Depeche Mode might be the biggest synth-pop band in the world, even though it would be fair to say that over time they have inched closer to being a rock band with synth/keyboards elements. They were formed in Basildon, England in 1980 when Dave Gahan (lead vocals) was recruited to join Vince Clarke (keyboards), Andy Fletcher (keyboards), and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals).
The band quickly became part of the emerging synth-pop scene, and arrived at a very timely moment. The punk scene was winding down and London club kids were looking for music they could dance to that was less aggressive. Depeche Mode fit the bill perfectly, and would soon be seen to be leading the charge for electronic music.
Just Can’t Get Enough was recorded during sessions for their debut album Speak & Spell. This happened in the summer of 1981 at Blackwing Studios, housed inside a deconsecrated church in South-East London which had been partly destroyed during The Blitz in 1941.
In an interview with Q magazine in February 2008, vocalist Dave Gahan recalled recording Depeche Mode’s debut album Speak & Spell and their early days as a band: ”That’s the only album where the songs had already been performed for a year and a half beforehand, and we went into the studio and recorded them as we would live. I think Daniel [Miller, their record label boss] saw us as a cross between the Ramones and the Beach Boys, in an electronic way – fast and short with really simple riffs. We were courted by major labels and were very suspicious of signing a deal that meant five albums. We’d come from that punk ethic: we just wanted to make a single. Daniel came along and that’s all he really had the money to do, so it kind of worked. We wanted to keep in control. We never thought much beyond the next single and playing some gigs. That time was brilliant.”
Vince Clarke was the main songwriter of the band, and he had just turned 20 when he wrote Just Can’t Get Enough. It was a new song for the album session, and had been inspired by To Cut A Long Story Short by Spandau Ballet, which was released in 1980. While not musically similar, the Spandau track has a well-defined synth riff playing throughout, set against a percussive beat. Clarke would pick up on both of these elements but make his own song less intense and more playful.
Clarke was very hands-on with his creations, meaning that when he brought it to the rest of the band it more or less had a completed structure and arrangement. It was just a matter of getting it rehearsed and recorded.
The lyrics of the song can’t be said to be particularly deep, taking the shape of sweet pledges to someone the singer is obsessed with. This is pop music in every sense, both lyrically and musically. Things are not meant to be deep or serious all the time, but that does not make them any less sincere. The plea is genuine, but playful. The song dances along and becomes a sweet soundtrack to fun times. Nothing more, but also nothing less.
When I’m with you baby I go out of my head
And I just can’t get enough
And I just can’t get enough
All the things you do to me and everything you said
I just can’t get enough
I just can’t get enough
We slip and slide as we fall in love
And I just can’t seem to get enough of
The song has an upbeat and pop-oriented sound filled with catchy hooks. The same is true for the album as a whole, which is significantly lighter in tone and melody than their later work, a direction which can largely be attributed to Clarke’s writing. After he left, Gore took over songwriting duties, writing most of the band’s material. Later albums written by him would explore darker subjects and melodies.
In a 2010 interview with Songfacts, Clarke talked the differences between his version of the band and how they had developed since: “Martin Gore writes in a different way than I do, so that’s obviously the main difference. And they’ve developed this kind of a rock feel to their music. I’m more a fan of pop music, or I’m more of a fan of writing pop music. That’s the main difference, I guess.”
Just Can’t Get Enough was released on 7 September 1981, a month before the release of Speak & Spell on 5 October. It was the synth-pop band’s third single but their first hit, hitting #8 in the UK charts. It did well elsewhere too, making top 20 in Belgium, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden, while going all the way to #4 in Australia! It also sowed the seeds of future success in America, where it was released in February 1982 and became a club favourite. It went to #26 on Billboard’s Hot Dance chart, which was an impressive result for a still relatively unknown band.
The band filmed a music video for the song, which is the only Depeche Mode video Vince Clarke appears in. MTV, which launched the year the song was released, ignored it for the most part. It would in fact take some time for the first Depeche Mode video to reach the ‘hot rotation’ list on the network, which first happened to Personal Jesus from 1989.
Not everyone appreciated the Speak & Spell album and associated songs. Rolling Stone magazine called it “PG-rated fluff” and more or less wrote off the band. It is fair to say that the artists embraced by Rolling Stone at the time rarely embodied the core values of pop music – catchy music with simple lyrics, made to entertain rather than be deep reflections on the meaning of life. This was far from the first time that Rolling Stone displayed musical snobbery, and time has proven that the early songs of Depeche Mode still have plenty of mileage.
Just Can’t Get Enough turned out to be the final song Clarke wrote for the band. He left Depeche Mode in November 1981, just a month after Speak & Spell was released. Clarke would first form Yazoo and later Erasure.
“Vince was the leader at that point,” Dave Gahan told Q in 2008. ”By the time we got into the studio, Vince had got bored with it. He didn’t like the idea of having to deal with other personalities. He wanted to be in control.”
Years later, in conversation with Night Network, Clarke said that at the time he left Depeche Mode, “the band wasn’t going in the direction I’d have chosen to go,” citing arguments regarding songwriting, and admitting his own dogmatism where it comes to creating music. He was even more blunt in a 2016 interview with Vice, simply stating that he left Depeche Mode because the band was young and weren’t getting along — as simple as that. There were certainly no regrets, and he’s always wished the band well. Given Clarke’s introvert personality, he was always uncomfortable with drawing attention on stage, preferring to lead behind the scenes. Add to that his music-focused (as opposed to performance-focused) approach, and it was clear that a split had to happen for Depeche Mode to become the arena-sized band that they would become.
Vince Clarke has been known to sing Just Can’t Get Enough on his own with an acoustic guitar at Erasure concerts, displaying a soft spot for (at least some of) his earliest material.
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