Home Updates Introduction Reviews Weekly Song E-Mail

A Broken Frame Depeche Mode's second album is transitionary in nature (actually, all of them are) due, this time at least, to the most important line-up change in the history of the group. Vince Clark left them to release in the same year (1982) the first of Yaz(oo)'s albums, Upstair's At Eric's. This left the relatively inexperienced Martin Gore to take over Clark's role as songwriter. He apparently took to the role with gusto, and A Broken Frame is much more diverse than Speak and Spell and Gore's signature style is already starting to show through, although he seems to have been reluctant to depart completely from Clark's hit-producing formula. But based, probably on the success of "Leave in Silence" and the album in general, Clark's style was completely gone by the time Construction Time Again came out in 1983. "Leave in Silence," the first track, showcases this new direction well; it is much darker in sound, slightly haunting and distant. This distance is moderated by David Gahan's throaty, even warm vocals. The next track, "My Secret Garden," is similarly different stylistically although not as dark. This one smacks of child-like innocence, of all things, and the fancy synth work combines with this skillful writing to make this one of my favorite tracks on the album. "Monument" is next, a slowish and, well, monumental track. The haunting choral effects towards the end are truly inspired, although the synth hooks that make up the main part of the song are a bit goofy. The next track, "Nothing to Fear," is not very memorable, and luckily for the band, most of the instrumentals after this album became B-sides rather than filler album tracks. The minor hit "See You" is a sort of cross in styles. Gore's new dark experimental side play during the verses and Clark's pop sensibilities hit the chorus. I'm not sure exactly how successful the fusion was, but it is interesting. I mentioned the strange phenomenon in which nearly every Depeche Mode album has one song that I hate enough to always skip, even on a straight listen through of the album. The next song, "Satellite," is that track on A Broken Frame. I almost feel I can't review it, since I hardly ever listen to it, but the weird melody line doesn't seem to flow to me, and the very minimalist yet jazzy synthwork may have been an interesting experiment, but one better left untried. Next come the two songs that are obviously trying to sound like Vince Clark songs: "The Meaning of Love" and "A Photograph of You." Even here, however, in the end of "Photograph" Gore's new style is starting to creep out again, especially in the coda that finishes the track off. Sandwiched in between these two tracks is an instrumental version of "My Secret Garden" titled rather imaginatively "Further Excerpts from My Secret Garden." This title seems to be a little pretentious considering that there is nothing different really except the loss of the vocals. While not bad, this song would have been more appropriate as a bonus track. Here, like "Nothing to Fear," is comes across as filler. "Shouldn't Have Done That" is an interesting and very original piece, which overlays childish, innocent, almost music box like synth hooks with what sounds like Nazis marching back and forth across the studio. They lyrics, too, seem to be a sort of biography of a potential new fuehrer, and everytime a landmark event happens in his life, the haunting "Shouldn't Have Done That" chorus comes up again. This song is slow, and melancholy in a pleasant, Romanticist (not New Romanticist) way. The last track is my favorite, though, "The Sun and the Rainfall." This mournful song is truly beautifully crafted, and perfectly leads in the more melancholy and even plain depressing style of later Depeche Mode. Overall, this album isn't the band's best work, but's it's good, and the variety of styles, as well as the truly beautiful stand-out tracks like "My Secret Garden" and "The Sun and the Rainfall" convince me to rank it slightly higher than Speak and Spell.