Depeche Mode have announced the beginning of a series of box sets collecting their 12″ singles from across their career.
Unlike the sets of CD singles which have appeared sporadically in boxes of six since the early 1990s, the vinyl sets will each focus on the singles relating to a specific album. The first sets appear on 31 August, with the release of Speak & Spell | The 12″ Singles and A Broken Frame | The 12″ Singles from Sony Music Entertainment.
Remastered from the original tapes, each 12″ single is pressed on audiophile quality vinyl and housed in a replica of its original sleeve, with the boxes bearing new “street art iconography inspired by the original releases”. The first two boxes each contain three 12″ records, a reproduction promo poster for one of the included singles and a download card. The Speak & Spell box marks the first 12″ release of Depeche Mode’s debut single Dreaming of Me; also included is a reproduction of a rare flexidisc issued with Flexipop! magazine in 1981, coupling Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead with King of the Flies, a track by the band’s erstwhile Mute Records labelmate Fad Gadget. Later albums will also receive similar box sets “over the coming years”.
The full tracklistings for the two sets are as follows:
Speak & Spell | The 12″ Singles
- Disc 1: Dreaming of Me / Ice Machine
- Disc 2: New Life (Re-mix) / Shout! (Rio Mix)
- Disc 3: Just Can’t Get Enough (Schizo Mix) / Any Second Now (Altered)
- Flexidisc: Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead / King of the Flies (by Fad Gadget)
A Broken Frame | The 12″ Singles
- Disc 1: See You (Extended Version) / Now, This is Fun (Extended Version)
- Disc 2: The Meaning of Love (Fairly Odd Mix) / Oberkorn (It’s a Small Town) (Development Mix)
- Disc 3: Leave in Silence (Longer) / Further Excerpts From: My Secret Garden / Leave in Silence (Quieter)
