Review Summary: Depeche Mode took their first foray into greatness with this dark, cynical, ironic classic. Packed with hits and criminally underrated tracks, its essential listening.
In 1981 Depeche Mode were super-sweet synth poppers. In 1982 they failed to deliver with 'A Broken Frame' when left a trio, after primary songwriter Vince Clark left. In 1983 they recruited arrangement genius Alan Wilder, whose addition seemed to inject Depeche with a dose of creativity - the blueprint for success was formed, but it was still in its baby steps. In 1984, they nailed it. The mould that was being poured on 'Construction Time Again' finally set and the quartet released their first great album, 'Some Great Reward'.
The album opens with 'Something To Do', a thumping number with a frenetic metallic beat, a catchy hook after the chorus that pumps up the bass, before horns blast out, making way for Dave to sing about boredom, and the general idea that all work and no play makes a dull boy.
As the aggressive opener draws to an abrupt end, 'Lie To Me' gently filters in with its low key beat and lush soft synth rhythm. Dave gives a suitably fragile vocal performance, singing some of Gore’s most clever Lyrics - the song is not only a bitter lore about infidelity but also hints at something bigger with lines like "So lie to me, like they do it in the factory - Make me think that at the end of the day, some great reward will be coming my way". An underrated classic.
Metallic booms, crashes and thwacks kick off one of Depeche’s biggest hits 'People Are People'. Ironically, this was the most commercially successful song from the album despite being genuinely outclassed by most of the other material on offer. That isn’t to say it’s not worthwhile, though, as it most definitely is - it’s just not as subtle or clever as tacks like 'Master & Servant' or as sentimental as 'Somebody'.
Martin provides his first ever vocal performance for Depeche with 'It Doesn't Matter', cementing his vocal place in the band as best suited to soft ballads with delicate vocals and desperate lyrics; which he also delivers on 'Somebody' - a sorrowful song about needing to find somebody to ease the pain of loneliness. It puts forth a haunting melody, with a subtle sample of crowd noise that lies in the background before becoming the primary sound as the track fades out. Both tracks were easily the most sentimental the band had produced so far and showed that Martin could write meaningful lyrics as well as sing.
Another criminally underrated track arrives with 'Stories Of Old', a simple but effective lyric about not falling for love. Dave gives one of his finest vocal performances as he sings "I couldn't sacrifice anything at all to love". The hook after the chorus is plainly addictive and the way the melody drops off for just a moment, on the bridge before the chorus, as loud synth horns blast in to accompany Dave's booming vocals, is a nice touch.
Martin's song writing rarely seems as sharp, clever and ironic as it does on the classic, 'Master & Servant'. What, on the surface, seems like a simple lyric about S&M could as easily be interpreted as a biting lyric about society and the class system, with lines like "Domination’s the name of the game - in bed or in life, there all just the same". The musical side of the song is just as sharp with an odd acappella opening, a sample of a tiger-roar, a pounding beat and a repeated whip-crack sound effect closing the essential track to an end.
'If You Want' is Wilder's last lyrical effort and you can see why. After the likes of 'Master & Servant' & 'Lie To Me', the lyrics on the penultimate track of 'Some Great Reward' seem a little inconsequential, although the music is fine with a long slow-building intro and a chaotic rhythm.
The album closer of all album closers appears with the chilling 'Blasphemous Rumours' - perhaps Gore’s most cynical lyric ever. It begins with a gentle twinkling melody before a slow pounding drum beat arrives accompanied by wailing synth, painfully dragging the music along. Dave gives, in my opinion, his finest vocals as his sings a story about a "Girl of 15" who "slashed her wrists", due to being "bored with life". Over the course of the song she goes on to recover and fall in love with life once again, only for her to be "hit by a car" and killed. Its dark, grim and gloomy but it's a wonderfully powerful backdrop to the cynical chorus declaring a struggle to maintain faith - "I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumours, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour - and when I die, I expect to find him laughing". A masterpiece.
With 'Some Great Reward', everything just came together and melded perfectly - Dave's vocals improved tenfold and he found the singing voice he’d stick with for the next decade; Martin's song writing became strikingly sharp and dark, yet sentimental and genuine. He also provided his first vocal effort on couple of the tracks - a blueprint that would be followed by pretty much every other Depeche album that came afterwards. Furthermore, Alan Wilder's technical skill matured a great deal from 'Construction Time Again', and he created electronic music that was sometimes catchy, sometimes complex, sometimes harrowing, but always compelling.
All the essential elements of the Depeche Mode we know and love arrived, and the band's sound matured into the first great album the quartet produced. Dark, desperate, cynical, clever, ironic - 'Some Great Reward' is all of the aforementioned and a whole lot more. Essential listening.
