The turning point of a career, in Korea, being insincere

If you had to pick a band that would go on to become stadium-touring megastars (complete with the obligatory drug and ego-fuelled issues/cliches), then I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t have picked the 4 fresh-faced teenagers hailing from Basildon (a place I hold surprisingly dear to my heart) who appeared on Top Of The Pops in 1981 playing some of the most inconsequential pop-fluff you’re ever likely to hear (check them out here for some amusingly dated oscilloscope-related visuals).

I was aware of Depeche Mode at that time, but rejected Speak and Spell (their debut album) as being unworthy of my obviously far too high-brow teenage tastes. However, when Vince Clarke left (initially to form Yazoo (who are well worth checking out if you’re not aware) and then Erasure (who are due a critical re-evaluation imho)) things took a darker turn and my teenage self finally deemed them as being worthy of my attention. Someone gave me a copy (remember - Home Taping is Killing Music, kids!) of “Construction Time Again” on a C90 and I instantly liked it (annoyingly they’d put a Shalamar album on the other side which I had absolutely no interest in, so I had to rewind the tape every time I wanted to listen to it.  Kids today don't know they're born). I think the album displays more craft than was generally seen by their contemporaries and hangs together well as a whole, with no obvious high or low points but I’d go for “Everything Counts” and “Pipeline” as favourites if pushed.

And somewhat bizarrely, having really enjoyed Construction Time Again, that was it for me for Depeche Mode albums for a very long time indeed. There are very good arguments to be made for many of their albums (I particularly enjoyed Some Great Reward and Violator when I revisited them recently) – but I just never quite cared enough to purchase them at the time.  This was possibly because they continued to churn out singles of a generally high quality which received a lot of airplay so I never felt the need, but who knows what my exact thought processes were? 

Their first album I actually properly owned was Playing The Angel which Elaine bought for me for Xmas 2005 – 25 years after they formed, so you couldn’t say I exactly rushed into it. And it’s OK, but all it did was make me realise how good their older stuff was – so I made up for it by buying the “Best Ofs” (ask your Mum & Dad what they are, kids!) – 81-85 & 86-98. And yes, I know it’s a bit of a cheat recommending them but they’re well worth a listen and then you can dip in to their other stuff if you feel the need (or, if you’re using Alexa, you can start with “Shuffle top songs by Depeche Mode” and then graduate to “Shuffle songs by Depeche Mode”).  Highlights for me would be “People Are People” & “Blasphemous Rumours” (81-85) and “Personal Jesus” & “Enjoy The Silence” (86-98).

If you’re bored, their Wikipedia entry is well worth a read – they’ve certainly had some interesting fallings out!