The Depeche Mode hit song Martin Gore wrote aged 16
A Broken Frame stands as the second studio album from Depeche Mode, hitting the shelves in 1982, and exclusively penned by Martin Gore. It was recorded as a trio after Vince Clarke’s departure, as he had left to create Yazoo alongside singer Alison Moyet.
The album marked a significant transition from the lighter sound of Speak & Spell and the more heavy and darker sound that formed on their later albums. According to Daniel Miller, the production process was quite different from the previous album, stating, “It was almost like a blank sheet of paper, the songs were recorded in a different way because Vince had a very specific idea of what the song was going to end up sounding like, and Martin didn’t really have that. It was more like, ‘Here’s the words, here’s the melody. Let’s figure it out.'”
The release of the album’s first single ‘See You’ marked the commencement of a small world tour, along with the debut appearance of band member Alan Wilder, despite his non-involvement in either the song or the album.
Along with the single version of ‘See You’, there actually also exists two more distinct versions: the album iteration, and an elongated 12-inch version with an extended intro. The extended and album versions bear striking similarities, with the album version concluding approximately 20 seconds ahead of the 12-inch remix.
Julien Temple directed the music video for ‘See You’, a noteworthy production as it also featured Wilder for the first time. In the video, Wilder makes a fleeting appearance, playing a miniature electronic keyboard and making appearances in several photo booth strips. The initial segment of the video was shot at London’s Hounslow railway station.
The video’s opening includes a speakerphone reminiscent of the one depicted on the cover of Music for the Masses, which was released five years later. Interestingly, however, the band was not pleased with the video and subsequently excluded it from the 1985 video compilation, Some Great Videos.
Although Depeche Mode’s sound shifted slightly with ‘See You’, fans across the globe were certainly happy about the transformation: although it didn’t reach the number one spot in the UK, it still landed within the top ten singles in the country, while the album as a whole landed the number eight spot on the UK Albums Chart. Reflecting on this moment, Gore recounted to Mojo, “We didn’t panic, we just booked some studio time. Then ‘See You’, which I wrote when I was 16, was the first song we recorded and it was a huge hit; we felt invincible”.
