sculptures juxtaposing natural elements with graphic and industrial props and oddly lit backgrounds (the stuffed monkey on The Pixies’ Doolittle or the eel on The Breeders’ Pod).
And while I think Doolittle and Pod are among the greatest rock album covers of their era, I think DM were right to be disappointed in the swan. It’s certainly attention-getting, but it doesn’t feel at all like the music on the album. Doolittle’s music is fractured and tuneful, with David Lynch howls. Pod’s music is pretty but hiding something. Speak & Spell’s music is too synthetic and lacking the nuance needed for that a scary swan. I’d have left the cover for Björk.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0ntg4L6zjosDII94zoyboq?si=Yyh_FT-VRdqWxU7L_sBasw
