With its slow, grinding pace accentuated with by-now trademark metal percussion fills, a huge main rhythm, and, in perfect contrast, a soft, central synth loop, "Blasphemous Rumours" more than anything codified Depeche as the masters of '80s teen angst, black clad division.

Gore's vicious, bleak lyric is delivered with perhaps surprising panache by Gahan, making for a surprisingly successful combination of meditations on death, religion, and fate; the overall arrangement is spectacular, creepy, unusual samples shooting throughout the mix.

A remix of the Some Great Reward track "Somebody" accompanied the release; while there's a little more overall texturing in the background -- a soft, almost subliminal additional rhythm and other small, subtle touches like gentle breaths -- otherwise it's pretty much the same smart and sly ballad.

Two live tracks from the Construction Time Again days fill out the full version of the single, both taken from a Liverpool 1984 concert.

"Told You So" is a reasonably fine take on the energetic cut, with Gahan's underrated abilities on projection and taking things to a higher level in concert coming through well enough.

"Everything Counts," meanwhile, gets a good run-through, though it can't compare with the masterful version that was recorded years later for 101.