Depeche Mode - Dreaming of Me

The first-ever DM single (1981) and one I've always loved. It's sort of a perfect pop tune, synth-pop style. I can't believe there doesn't seem to be a proper video for it.

 

The Assembly - Never Never

The cheesy '80s new wave synth-pop ballad isn't always my thing, but Vince Clarke did it better than most and Feargal Sharkey's voice really is the perfect mix of whiney and vulnerable for this song. A love-or-hate one, probably.

From 1983.

Inspiral Carpets - Tainted Love

I don't post a lot of cover versions here but I heard this one again the other day and it struck me that it's a really, really good example of a band taking a song that everybody knows and truly making it their own. Which is what a cover should be.

This actually isn't even the best Inspirals version of it - the one on the NME Ruby Trax collection is even better - but it's the only one I can find a video for online and I won't have the time to make one today. Just take my word for it.

The Birthday Party - Jennifer's Veil

While channel surfing over the weekend I stumbled across a Nick Cave live performance and spent the next hour glued to the TV in fascination. I've only seen Nick once, almost 25 years ago, and forgot how utterly compelling he can be.

The Birthday Party, I'm a little more iffy about, for probably obvious reasons. But toward the end of their career they made two tremendous EPs, which were conveniently re-released as a single disc, Mutiny/The Bad Seed.

This track is from Mutiny, which I believe was the final Birthday Party recording, and you can really hear the Nick Cave solo style emerging from it. It's one of those great epic haunting ballads he does so well - one of my favourite Nick Cave songs ever.

1983, I think.

Inspiral Carpets - She Comes in the Fall

Always really fond of this one from the Inspirals, who to this day I am convinced were much better than Happy Mondays. Heresy to some, I know.

From their debut album Life, from 1990.

Depeche Mode - Get the Balance Right!

Non-album single from 1983, always one of my DM faves. The video is rather unfortunate though. Apparently, the director simply assumed that Alan Wilder was the lead singer, and the young lads were too embarrassed to correct him. Bless.

Yazoo - Only You

Classic '80s synthpop. This was Yazoo's first single, and quite an exquisite little number it is, too: sentimental lyrics in a simple melody, sung sweetly over a nicely subdued keyboard arrangement. It's like synthpop twee. What could be wrong with that?

Besides Vince Clarke's hair, that is.

Depeche Mode - See You

One of my absolute favourite early DM songs, from their second album A Broken Frame. They're so young and innocent looking in this video! In perfect keeping with the lyrics, which Martin Gore probably wrote when he was 15 or something.

Yazoo - Nobody's Diary

This is one of my favourite tracks from the synth-pop era. I've always had a soft spot for Vince Clarke's stuff, and even like some of what he did with Erasure (I said "some") but for me this is a particular standout. Such a lovely, desperately sad song.

That haircut though. Thank the flying spaghetti monster some '80s trends haven't come back!

Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People

More nostalgia. Fad Gadget, aka Frank Tovey, was a bit outside my tastes generally, on account of the heavy electronics in his music. But he wrote a few really good pop songs and I'm always happy to listen to really good pop songs, whatever they're played on.

This is from Gag, his final album under the FG pseudonym. It's a collaboration with (and a tribute to) Einsturzende Neubauten, as the title suggests, but also sums up the whole goth/industrial subculture pretty nicely in one line: "it takes hours of preparation/to get that wasted look". Ah, memories.

Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again

I know a lot of people think of Depeche Mode as merely the synthy 1980s equivalent of, I dunno, Boyzone or something, but they're wrong. Leaving aside the fluff of the Vince Clarke era, Depeche were actually quite a subversive band in a lot of respects, from the distinctly radical-left artwork that adorned some of their early record sleeves to lyrics like I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours, but I think that God has a sick sense of humour and when I die I expect to find him laughing. Come on, do you really think Boyzone would get away with that?

Of course, as with all bands that stick around as long as they have, the rot did set in eventually. Pretty much everything from the '90s on has left me cold. But the last time I saw them live (about a decade ago), they still rocked the house down.

I think this is one of their all-time great singles, and one that has best stood the test of time.