Puppets With Just Can't Get Enough, the best song of Speak & Spell. I like the "drama" in it, how Dave Gahan sing it, and obviously, like in all Speak & Spell, the synth-riff(s). Should be longer, 4 minutes for me are not enough. 4/5
If Puppets isn't about actually puppetry, then the lyrics are rather politically incorrect with the speaker getting off on treating their partner horribly, calling them "babe" and such. Also, those Brian photos are cool. Especially this one:
I'd just call it juxtaposition, irony. If it's about abuse, it's sung in the point of view of the abuser who is narcissistic or something.
“Puppets” is another fantastic early song and because of it’s darker tone it’s one that I could have easily ascribed to Martin. (Of course things go 180 degrees from this on the very next song but more on that one when we get to it.) Musically, however, the composition is very, very much Vince Clarke. 4/5
Right I'll be the first to start on 'Boys say Go'- First off I don't know what the obsession with boys is in this album lol. In a world before Wikipedia etc I'd imagine most people were questioning the band's sexuality! It's bizarre after listening to songs like this that all members are indeed straight...my guess is the band were deliberately promoting themselves as 'different' very much in the 'because we can' spirit of the New Romantic dominated early 80s, where the more heads you turned, and question marks you raised, got you more record sales! Leaving my pride at the door, I actually have a soft spot for this song...the melody at least. Very Vince Clarke. The chorus is ridiculous but very catchy , it has that chant factor (although I wouldn't personally be chanting it in a pub or anything ). I like the instrumental in the middle, a nice little key change there. All in all, lyrically it's complete junk, but musically I'm there. 3.5/5
I don't typically share live recordings, but here's a BBC live of Puppets in which Dave says "Oh!" after each chorus, which I stupidly find endearing. Shame they only do singles live now:
Well, I've got a lot to catch up on here, and not to step on the toes of the original starter. I'll just reiterate some release information, and other odds and ends. Once I'm caught up with the tracks, I'll just post about those songs. First off, Depeche Mode is one of my top bands of the 80's, and of the electronic synth type. I think they stuck to mostly being an electronic only band, until later on they introduced guitars and other instruments. Which is fine, but I didn't care for it, and subsequently lost interest in them. I still check out their albums, and singles, and some are actually quite decent, but nowhere their run of their first five or six albums. I actually jumped on the bandwagon around 1983/1984 with the tail end of the construction time again era. And then hearing about them from a friend in 84 with 'master and servant', and then the commercial breakthrough of 'people are people' in the USA. from then on, i managed to find some imports, and remixes, (of which there were many), and then worked my way backwards through their albums. I got 'some great reward', which is tied as my favorite along with 'construction time again', followed by a 'broken frame', and then probably 'speak and spell', followed by 'black celebration'. i don't really care for any other albums after that. also at that time a US compilation called 'people are people' came out with some great b-sides, and non-album tracks like 'get the balance right'. speak and spell =================================================== i had the US version of the album, and later the CD: so i got used to the new life (remix), and the just can't get enough (schizo mix) versions. later on got the CD+DVD remaster: ------------------------------------------ 2006 Collectors Edition CD + DVD Disc one is a hybrid SACD/CD with a multi-channel SACD layer. Disc two is a DVD which includes Speak & Spell in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM Stereo plus bonus material. Disc one (CD) No. Title Length 1. "New Life" 3:46 2. "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" 2:18 3. "Puppets" 3:56 4. "Boys Say Go!" 3:08 5. "Nodisco" 4:15 6. "What's Your Name?" 2:45 7. "Photographic" 4:43 8. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" 4:38 9. "Big Muff" 4:24 10. "Any Second Now (Voices)" 2:35 11. "Just Can't Get Enough" 3:44 12. "Dreaming of Me" (cold end version) 4:03 Disc two (DVD) No. Title Length 1. "Depeche Mode: 1980–81 (Do We Really Have to Give Up Our Day Jobs?)" (a short film) 28:24 2. "New Life" 3:46 3. "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" 2:18 4. "Puppets" 3:56 5. "Boys Say Go!" 3:08 6. "Nodisco" 4:15 7. "What's Your Name?" 2:45 8. "Photographic" 4:43 9. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" 4:38 10. "Big Muff" 4:24 11. "Any Second Now (Voices)" 2:35 12. "Just Can't Get Enough" 3:44 13. "Dreaming of Me" (cold end version) 4:03 Additional tracks No. Title Length 14. "Ice Machine" (cold end version) 4:05 15. "Shout!" 3:46 16. "Any Second Now" 3:08 17. "Just Can't Get Enough" (Schizo mix) 6:44 ====================================== I love the mood of the album, and yes, its way more upbeat and pop than their other material. But it has a theme throughout it, and that lovely analogue sound of synths. I had never heard anything quite like it, and david gahan had a great voice which was very appealing to me. i guess it was unfortunate that i had not heard of them earlier, but i wasn't into electronic music and didn't have much money early on. so in a way, it was great to 'catch up' with depeche mode, and be able to get all their previous albums, and look for all the singles. i had to do that without the internet, and the import stores, and friends helped in trying to find all their early 12 inches and singles. i'm still buying them even now, so i'm glad we're getting to revisit a lot of the early material that shaped their career. i would give this album - rating 3.75 / 5, because it's very instrumental in their career, has some great major songs on it, but it is still a developmental phase for them, and having vince clarke really helped shaped the sound of it. there's a ton of things to collect: ---- japanese version: bootleg picture disc: gatefold re-release: SACD version: later -1
new life, a classic synth pop song, simple, catchy, and very indicative of what was going to emerge in the synthpop era. it was a fun song, and the remix adds slightly to it. i like the catchy breakdown near the end. rating - new life (album) 4/5 new life (remix) 4/5 i love these recreations as instrumentals done on an analog roland: the multitracks are well done also. the original german cd-single had the 7 inch cover Depeche Mode – New Life Label: Mute – CD MUTE 14, Mute – INT 826.800 Format: CD, Maxi-Single, Reissue Country: Germany Released: 1988 Genre: Electronic Style: Synth-pop Tracklist 1 New Life 3:57 2 Shout 7:31 3 New Life (7" Version) 3:43 Total Time: 15:11 while the re-release had the 12 inch cover Depeche Mode – New Life Label: Sire – 9 40284-2, Reprise Records – 9 40284-2, Mute – 9 40284-2 Series: DM Singles – 2 Format: CD, Single, Reissue, J-Card Case Country: US Released: 1991 Genre: Electronic Style: Synth-pop Tracklist 1 New Life (Remix) 4:00 2 Shout 3:46 3 Shout (Rio Mix) 7:33 Total Time: 15:19 later -1
i sometimes wish i was dead, i didn't hear this song until much later, as i didn't know it was part of the original album. it reminds me of the galloping beat in boys say go, so maybe that's why it wasn't included on later albums. it's a nice simple upbeat, but short song. here's an instrumental cover of it: again, not exact, but still well done. i like it, but can see why it didn't make the US cut. i just got the re-released speak and spell boxset with the recreated flexi on it. rating - i sometimes wish i was dead 3/5 later -1
puppets, a hint of the darker tones, and sounds that depeche mode would become well known for. it's not my favorite song on the album, although it does an adequate job on the lyrics, and the whispering vocals. you can hear the arrangements in this weird remix (i'll try to highlight other versions if there are some out there), but not too many fanmixes, because there are zillions of them.. royksopp: this came from the remixes 2 1981-2011: Depeche Mode - Remixes 2. 81-11 3-7 Puppets (Röyksopp Remix) 4:40 rating - puppets (album) 3/5 puppets (royksopp remix) 2.5 /5 later -1
I should point out that for me, lyrics (that make sense) are supermega important to me. So "Boys Say Go" is sonically fun and a great Vince Clarke song, but lyricwise is nonsense. At this stage they're like a synthpop Def Leppard, where the words are used for how they sound as opposed to what they menan. The band themselves definitely don't like this song these days.
*Personally, I don't mind a bit of a slower pace on each song. Some days are simply too busy to read several pages or even fire off a quick post. Just my 2 cents. Puppets - The meaning of the lyrics was discussed in Dave Thompson's book and they believed Vince was alluding to allure and promises of success seducing the young band. That would certainly fit with Vince's response to the band's early achievements although they also said that he never discusses lyrical meanings with them. Another one of Clarke's tunes that is so simple but reels you in, especially with the little details that get sprinkled like at 1:56. I will put the CD on just to hear this tune by itself. Songs like this make me wonder what would have happened if this lineup had stuck together longer. You wouldn't have gotten the full blown slow depressing darkness of later works, but it wouldn't have been 40 years of Erasure-esque sunshine either. Boys Say Go - This song is everything that 'Puppets' isn't. It's a bouncy fun tune that works in the flow of the album, but I never find myself thinking, "Hey, I've just gotta hear this song." Between this and 'What's Your Name' I've also wondered if Vince wasn't trying to lyrically appeal a bit to the gay audience. On the US disc, it sits between 'Dreaming of Me' and 'Nodisco.' I bet it works even better sandwiched between 'Puppets' and 'Nodisco.'
Let me tell ya, in the not-PC-in-the-slightest 80's, there were many snickers related to what Marty used to wear, most of them including the "sticks that when lit produce a fire" word. In fact, many jokes were made that synth-pop in general was for f*gs, supposedly because it was "wimpier" than rock.
Boys Say Go! Fast, urgent, hurry! I always listen to it with quite pleasure, never skipped it. Not one of the best in Speak & Spell, but it fits very nicely in the entire "corpus album". I like very much the fade-in, and then the "slap!" that makes the rush start. 2.6/5 P.S.: thanks to negative 1 for the info, please go on!
Boys Say Go This is a fun tune, with a slightly more funky feel, though done through the lens of early synth-pop by people who couldn't play incredibly well - and I mean that in a good way for the result. Lots of reverse reverb on the voice - it's a good production. 3.6/5
Boys Say Go -- 3/5 Sonically pleasing but the words. Early synth pop. Replace the synths with guitars, imagine how interesting it would be.
This is really profound! Like maybe Vince was trying for this track to be their glam rocker...? It puts it in a different light, to try to hear it as kids who grew up on Gary Glitter.
Boys Say Go - Apparently this is the band's least favourite track according to a 1987 interview. Personally, I think another song on this same album counts as one of their very worst, but let's save that for later. Aside from the blatantly homoerotic lyrics suggesting queer hookups, there's nothing special about this one, just a bit of boring album filler that you forget as soon as it's over. 2/5
the band also plays about 15 songs nowadays that sound like the same half-cocked blues. I'm cool with S&S.
"Boys Say Go" Enjoyable, but certainly the prototype for so much Yazoo material. Call it homoerotic, call it disposable, I still enjoy the heck out of it and it's a song I never skip. And I'd listen to it 500 times on repeat over the bulk of SOTU. 3/5
boys say go, i say go listen to it, fun, energetic, and definitely a highlight on the album. its upbeat, happy, and quirky. which means it fits into the them. as one of their early songs, i wished it had more remixes. we have this peel session: this US promo 12 inch had it: Depeche Mode - Big Muff / Photographic / Nodisco / Boys Say Go! Depeche Mode – Big Muff / Photographic / Nodisco / Boys Say Go! Label: Sire – PRO-A-1025 Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Promo, Sampler Country: US Released: 1981 Genre: Electronic Style: Synth-pop Tracklist A1 Big Muff 4:21 A2 Photographic 4:58 B1 Nodisco 4:13 B2 Boys Say Go! 3:04 Total Time: 16:36 weird bootleg russian flexi: Depeche Mode - Boys Say Go when you want to dance, or hear them do upbeat songs, this stands out. rating - boys say go (album) 5/5 later -1
depeche mode resources: for discography, i go to : Depeche Mode Discography and Depeche Mode podcasts: ========================================= has some depeche mode ones: Permanent Record Podcast Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward (1984) Part 1 Permanent Record Podcast: Summer 2018 Concert Recap (Depeche Mode, Chromeo, Erasure, Pretenders, Thomas Dolby, Tom Bailey, Culture Club, The Fixx) Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Some Great B-Sides Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame (1982) Part 1 Permanent Record Podcast: Movie Review: Depeche Mode: 101 (1989) Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - "Heroes" (David Bowie cover) and Cover Me (2017) Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Violator (1990) Part 1 Permanent Record Podcast: Concert Report - Depeche Mode "Global Spirit Tour" 2017 Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Going Backwards (2017) Permanent Record Podcast: 80's Mix Tape - Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Mission, The Church, Scritti Politti, & Depeche Mode Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses (1987) Part 1 Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Where's the Revolution (2017) Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode - Spirits in the Forest (2019) Permanent Record Podcast: Depeche Mode Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony later -1