Construction Time Again by Depeche Mode

Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode's third album, came out on Mute on 22 August 1983, and it's the record where the Basildon synth-pop kids grew teeth. Vince Clarke was long gone, Martin Gore was now the chief songwriter, and Alan Wilder had joined Dave Gahan, Gore and Andy Fletcher, making this his first album with the band; he wrote two of its songs, too. The band produced it with Daniel Miller, recording at John Foxx's The Garden studios in London and mixing at Hansa in West Berlin.

The sound got harder, colder and far more interesting. Instead of sweet bleeps, there's clanging, hammering, metallic percussion that sounds like it was sampled off a factory floor, all built around Gahan's darkening voice and Gore's gift for a melody that sticks like a splinter. The title itself comes from a line in "Pipeline". "Everything Counts" is the big one, bitter and catchy at once, built on a clattering, singsong hook, and "Love, in Itself" is its moodier, more reflective companion.

On the UK singles chart "Everything Counts" peaked at number 6 and "Love, in Itself" got to number 21, while the album itself climbed to number 6. A tour across Europe kept them on the road from September 1983 through March 1984, and the Wilder lineup that started here would carry them all the way to 1995.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.