“Everything Counts” by Depeche Mode

"Everything Counts" opened the account for Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode's third album, as its first single in 1983, and it's the sound of a synth-pop band with its sleeves rolled up. Martin L. Gore wrote it, Dave Gahan sings lead, and the band produced it with Daniel Miller for Mute, with Gareth Jones engineering.

It's a hard, clanging piece of synth-pop, a rhythm that clatters like machinery under a melody that sounds almost like a nursery rhyme gone sour, and Gahan delivers it with a cool, clipped gravity. The contrast between the prettiness on top and the grind underneath is the whole point.

It climbed to No. 6 on the UK singles chart. Six years later it came back in a live version, released as a single in 1989 to promote the live album 101, and that one reached No. 22 in Britain.

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