Founding members Vince Clarke, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher had joined to form the band "Composition of Sound" and played their first live show on 30 May 1980 in Basildon, UK.[12] At their first show, Clarke was the singer for the band, but he felt that the band needed a front man to make their show more interesting, as Clarke was always standing behind his keyboard.[12] The band auditioned several people to be their singer and selected Dave Gahan, and the band's next show on 14 June 1980 was the first with all four members performing.[12] They changed the name of their band to "Depeche Mode" after a few shows, and by August they had a regular gig booked at a club named Croc's in Rayleigh, Essex,[12] which they played at, amidst other live shows in the UK, for the rest of the year until a New Year's show on 3 January 1981.[13] In order to get signed to a record label, they created a demo tape with three of their songs, "Ice Machine", "Photographic" and "Radio News", and that led to their inclusion on the compilation Some Bizzare Album in January 1981, which included "Photographic".[14][b] Gahan later said that the band joined the Mute record label after being offered a "50/50 split, which meant we would have to pay half of all our bills, but we'd get half the profits."[16] The band had entertained offers from other labels such as CBS Records, Island Records and Phonogram, but dismissed them when they realized, according to Gahan, that the labels "didn't seem bothered about records or anything, they just wanted to add our name to their roster."[16] Internally, the band worked as a democracy and split profits equally among all the members of the band.[17]
Depeche Mode's first official single, "Dreaming of Me", was released on 20 February 1981 and their second, "New Life", followed on 13 June the same year.[18] The band was invited to perform "New Life" on BBC's Top of the Pops (TOTP) after the song climbed to number 11 on the UK charts.[8] After the TOTP performance, the band started to record the rest of Speak & Spell's tracks at Blackwing Studios in London.[19]
Recording
Depeche Mode in 1981; Speak & Spell was the band's only album with original songwriter Vince Clarke, pictured in the bottom-left.
According to Daniel Miller, who co-produced Speak & Spell with the band, it was a collection of songs the band had been playing live over the past year, plus a few new songs, although some songs from their live act did not make it on the record.[1] Clarke wrote most of the songs, with Gore contributing two tracks.[1] Though they started as a band with a guitar and bass, they switched over to being an all-synthesizer band due to the cheap cost and convenience of the devices.[20] Gahan recalled that, despite being all-synth, they used them traditionally in their songs, with a lead line, a bass line and a rhythm line.[20] Clarke was the only member of the band without a job during this time, so he and Miller would work on the album during the day, and the others would show up later after they were done with work.[19] Due to Gore's and Fletcher's work commitments, the band occasionally had to turn down live show opportunities when their work schedules interfered.[16] Miller brought an analog ARP 2600 synthesizer and sequencer into the studio to record.[21] The studio only had an 8-track system, so the album was essentially recorded live, with little overdubs.[19] Said Miller, "I would capture, as best I could, the atmosphere and the vibes of the songs the way I'd seen them live. Just to have a good electronic pop sound that wasn't a copy of something else."[21] They tested the final mix of the album by putting the album on cassette tape, getting in sound engineer Eric Radcliffe's car and listening to the album there, figuring that if it sounded good in the car it would sound good on any quality hi-fi system.[21]
Title
Miller suggested the name for the band after the Speak & Spell toy, which had recently become available in the UK.[22] The name was meant to indicate "a band taking its first steps", a nod to the toy's target audience of children.[21]
Album cover
The album's cover, a "puzzling" picture of a swan wrapped in plastic, was designed by Brian Griffin and earned him a "brazingly inflated" £1000 fee[22] (about £4,800 today).[23] The band had agreed to not show their faces on their album cover, wanting the quality of the artwork to reflect their seriousness as musicians.[24] Griffin would also shoot the cover artwork for Depeche Mode's follow-up album, A Broken Frame (1982).[24]
Release and promotion
On 21 June 1981, the band had their first photoshoot as a group, done by an acquaintance who was an early fan of the band, and shot in Basildon.[25] The third single from the album, "Just Can't Get Enough", was released in September 1981 and earned the band another invitation to perform on TOTP after that single went to number 8 in the UK.[26]
Miller entered discussions with Sire Records to release the album in the US; Seymour Stein, CEO of Sire Records, caught one of Depeche Mode's early shows and was enthused by their live presence, saying "Depeche Mode were the first of those [early synth] bands that were so fucking great live, that it was just amazing."[20]
Promotional poster for the album's release, including tour dates
The October issue of Flexipop magazine included an insert of the album track "I Sometimes Wish I was Dead" as a promotional push for the impending record's release.[22] Pre-orders for the album reached 100,000 nine days before the album was to be made available.[27]Mute Records released Speak & Spell in the UK on 29 October 1981[27] with catalogue number STUMM5,[c] by Intercord Records in West Germany, and on Dischi Ricordi in Italy with catalogue number MUT10384.[29] In the US, the album was released on 11 November by Sire Records with catalogue number SRK 3642.[30] The original UK release of the album included the track "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead"; international releases replaced that track with Depeche Mode's first single, "Dreaming of Me".[31] Initial pressings of the Intercord release, with catalogue number INT 146.801, included an Iron-on patch and the back cover featured pictures of all the members of the band.[27]
There were several promotional releases in various countries of Speak & Spell's tracks: In West Germany, Intercord Records included "New Life" on their Wave News (1981) sampler (catalogue number INT 145.057), and "Big Muff" and "Just Can't Get Enough" saw 7" promotional releases in the US via Sire Records (catalogue numbers PRO-A-1025 and PRO-A-999, respectively).[32] In Canada, Warner Music Group released "Dreaming of Me" as a 7" promo with "Any Second Now (Voices)" as its B-side (catalogue number PRO 0610), and "Just Can't Get Enough" with "Tora! Tora! Tora!" as its B-side (catalogue number PRO 50029) in January 1982.[33] In addition, in Canada, "Dreaming of Me" also appeared on Warner's promotional WEA Sampler released in early 1982 with catalogue number SAM 6.[33] In Japan, Warner-Pioneer released "Just Can't Get Enough" on 7" promotional vinyl with catalogue number P-1662.[34]
Tour
Depeche Mode had continued to play live shows throughout 1981 while recording their album; the Speak & Spell Tour officially started on 31 October 1981 and lasted through early December.[13] However, by the time the album was released in October, Clarke wanted to leave the band.[1] As the band was negotiating with American label Sire Records for a contract, news of Clarke's impending departure was kept confidential until after the contract was signed.[1] On tour, the band continued to play some of their original songs that were not recorded for Speak & Spell or any subsequent album, including tracks "TV Set", "Radio News", "Reason Man", and "Mouldy Dough".[35]
The band finished their UK tour and played their last live show with their original lineup on 3 December 1981, and Clarke left shortly after.[1][20] No official reason was given for Clarke's departure; publications speculated that Clarke merely preferred the quiet of recording in a studio and shied away from live performances and press interviews.[36] After quitting, Clarke responded to a classified ad from Alison Moyet and the two collaborated to start the band Yazoo.[37][38][39]
Upon its release, Speak & Spell received generally positive reception from critics. Record Mirror praised Depeche Mode's smart simplicity and noted the album offers "much to admire and little to disappoint." Reviewer Sunie commented that the band's chief skill "lies in making their art sound artless; simple synthesiser melodies, Gahan's tuneful but undramatic singing and a matter-of-fact, gimmick-free production all help achieve this unforced effect." As a whole she describes it as "a charming, cheeky collection of compulsive dance tunes".[40] Mike Stand of Smash Hits wrote: "Synthesisers and bubblegum go together like tinned peaches and Carnation, hence [Depeche Mode's] hit singles: melody, uncluttered electronics and nice voices in humanising harmony."[43]Paul Morley of the New Musical Express described the album as "generous, silly, susceptible electro-tickled pop... that despite its relentless friskiness and unprincipled cheerfulness is encouraging not exasperating", noting the music's "diverting vitality", and concluding that "Depeche Mode, apparently, could quickly move... far up and away from constructing slightly sarcastic jingles."[48]
Depeche Mode may not be the most remarkably boring group ever to walk the face of the earth, but they're certainly in the running. Their sophisticated nonsense succeeds only in emphasising just how hilariously unimaginative they really are.[49]
—Steven Patrick Morrissey, in a contemporary newspaper review of Depeche Mode's live show, as published in Record Mirror on 13 February 1982
Paul Colbert of Melody Maker felt that Depeche Mode speak with "a winning immediacy" and called the album "a wriggling giant of motivation, persuading each muscle to jump in time with the music", while at the same time criticising the presence of certain tracks such as "Nodisco" that "repeat earlier thoughts and feels without adding fresh views."[50] Rob White, writing for the Christchurch Press, was less positive, calling the music on Speak & Spell "instant pop, instantly disposable, as precious as the gladwrapped swan on the... cover", remarking that the songs "would actually blow away in the wind... if it wasn't for their ability to chance upon melody hooks that drag you along without any real protest" and ultimately calling the album "tedious".[51]The Village Voice's Robert Christgau dismissed the bulk of the album as "tuneful pap" that "crosses Meco (without the humble functionalism), Gary Numan (without the devotion to surface), and Kraftwerk (without the humor—oh, definitely without the humor)."[47]
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Ned Raggett described Speak & Spell as "at once both a conservative, functional pop record and a groundbreaking release", as well as "an undiluted joy".[3] Nitsuh Abebe of Pitchfork said that the album endures "not as stylish futurism (not anymore) but as the happy noises of teenagers who believed it to be stylish futurism—and with a charming earnestness."[2]
Legacy
Speak & Spell had left Depeche Mode labeled as a teenybopper band by UK's press, and although they were taken more seriously in other parts of Europe (notably West Germany), their poor image and reputation as a teen band were issues the band worked the rest of the decade to overcome.[52]
In January 2005, Speak & Spell was included as an "essential" album in Mojo magazine's "Depeche Mode + the Story of Electro-Pop" special edition.[53]
The band themselves disliked some of the album; In 1990, Gore lamented parts of the album, saying, "I regret all that sickly boy-next-door stuff of the early days."[54] When interviewed by Simon Amstell for Channel 4's Popworld program in 2005, both Gore and Fletcher stated that the track "What's Your Name?" was their least favourite Depeche Mode song of all time.[55]
In 2025, Radio X included the album in its list of "The 25 best indie debut albums of the 1980s".[56]
The album was remastered and re-released with bonus tracks in 2006 with special editions; in the UK the album was re-released on 3 April 2006 and in the United States, the album re-released on 2 June 2006.
Track listing
Original UK and European LP and CD releases (1984)
All tracks are written by Vince Clarke, except where noted. All lead vocals by Dave Gahan, except where noted.
↑ Sources differ on the album's release date; several publications list the official release date as 29 October,[9] but Depeche Mode's own website lists 5 October[10]
↑ "Photographic" was re-recorded for the album; the Some Bizzare version of the song would not appear anywhere else until 1998's re-release of The Singles 81→85[15]
↑ As the first album on Miller's Mute label was a German band, Miller used 'stumm', which is German for 'mute', as his catalogue numbering base.[28]
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