from the 7” single, Mute Records, 1981Second only to Duran Duran in the amount of shit they take from people who hate music from the ‘80s, yet worshipped to a cultish degree by adoring fans that swear by their genius and have made them one of the biggest-selling acts in history (moving over 75 million units worldwide), Depeche Mode have always been something of an enigma for me---not in a bad way, but they’ve kept me scratching my head enough to continue coming back for more with each successive release, always listening for the clues but never feeling wholly sated with even one complete album of theirs. Thus, they have always been a “singles-band” to me, primarily, in as much as that most of my favorite songs of theirs were singles, leaving less to dig for once you’ve purchased the LP. That being said, those singles are utterly sublime, this one being the very first single they ever released---a precious slice of synth-pop that satisfies every time!
