Speak & Spell
by Depeche Mode
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Depeche Mode bestography
Speak & Spell is ranked 9th best out of 47 albums by Depeche Mode on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Depeche Mode is Violator which is ranked number 96 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 12,145.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Speak & Spell on YouTube
Speak & Spell track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Speak & Spell rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 37 minutes ago).
MadhattanJack
Helios
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PurplepashSpeak & Spell collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 97 members
Speak & Spell ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 235 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/02/2026 19:07 |  serpico | 846 | 86/100 |
| ! | 06/01/2026 07:51 | bigbeans | 270 | 79/100 |
| ! | 04/15/2026 22:38 | jnmayles | 2,254 | 73/100 |
| ! | 03/29/2026 18:55 | heavensin | 84 | 94/100 |
| ! | 03/17/2026 00:05 | Exist-en-ciel | 14,684 | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 70.5/100, a mean average of 69.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 70.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.1.
Speak & Spell favourites
Showing all 16 members who have added this album as a favourite
Speak & Spell comments
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ExTeaSea 08/31/2025 22:35 | #310773
Wonderful and an underrated album in their discography. It's so fun! Delightful debut album.
Jboy56 02/21/2024 07:18 | #302107
Yeah, pop for onetime ise
Powerful synths, I think this could be misjudged and sounded a bit dated a couple years ago, but now that the 80s nostalgia is back, it is clear that the sound here is amazing and it was a great debut.
A good start
salahshoori 10/15/2020 09:21 | #259321 | TOP COMMENT
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This shows the way from Kraftwerk to synthpop. It's not an awesome album but it's absolutely interesting.
This poppy premier welcomes Depeche mode into the eighties and shows a tremendous potential for the band.
Depeche Mode's debut album is full of throwaway pop with Vince Clarke at the helm. Obviously, just can't get enough, is a classic pop song, the rest is a combination of not bad and forgettable. It's funny listening to some of these songs, I mean, can you imagine Depeche Mode playing, what's your name? these days. Not a chance. Overall, speak and spell, is okay for the time and place but Depeche Mode were more of a singles band than an album band at this point.
RoundTheBend 04/30/2016 03:15 | #164865
JCGE obviously is a killer track. The rest... well it's not vialator, and if you are into synth pop...
Good debut. Not great, but solid. Dreaming of Me and JCGE are classics.
timtooky 03/27/2014 19:50 | #107803
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