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Depeche Mode album ‘Music For The Masses’ - released on 28|9|1987

Daniel Miller, who had produced Depeche Mode’s previous album, voluntarily stepped away from production duties for this album, citing the growing tension in the studio that they had experienced during the recording of Black Celebration.With Miller’s approval, the band used producer David Bascombe.

Band members Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore both claimed the album’s title was conceived as a joke. Said Fletcher: “The title’s … a bit tongue-in-cheek, really. Everyone is telling us we should make more commercial music, so that’s the reason we chose that title.”Martin Gore said “[The name] was a joke on the uncommerciality of [the album]. It was anything but music for the masses!”

The megaphone (or its iconic representation) on the album’s cover was used during the breadth of the album’s release: at press events, on the covers of the album’s singles, and during the tour. Alan Wilder gave credit to Martyn Atkins, who had been a long-time Depeche Mode collaborator, for the use of the megaphone. “[Martyn came] up with this idea of a speaker, but, to give the kind of ironic element which the title has, to put this speaker in a setting which wasn’t really to do with the masses at all. It was, in fact, the opposite. So you end up with this kind of eerie thing where you get these speakers or megaphones in the middle of a setting that doesn’t suit it at all, like a desert or whatever.”An early alternative cover was apparently considered but rejected for the album. The rejected cover was also designed by Martyn Atkins and a test pressing copy was auctioned off by Alan Wilder in 2011.

Highest Chart - Germany #2 Gold, UK Silver, France & USA Platinum

'Batman' by Yoshitaka Amano.

Aborted