Customer Reviews

Broken Frame (Bonus Dvd)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Depeche Mode's second album but their first without Vince Clarke. He left shortly after the release of their first album and formed Yaz with Alison Moyet. Now the songwriting was left to Martin Gore and this album would mark "the beginning of their so-called dark phase".The three singles off the album were "See You","The Meaning Of Love" and the haunting "Leave In Silence". Other noteworthy tracks include "My Secret Garden", "Satellite" and "The Sun and The Rainfall".

Because the reissues are faithful to the original UK releases, there are a few noticeable differences between this album and the original 1990 release. First of all, "Leave In Silence" runs a little shorter(In fact the version on the 1990 CD was actually the 12-inch version). The one here is identical to the one on "The Singles 81>85". Also, "Further Excerpts From:My Secret Garden" has been omitted but a shorter version of it appears on the DVD. And for the astute listener, a small part of the intro on "Satellite" was trimmed.

The DVD features three additional tracks that were B-sides or part of 12-inch singles. The 27 minute documentary talks about the band continuing without Vince Clarke, the recruiting of Alan Wilder though he didn't participate in the recordings and the story behind the famous album cover.

Martin Gore was quoted as saying that this was probably their worst album but this is a very enjoyable album after a few listens.

Here's what's on the DVD:

-A Short Film-Depeche Mode: 1982 (The beginning of their so-called dark phase)

-The entire album in DTS 5.1 and stereo.

-Live in Hammersmith October 1982 in 5.1 and stereo:
My Secret Garden/See You/Satellite/Nothing To Fear/The Meaning Of Love/A Photograph Of You.

-Additional tracks:
Now, This Is Fun (B-side of "See You")
Oberkorn(It's A Small Town)
Excerpt from: My Secret Garden (B-side of "Leave In Silence-UK only)

A BROKEN FRAME is Depeche Mode's sophomore album and first without co-founding member Vince Clarke, who was the principal songwriter on the band's debut, Speak & Spell. With A BROKEN FRAME, Martin Gore filled this void by penning each of the album's ten tracks. A BROKEN FRAME, however, is not one of DM's strongest albums, even the musicians involved will own up to that sentiment, yet despite the songwriting being wildly uneven it still holds up as an enjoyable record.

Working against A BROKEN FRAME is it's indecision on kind of album it wants to be. Although sections on this album foreshadowed the direction of darker DM songs soon to come, there are interruptions of oddly upbeat songs such as "See You" (which I love), "The Meaning of Love" (tolerable), and "A Photograph of You" (one of DM's worst ever). "Leave In Silence" , "My Secret Garden", "Nothing to Fear", and "The Sun and the Rainfall", are all excellent, up-tempo numbers without diluting the band's spirit and distinctive sound. More intriguing are the songs that open up to the wider possibilities of DM's experimental side, such as the quirky percussive sounds of "Monument" and the odd musical-detours and sound effects in "Shouldn't Have Done That".

Rhino's CD/DVD reissues of DM's backcatalog have been an eye-opener for fans in North America who have enjoyed altered versions of the band's early records without knowing that some of our favorite tracks were bonus material for Stateside audiences. The new reissues are based on the original UK releases. For A BROKEN FRAME this leaves a shorter "Leave In Silence" and the omission of "Further Excerpts From My Secret Garden". The bonus material, three B-sides and a half-dozen live selections from a 1982 concert, is a generous offering, but to regulate it to the DVD side only is frustrating. Couldn't the B-sides at least fit onto the end of the CD? I don't want to sit in front of my TV everytime to listen to this material.

The DVD documentary included, "The Beginning of Their So Called Dark Phase" (perhaps a bit over-dramatic statement for this early in their career), focus on the time leading up to and the release of the recorded music, including those awkward first steps in regaining their footing after Vince Clarke's departure. There are some funny "Spinal Tap"-ish moments in music video and TV performances that I'm sure the band would rather have their fans forget. It is also here that future DM member Alan Wilder enters into the picture, if only as a touring member in support of A BROKEN FRAME.

I can't comment on the audio quality of the mixes offered on the DVD, as I don't have the proper equipment to truly experience what the disc offers.

Final rating (for the music): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Final rating (for the CD/DVD reissue format): 2.5 out of 5 stars

A Broken Frame is easily my favorite Depeche Mode album of them all (next to Black Celebration). It's brooding yet it's full of dark humor that cracks me up every time. Depeche Mode clung to their dark image as their career progressed but their sense of humor seemed to fade away fast. Never was it so abundant as on A Broken Frame. For instance on "See You", my favorite track, Gore entreats an old ex of his to see him again (that's all he wants!) but it's obvious there's more on his agenda: "I'll try not to kiss you and I'll try not to hold you, though I think I still love you! All I want to do is see you, Don't you know that it's true?!". You can guess why the relationship ended in the first place. So clever and endearing. Other standout tracks include "The Meaning of Love" "Leave in Silence" and "My Secret Garden" although every track on the album stands out in its own way. Compared to Speak and Spell I find A Broken frame much more inviting with lusher intrumentation, less monotony and an over all better production quality. A Broken Frame is full of innocence and light-heartedness that Depeche Mode would never see the likes of again.

Considering this was 1982 and the band was left high & dry following Vince Clark's departure, I think A Broken Frame takes a lot of undue flack. Sure, Gore's lyrics leave something to be desired at times, but Depeche Mode showed they were capable of moving-on musically without missing a beat. "Leave In Silence", "See You", and "The Sun & The Rainfall" are highlights, and "Shouldn't Have Done That" is completely different from anything else the band had recorded to date. I think too often people forget that Speak & Spell wasn't without its faults (Anybody remember "Boys Say Go!"?), and while A Broken Frame wasn't Dark Side of the Moon, it did show musical progression and was evidence that the band was gonna be just fine.

This is one of Depeche Mode's less known albums... It has a very unique atmosphere, dark, brooding, and meloncholy. It made an extreme break from Speak & Spell, DM's first album, and the difference is so great because the chief songwriter, Vince Clarke, had left the band, and Martin Gore was to take over.

The album opens with "Leave In Silence," a favorite of mine. The song has chime - like synths, and fades out in a bluesy synth solo... It seems to be a breakup song.

The second track is "My Secret Garden." It begins with a soft synth melodie, and abrubtly switches to a drum beat. There is an instrumental version with a dance twist on the DVD entitled "Excerpts From: My Secret Garden," and an extended version of that, named "Further Excerpts From: My Secret Garden." I'm not very sure what this is about, but I do believe it's about love gone wrong...

Track 3, "Monument," is a rather unusual song, and could be described as having a "watery" feeling. It seems to have some kind of synthesized drums... It's about trying to build something, but it keeps falling down each time.

The next track is an instrumental called "Nothing To Fear." The intro almost has a "rising" feeling as it progresses, and it leads into a brilliant synth riff.

The following track is "See You," the band's first song after Vince Clarke had left. The intro kind of promises a different feeling than the song ends up portraying, but in the end, it's a great song, not to mention that it has the greatest outro in history... =D Some say it's a rather poppy song, rather like the material Vince Clarke had wrote, although, to me, it leans toward the atmosphere that "A Broken Frame" has. It's about wanting only to see someone again...

"Satellite" is track 6. It has an almost depressed tone in the vocals, and also in the instrumental... I believe it might also be about love gone wrong...

Track 7 is "The Meaning of Love," a rather goofy track. It is alien to the atmosphere of "A Broken Frame," and very poppy like Vince Clarke's material in "Speak & Spell." Though it seems to be sarcastic in nature, it makes it clear that it's about trying to figure out the meaning of love.

The track after is "A Photograph of You," which shares the same atmosphere as the track before. It begins with a perky intro, which picks up with a drum beat. It seems to be about looking at a photograph of someone you miss, wishing you could tear it apart because it makes you so sad, but not being able to bear doing so (Ironic that a song with such a cheery melodie could reprise such a deep meaning).

"Shouldn't Have Done That" is the next track. It shares the same "depressed" vocal tone that "Satellite" has. It crossfades out of the wind howl in the end of "A Photograph of You," and has an odd break with sounds of a child and reversed speech... It may be about a child who grows up and becomes a politician ("Leaves school, to follow his ambition, Knows what he wants, to be a politician"), or maybe even about Hitler if you look at it from the right perspective (Plans made in the nurserey can change the course of history). Some have suggested it is about the dangers of adulthood.

The final track is "The Sun and The Rainfall." I've always been confused how "The Meaning of Love" was released as a single, and this wasn't. It seems to be an underated closer to an underated album... It has amazing synth melodies and, like "See You," has one of the greatest outros I've ever heard, with every member, even Andrew Fletcher - Who barely sings - singing a part of the song. Truely a beautiful song. It's about how things must always change to retain one's interest...

"Now, This Is Fun!" is the b-side to "See You." It has a fast pace, and great vocals by David Gahan. I believe it is about purposefully disobeying the rules, and having fun with it.

"Oberkorn (It's A Small Town)" is the b-side to "The Meaning of Love." It is a song completely unlike the a-side of the single, a slow, meloncholy, instrumental that defines the atmosphere of "A Broken Frame."

"Excerpts From: My Secret Garden" is the b-side to "Leave In Silence." It's mostly an instrumental version of "My Secret Garden" with a dance twist, as I had said before. It has amazing synths, and is pretty fun to sing to.

The DVD comes with a variety of bonus tracks, including live versions, the entire album remastered in DTS 5.1, and the b-sides to the singles. Also on the DVD is documentary on the album, how it came to be, and the story behind it's amazing artwork.

All in all, if you are trying to get to know Depeche Mode, this album probably isn't the best to get at the time, the band during this period they had not yet developed their sound. Though I do reccomend it to anyone who already knows them fairly well, and are looking for their lesser known material.

This month, I bought my second installment in the remastered CD/DVD set, A Broken Frame. After buying Speak & Spell last month, I thought I pretty much knew what to expect--a remastered CD, a DVD with material you can't put on your iPod, and the cheesy synthesizers prevalent in DM's early days.

But I must say, I was very impressed. I can't fall in love with it too much--the record feels a bit awkward at times, like the songs are only loosely connected. (Probably not surprising, considering that the band was still trying to find itself after the sudden departure of Vince Clarke). I know that the songs are a bit quirky, and nothing on here quite lives up to "Just Can't Get Enough" or probably even "New Life."

Nevertheless, there is something unique about this record. Singles "See You," "The Meaning of Love," and particularly "Leave in Silence" have started to grow on me in the short time I have owned this album. I love "My Secret Garden" and "The Sun and the Rainfall" to pieces--I think they have beautiful melodies. And there is something wickedly cool about "Monument" and "Satellite," despite the fact that the first chord of "Satellite" is oddly missing from the remastered CD. (And, unfortunately, it's kinda obvious.)

In contrast with Speak & Spell, the bonus DVD material is not merely a video and B-sides. This time, you get six live tracks along with the video and three B-sides. I enjoy the first live track, "My Secret Garden," particularly--weighing in at over 7 minutes, but worth each one. The video is funny, too--the band looked hilarious in the brief footage of the two music videos! Of course, the album sounds good in surround, too.

I think this was one of the better purchases I've made lately. It isn't as solid and refined as Speak & Spell, but it did take the band in the right direction--away from the bubblegum pop and into that dark, futuristic sound that has characterized them straight into 2009.

I must be backwards as far as DM fans go. Where many fans and critics think this is the band's weakest album, while they praise Violator as their best, I'm the complete opposite. Having been a fan since 1985, I think Violator is one of their weakest albums, (though I don't own either of the three albums that came after it), while I think A Broken Frame is one of their best.

OK, so I do admit there is some bad material here, yet one of the band's worst songs from this period, the sickly sweet 'See You', was a big hit for the band.
Another along the same insufferable style is the embarrassing 'A Photograph of You'.
And though 'The Meaning of Love' is pretty close, I still find that song a fun bit of nonsense.

The super-bouncy songs previously mentioned could be very misleading to the fact that A Broken Frame has some of Depeche Mode's best early bits of minimalistic dark music.
'Leave in Silence' is a classic single in the style that fits one of the group's later nicknames, Depress Mode. Cold, minimalistic and very cool.
Probably one of the most hauntingly stunning tracks from their entire catalog is the classic 'My Secret Garden'. This song was an instant classic for me, and all these years later is still one I play on a regular basis. Martin Gore's songwriting was still developing, but the results on this album were very experimental and sometimes very exciting.
Speaking of experimental, the definition of that would be the bizarre 'Monument'. Like with 'My Secret Garden', a haunting element is added with the Martin Gore's diffused background vocals.
And like most fans, I do agree another standout track is the beautifully melodic 'The Sun and the Rainfall'. I couldn't have asked for a better closer to this brilliant album.
Aside from tracks like 'See You', (and the super embarrassing TV appearance of the song with the group in a barn setting holding chickens), Martin Gore should stop bashing this album and embrace it for the successful bits therein.

The remastering on the reissue series involved former band member, Alan Wilder. Alan did great at ensuring these remasters did not suffer being a victim of the "Loudness Wars", i.e, the volume is not blown so loud that most dynamics are squashed out in favor of LOUDNESS. All of the remasters that I have purchased sound amazing and retain their full dynamic range, (though the first note of 'Satellite' on the CD is lopped off). Most bands these days allow their work to be destroyed by overzealous mastering engineers who think having their name attached to a CD that's LOUD will draw them more clients. Unfortunately, it may actually work for them, but audiophile fans who don't listen to compressed MP3's through poor sounding "earbuds" are the ones who suffer. Thankfully, the DM catalog has proven to be a wholly satisfying listening experience. That being said, I agree that it stinks having all the extra tracks condemned to the DVD.

The DVD documentary with all of these reissues is a real bonus. The in depth detail of each album is very enlightening, and viewers are teased with lots of clips of rare music videos and TV appearances. At the very least, all of the original promo videos should have been included as well, regardless of their perceived artistic quality in retrospect. I actually enjoy the multi colored cornball video for Leave in Silence. Plus, the video for The Meaning of Love displays a rarely seen playful side.

Though I don't consider A Broken Frame to truly be a 5 star album, I'm giving it the full count for the quality of the good material, and for the remastering quality. Thank you.

A Broken Frame has always been my favorite Mode album. I'm only here to warn consumers of how poor this series of american 'remasters' are. For one, the song sequence and lengths are different from the original album. 'Leave In Silence', while left in its original six and half minute form on the original album, is cut down to a four minute plus version here. What the hell? Why would you mess around with the album versions fans are used to?? Additionally, the track 'Further Excerpts From My Secret Garden' is not even included at all. As if this isn't perplexing enough, the bonus tracks are only available on the DVD portion. What good is music playing out of your television? For those of us who don't have all of the perks and bonuses of a surround television system, we're just left in the cold. Granted, it states that the bonus material is only on the DVD, but there is no excuse for screwing around with tracklisting and time lengths of the original album versions. They pull this on the Speak and Spell album as well (the original album mix of "Just Can't Get Enough' is six and a half minutes while the new release contains an edit version).
A waste of money. The remaster isn't even that good!

Yes, this album is defitely an improvement over the somewhat "gay" "Speak and Spell"! The musical ideas of "Leave in Silence","My Secret Garden", "Nothing to Fear" or my favorite, excellent "Sun and the Rainfall" are breaking through with a promise of better things to come, but the "spirit" of the departed Vince Clark still lingers in the so-so "See You". A special recognition should be reserved to a nearly industrial (ahead of its time) creepy, "Shouldn't Have Done That" with brilliant anti-Fascist lyrics about an abused child gone horribly wrong.Depeche Mode start thinking on this one and the next album will finally reveal the pearl inside the shell of surrounding mediocrity.

First off. I like Depeche Mode but always find their music kind of limiting. It has been very hard for me to listen to any of their albums in
their entirety.

And I don't care for Speak and Spell at all

Vince Clark leaving the band was probably a good thing.

A Broken Frame is a broken band trying to find it's sound. And boy does it show. Most of the songs are teenybopper synthpop drudgery. Makes sense since Martin Gore was forced into main songwriter position and just wasn't ready. There are a few gems to be found. "Leave In Silence" the instrumental "Nothing To Fear"(a jean michele jarre knockoff to my ears...but it is pretty good). and the best song of the album "The Sun And The Rainfall". What is amazing is the amount of maturity the band showed in going from this sub-par release to "Construction Time Again". I think I have to credit label owner Daniel Miller and his Synclavier.

One more added note. From the DVD included on this reissue one finds out that Alan Wilder was hired as a touring keyboard player and was not a member of the band. The idea was the band did not want the public thinking that the band needed help with Vincent Clark leaving. Guess what..they did.

This is evident in Wilder's constantly underrated role as sound designer/arranger on later records.

Oh and just to show that I am not a total Vince Clark hater...i loved the work he did with members of wire on Duet Emmo.

end
kdc