The Depeche Mode single before this, Everything Counts, was more memorable and popular. I remember it particularly from repeated exposure during my week resurfacing a tennis court in 1983 (mentioned previously). It was memorable in that slightly annoying way, like an earworm, and with that ridiculous rhyme about a career in Korea being insincere. And it sounded like it couldn't decide whether it was a critique of Thatcherism or a hymn to it. Everything was political then: while working on the court with me, Jeremy tried to argue that the line "There's enough for everyone" in Wham's Club Tropicana was a comment on global food politics. So, not quite everything.
I liked Love in Itself more. Along with OMD it occuppied that space where chart singles almost crossed over with contemporary White-Eagle-era
Tangerine Dream. Along with a couple of Tears for Fears songs, Love in Itself also features sequencers programmed to sound a bit like the percussion instruments in a gamelan ensemble, and I like that.
This must have been one of the earliest 12" singles I owned, after those dodgy Rush ones, but before the great Cocteau Twins EPs. It's not as pointless as the Rush ones: the extended 12" mix has some agreeable skronky synth soloing, and the B side has an acoustic lounge jazz version of the song, not taking itself too seriously.
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