Depeche Mode “A Broken Frame” released on yesterday’s date, September 27th, 1982. Not enough time to write about it on its anniversary (had to take the Vault boy to get braces). A Broken Frame is dM’s second album and their first without Vince Clarke (who went on to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet). The LP made it to #8 in the UK but barely whispered onto the US charts, hitting #177. The best tracks showcase Depeche Mode doing what they do best: mixing hauntingly dark melodies with bright synth pop effects. “Leave in Silence” leads off the album with vaguely menacing vocal oh-ohing in minor; the single reached #18 in the UK. “My Secret Garden” is full of gorgeous shadows, as is “Monument.” “See You,” the first single released from A Broken Frame, peaked at #6 in the UK is not quite so dark, just lightly tinged with a deep grey, and it never fails to remind me of a guy who used to play the track over and over in the mid-80′s as he pined for a good friend of mine who had lost interest. “The Meaning of Love,” the album’s second single, is also on the poppy end of the dM spectrum, though the lyrics are less the typical love/heartbreak pop theme and more the existential questioning of painful human existence.

I’ve read more than a hundred books
Seeing love mentioned many thousand times
But despite all the places I’ve looked
It’s still no clearer
I’m still no nearer
The meaning of love
Noted down all my observations
Spent an evening watching television
Still I couldn’t say with precision
Know it’s a feeling and it comes from above
But what’s the meaning
The meaning of love
(tell me)
From the notes that I’ve made so far
Love seems something like wanting a scar
Well I could be wrong
I’m just not sure you see
I’ve never been in love before
Next I asked several friends of mine
If they could spare a few minutes of their time
Their looks suggested that I’ve lost my mind
Tell me the answer
My Lord high above
Tell me the meaning
The meaning of love
From the notes that I’ve made so far
Love seems something like wanting a scar
Well I could be wrong
I’m just not sure you see
I’ve never been in love before
The meaning of love
(tell me)
Tell me the meaning of love
(tell me)