Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Something To Do
2. Lie To Me
3. People Are People
4. It Doesn't Matter
5. Stories Of Old
6. Somebody
7. Master And Servant
8. If You Want
9. Blasphemous Rumours

Disc 2:

1. Depeche Mode 1984
2. Something To Do
3. Lie To Me
4. People Are People
5. It Doesn't Matter
6. Stories Of Old
7. Somebody
8. Master And Servant
9. If You Want
10. Blasphemous Rumours
11. If You Want
12. People Are People
13. Somebody
14. Blasphemous Rumours
15. Master And Servant
16. Is Your Memory
17. Set Me Free Remotivate Me
18. Somebody

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4796 in Music
• Released on: 2009-03-16
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .35 pounds

From Amazon.com
Some Great Reward, the band's 1984 industrial/mainstream masterpiece, spawned the #13 Billboard® smash "People Are People." Also features the signature Depeche songs "Somebody," "Blasphemous Rumors," and "Master And Servant." DVD boasts three additional tracks including "In Your Memory" and a remix of "Somebody," plus five songs captured live in concert in Basel and Liverpool in '84 including "People Are People" and "Master And Servant." 27-minute DVD film Depeche Mode 1984: You Can Get Away With Anything If You Give It A Good Tune explores the band circa '84 and also features recent interview segments.

CD Description
Depeche Mode's US breakthrough album, 1984's SOME GREAT REWARD, expanded the UK synth band's American following from a small cult of Anglophiles to the same sort of teenage adulation that the Cure had started attracting around the same time. Featuring the semi-hit single "People Are People" along with two cult faves, the mopey "Blasphemous Rumours" and the fashionably S&M-tinged "Master and Servant", this is the album on which Depeche Mode finally shed the stigma of foundingsongwriter Vince Clarke's departure. Here Martin Gore came into his own as a songwriter, while Alan Wilder took Gore's former place in the George Harrison role, contributing two fine tunes. The addition of mechanical factory noise to several songs aligned the band more with darker industrial bands than sunny technopop groups, a change which became more pronounced over the next few releases.

Customer Reviews

Rewarding experience
I got into La Mode in 1985 when they really began to move away from their synth-pop roots after releasing their first 'Best of' album. 'Some Great Reward' is really the second of a two part transition that was begun with 'Construction Time Again'. Unlike many of their contemporaries, DM had the foresight to see where the 80s were going musically, and began the process of metamorphosing into stadia-filling electro warriors. This album contains gems such as the brooding 'Stories of Old', pervy classic 'Master and Servant', and the seminal 'Blasphemous Rumours'. These are the best tracks but there is not one dud on the CD and I can heartily recommend this album as a way of understanding Depeche Mode as they were and seeing what they would become. Sublime.

Depeche up the ante in a big way
This is my favourite Depeche album. On this album, the framework the band would follow pretty much until now in terms of songwriting style was layed down. This was the one where they found their voice. From the start, the album sounds much harder and harsher. It is arguably their first album that flows comfortably. It is also not afraid to experiment, not only sonically but in terms of people's perception of what was "acceptable". It does have sonic similarities to "construction time again" but on this album they are not afraid to be molre challenging - it's hard to imagine that 22 years ago "Blasphemous Rumours" and "Master and Servant" shocked some radio 1 DJs, but they did.

As for a broken frame, the accompanying short film is very strong with lots of old archive footage - watch out for Alan complaining that Martin has gone on holiday while he mixes the album. The "berlin" effect is reflected nicely - Berlin was where Bowie recorded "Low" and these days it is known as a techno city. Nice to see that Depeche's "up the ante" album was tied into this vibe as well.

Deluxe reissue of 1984's breakthrough album...
Discounting the debut LP 'Speak & Spell', which was mostly penned by Vince Clarke & indebted to Silicon Teen Daniel Miller, the Mode's albums up to 'Some Great Reward' had been patchy. 'A Broken Frame' contender for their worst album (though 2001's 'Exciter' still seems dull)with several poor tracks like 'Monument', 'The Meaning of Love', 'Satellite' & 'Shouldn't Have Done That.' By the time of 1983's 'Construction Time Again', the band had moved on - proto-Detroit techno single 'Get the Balance Right!' and the arrival of Alan Wilder strenghened the band. 'Construction...' is more good than bad (still some duff moments), the band fusing pop, politics and Neubauten-style sampling. 'Some Great Reward' was the next step on, like 1986's 'Black Celebration' and 1987's 'Music for the Masses' it fuses electronics, pop and sampling and was recorded in the fabled Hansa Studios in (then) West Berlin...

The original 9-track album still pretty much stands up, though the Mode's first classic album to me remains 'Black Celebration' - 'Stories of Old' is perhaps closer to the Clarke-vision of the band, while it should be noted that several tracks were released as singles: 'People are People', 'Master & Servant', and the double a-side single 'Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody.' 'If You Want' is one of Alan Wilder's best moments, alongside 'Two Minute Warning' and 'People are People' b-side 'In Your Memory' (found on the bonus disc here). Martin Gore's songwriting was certainly moving on, while his lead vocals on the sublime 'It Doesn't Matter' and fan favourite 'Somebody' would set the tone for later Gore-lead songs such as 'Things You Said', 'A Question of Lust' & 'Home.'

This was the album that saw the Mode generally drop the political thing, though 'People are People' does have a universal utopian vibe to it amid the shattering metallic beats and the slightly silly lyrics (1986's 'New Dress' would be their last political style moment). Misery and sex seem to be the order of the day - S&M anthem 'Master and Servant' still sounds great, as does opener 'Something to Do' - a pulsing electronic anthem with a hint of perversion ("I'd put your leather boots on"). The 'Metal Mix' of this track is amusingly Missy Elliot's 'Get Ur Freak On'...decades before!. 'Lie to Me' seems an undervalued Mode-moment, while the concluding 'Blasphemous Rumours' has the same creepy life-support machine sample as found at the start of the album and is a gothic anthem of woe that many find appealing. I'm with Neil Tennant's classic Smash Hits review, "a routine slab of gloom in which God is given a severe ticking off" - unlike 'It's a Sin'!!!!!

This reissue is in line with the prior two-disc SACD reissues of 'Music for the Masses', 'Speak & Spell' & 'Violator' - including SACD-versions of the album, an audio element/interview from the period, and some releated recordings. 'Master & Servant' b-side 'Set Me Free (Remotivate Me)' has dated well, I like the idea of a b-side relating in theme to the a-side and like certain Mode b-sides ('Shout', 'Ice Machine', 'Now This is Fun', 'Work Hard', 'Happiest Girl'), this is too good to be on a b-side!

'Some Great Reward' was the breakthrough and the place where the classic Mode sound from 1986 to 1992 would come from. It makes sense alongside such records as Cabaret Voltaire's 'Microphonies', Psychic TV's 'Dreams Less Sweet', Soft Cell's 'This Last Night in Sodom', & Scraping Foetus off the Wheel's 'Hole'...which is odd for a pop act who were in Smash Hits and had hit singles! 'Some Great Reward' has dated well, and is a fine precursor to the classic Mode period that immediatly followed it...