First a full confession, it took me until 1983 until I started getting into synth pop at all...
Speak and Spell (their first album, 1981)
Sitting at camp in Colorado in summer 1983. A kid from LA was telling me all about "synth pop", and let me hear a tape on my walkman... side 1 was Depeche Mode Speak and Spell, side 2 was something by OMD. To my virgin ears (and the low quality tape player) it sounded too tinny and awful. It wasn't until 1985 that I truly revisited that album.
A Broken Frame (their second album, 1982):
It took until 1987 - second half of freshman year, at a party. The record was on, and I barely recognized it - I had leapfrogged over that album back in the early 1980s, since I started with Construction Time Again. I remember telling the host that it was "cool that he was into Depeche, but man this is their worst album, isn't it?" The host took it as a bit of an insult, and was right to. In the months that followed, I finally went back and listened to the album, and realized that while not perfect, it really had some great tunes.
Construction time Again (their third album, 1983):
Sitting in my living room, perhaps in 1983, listening to a documentary on public radio about the new "electronic sound" - Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk were featured. My friend Jeannine and I each vowed to buy one album from each artist - she picked Kraftwerk, I picked Depeche, and bought Construction Time Again... and truth be told I didn't actually LIKE it at first, and was very jealous at Jeaner's Kraftwerk. It wasn't until a year later that I gave it another listen.... and finally got it.
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