A Broken Frame

Performer: Depeche Mode
Engineer: John Fryer; Eric Radcliffe
Producer: Daniel Miller; Depeche Mode
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Depeche Mode: Dave Gahan, Alan Wilder, Martin L. Gore, Andy Fletcher. The first album on which Martin Gore stepped forward to fill the departed Vince Clarke's songwriting shoes, taking his predecessor's catchy electro-pop approach a step further. When pop mastermind/main songwriter Vince Clarke departed DM after the group's first album to form Yaz with Alison Moyet, it seemed like the end for the boys from Basildon, but it was really a new beginning. Martin Gore stepped forward to fill Clarke's songwriting shoes, surprising the world by taking his predecessor's catchy electro-pop approach a step further. Lighthearted delights like "A Photograph of You" and "The Meaning of Love" show Gore's mastery of breathlessly catchy popcraft and help cement the notion of early Depeche Mode as the Beach Boys of the New Romantic era. Elsewhere though, Gore ventures further afield, both lyrically and musically. "Shouldn't Have Done That" combines sociopolitical observations with uncoventional sound collage techniques a la (don't laugh) Simon & Garfunkel's "Save the Life of My Child." "Monument" and "Satellite" suggest a darker undercurrent that would soon rise to the fore of the group's sound.

Depeche Mode (French for "hurried fashion") was one of the first and best of the British synth-pop bands, combining breathless, melodic pop with perky electronics. With main songwriter Vince Clarke's departure for Yaz, Martin Gore took the reigns, and the band's sound became darker and harder, though still true to their trademark synth-driven accessibility. The post-Clarke band's moody dance-pop brought Depeche Mode worldwide superstardom in the second half of the '80s. The band survived overexposure, drug problems, and all the other traditional rock-star travails, and came out older and wiser, entering the 2000s as a fully functioning, mature unit.

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