Depeche Mode seems to have been around for as long as I can remember. 1979 was the year that I first took an interest in the top 40 (or the hit parade as it was known then) and it was an era when electronic instruments were becoming increasingly popular. Depeche Mode actually arrived in 1980 and they took their place in the British music scene alongside other bands that were experimenting with electronic instruments; bands such as Duran Duran, ABC, Soft Cell, Gary Numan, Human League, Japan and New Order.

Depeche Mode’s first album was pure pop. The two best-known singles from that era that are included on this album, ‘New Life’ and ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, reflect the band’s mainstream beginnings. Yet, almost immediately after their first album made them famous, the band decided to take a more alternative approach to their music and Andy Clarke, one of the founding members, left to form Yazoo and later Erasure. I find it strange that I’ve been listening to music since 1979, have been a fan of alternative music for nearly the same length of time, I own or have owned albums by Erasure, Soft Cell, The Cure, the Smiths and many other alternative bands, yet I have never owned any music by Depeche Mode. So when the opportunity came along to review this CD, “my grabbing hands, grabbed what they could” to plagiarise a line from ‘Everything Counts’.

Listening to this compilation, the first thing that occurs to me is that although I may not own any of their albums, I do know lots of their songs. In fact, out of the eighteen tracks on the album, I know at least ten of them. Even more surprising is that, with the exception of ‘Personal Jesus’, I like all of those 10 songs! And with regards to ‘Personal Jesus’, I’m not sure why I skip over this song when listening to the album, as when it was actually in the charts, I really liked it. Maybe it’s one of those songs that suited “the moment” and it’s attraction has faded with time; but more likely, I think it was played to death on the radio and I’ve heard it twenty-one too many times!

Since the mid 80s, it’s been a standard practice for albums to stack the singles – or in this case the biggest singles – towards the front, so as to grab the listener’s attention as early as possible, increasing the chances of them buying the album. So, it’s no surprise to find many of Depeche Mode’s best-known songs in the first half of the album. My personal favourite, probably because of some wonderful re-mixes I’ve heard over the years, is ‘Enjoy the Silence’, a song of haunting beauty that sounds as good today as the day it was written. One of the best re-workings of this song was actually done by Mike Koglin and appeared as the final track on Sasha and Digweed’s ‘Northern Exposure – Expeditions’. When Placebo released their ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation, they also released a limited edition, two-disc version that included re-mixes of their music by other producers. Fingers crossed that Depeche Mode do the same! [Ed note – ‘The Best Of, Volume 1: The Remixes’ review is coming in a few weeks!]

Many of their lyrics seem to centre on loss in love and other dark themes such as hatred or stupidity, and I found myself wondering if they’d ever made a collection of songs with cheerful words. One friend called them “Depressed Mode” and I get his point, but songs about pain and hurt resonate with me so much more than songs about fluffy little kittens and sunshine. But you do get the feeling that if Martin Gore ever met his ideal partner he’d deliberately burn the relationship in order to write a song about how terrible he feels!

One of the real joys of this album was to discover the songs in the mid section. Songs such as ‘Suffer Well’, ‘Dream On’, ‘Martyr’ and ‘Precious’ made me realise that if I’d made a little more effort to seek out Depeche Mode some years ago I probably would have been a huge fan. Over the years, the songs that I have loved the most have rarely been those released as singles. But a quick search of the Depeche Mode discography shows me that every track on this album was released as a single. This leads me to ask: “where are all the great album songs that were never released for the charts?” Maybe Depeche Mode wanted to give their fans other reasons to buy their albums, or maybe they didn’t feel that the songs worked as well as shortened radio-friendly edits.

Whatever the reason, I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a lot more to Depeche Mode; a lot more that I should try to discover. If this means I will have to purchase one or two of their earlier album releases to ‘get to the bottom of it’, then so be it. And maybe that’s what the band had in mind all along – the creation of new fans. So, if you enjoy good, electronic-based pop music with a touch of darkness, beautiful melodies partially masking the pain in the words and a unique voice fusing it all together, then feel free to join me over here in the new members section of the Depeche Mode fan club.