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This is not a bad thing. In fact, Speak and Spell is quite good, and if nothing else, it's fun to put Depeche Mode in perspective, and see their bouncy beginnings. Of course, the classic track "Just Can't Get Enough" is from this track, as well as Depeche Mode's other two hit early hit singles. This is never a bad album to have, but if you, for some reason, hate Clark's work, or don't like happy synthpop, then I guess it's not for you. The album get's off to a good start with the hit "New Life" which is by now largely forgotten. It is cheerful, positive, and Gahan's vocals actually are good at producing a song which is largely a pop song rather than the more artisic and esoteric work that the Mode later did (not that it wasn't popular too, though.) This very solid entry is followed by "Puppets." "Puppets" can be grouped fairly well with two other songs on the album, tracks four and five, respectively, "Boys Say Go!" and "No Disco." All three of these are disco-ish, written in a minor tune and are almost indistinguishable in style or content. While they are good, and solid additions, they aren't anything special either. The third track will very depending on whether or not you have the American or the British version of the album. I have the American and my brother has the very superior British version. The American track three is the minor hit "Dreaming of Me" which is a little bit slower and more wistful in tone than anything else on the album so far, but it doesn't differ stylistically much from "New Life," for example. For those of you who really like this song, don't worry, it's on the British version of the album as well, although it passes as a bonus track at the end. Instead, they have the wonderfully cheerful and bouncy track with the seemingly inappropriate name of "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead." Moving on past the next two tracks, which I've already talked about some, we get to track 6, "What's Your Name?" which sounds Clark was trying to make an overly cheezy synthpop version of a 50s pop song. I may have mentioned the odd One Hated Song per Album Phenomenon, and if I were to hate one on this album, it would be this one. However, I find that it's kinda fun, and I enjoy it in the same way everyone occasionally enjoys a song they know is stupid. The music is written well, at least, and if the lyrics and vocal delivery are way campy and quite stupid, at least there's something of value in the song. "Photographic" is the first song of Depeche Mode, and the next one in the line-up. In some ways, it sounds like a link to the next incarnation (on the next album) but in actuality, that honor belongs to the next two tracks. Nevertheless, the vaguely dark and mechanical style and lyrics are complemented by the very busy synth-line and almost frantic sound of the backgrounds. Like I said, though, the next two songs, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Big Muff" are the true links to the Depeche Mode of the next album. These two tracks were written by Martin Gore, and a little of his sensibilities and tastes are already starting to come out. Luckily he got a little more polish before he had to write an album by himself, as these two songs aren't really very good. There not bad either, nothing on this album really is, but they are so forgettable that they've been...well, mostly forgotten. Even fans don't really talk much about these two, and they're about the only two I've never seen a remix or live version of somewhere. Coming out to the homestretch, we find "Any Second Now" a slow, bleepy and generally melodic and "soulful" song. It was later to be outdone by both the Mode and Clark's various bands, but as a slow synthpop song, it's pretty good. The last song is, of course, the classic "Just Can't Get Enough," the earliest really big hit, and classic that you still hear all the time. On the British album is a version that sounds like the single, while the American album has what is called the Split Mix on the British version (where it appears as a bonus track.) Is that confusing enough? The long run is, if you get the British album, you have all the tracks of the American album and then some. What can I really say about this song? It's a classic, everyone already knows it, and it's almost pointless to review for that reason. I oughtta at least come out and say that it is the pinacle of Depeche Mode's happy start, though, bouncy, poppy, danceable but lacking the sappiness of "What's Your Name" or the slightly more forgettableness of the rest of the songs on the album. It deserves to be the classic that it is. The British version has several extra songs, including, as already mentioned, the Split Mix of "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Dreaming of Me" and the other two B-sides from the period, "Shout" which is very characteristic and similar to the "No Disco/Boy's Say Go! Etc." cluster, and the much better "Ice Machine." This one is literally cold-- it's a fine preview in some ways of the themes prevalent in Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward. It's at least as good as most of the songs on the album, and I would recommend getting the British version just for this one song, except that the other bonus tracks are pretty nifty too.
In summary, this is a good album. It's not at all like Depeche Mode's later work, and much of the
album is kinda samey, but it has no weak tracks, and some of them are real classics, especially (in
my opinion) "Just Can't Get Enough," "Dreaming of Me," and the B-side "Ice Machine."
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