Artist: DEPECHE MODE
Album: SPEAK AND SPELL RE-ISSUE (CD IMPORT)

Release date: 1981/ 2006
EAN/UPS: 0888837512824
Media type: CD

This is their only album with Vince Clarke as a member of the band (having written most of the songs), before he left to found and work with groups such as The Assembly, Yazoo, and Erasure.

The album is significantly lighter in tone and melody than their later work, a direction which can largely be attributed to Clarke's writing. After he left, Martin Gore would take over songwriting duties, writing almost all of the band's material; later albums written by him would explore darker subjects and melodies.

The album title alludes to the then-popular "Speak & Spell" electronic toy.

When interviewed by Simon Amstell for Channel 4's Popworld programme in 2005, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher both stated that track 6, "What's Your Name?", was their least favourite Depeche Mode song. However, on the DVD of the remastered Black Celebration, Gore claims that "It's Called a Heart" is his least favourite.

TRACKLIST:

"New Life" – 3:43
"I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" – 2:14
"Puppets" – 3:55
"Boys Say Go!" – 3:03
"Nodisco" – 4:11
"What's Your Name?" – 2:41
"Photographic" – 4:44
"Tora! Tora! Tora!" – 4:34
"Big Muff" – 4:20
"Any Second Now [Voices]" – 2:35
"Just Can't Get Enough" – 3:40
"Dreaming of Me" - 4:03

LINE-UP:

Vince Clarke
Andrew Fletcher
Martin Gore
David Gahan