Alan Wilder vocals

This page lists confirmed examples of Alan Wilder's vocal contributions in Depeche Mode songs and in his personal demos, with accompanying audio examples. All audio examples from the albums have been extracted from the SACD multi-channel remasters, except where noted.

Alan's speech can be heard in various interviews; see Interviews featuring Alan Wilder. One particularly good example is 1990-03-20 The Wherehouse (Sire-Reprise PRO-C-4329).

Demo recordings

Alan Wilder contributed four demo songs for Some Great Reward.

See more: Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" demo tape

Construction Time Again

Everything Counts

"Everything counts in large amounts" from the album version chorus.

"Everything counts in large amounts" from "Everything Counts (Reprise)":

Two Minute Warning

"Time has come, my days are numbered":

"Time has come, my days are numbered / two minute warning":

"Time has come, my days are numbered":

Some Great Reward

In Your Memory (Slik Mix)

Alan singing "place it in your memory" can be heard in the "Slik Mix" of In Your Memory, starting at 6:44.

Black Celebration

Black Celebration

"I'll drink to that"

Music For The Masses

Sacred

"Trying to sell the story of love's eternal glory"

Violator

Sweetest Perfection

Alan sings the ending backing vocals alongside Dave Gahan. "Nothing can stop me / Takes me completely / Touches so sweetly / Reaches so deeply" repeated until the end of the song.

This excerpt is just Alan's vocals:

And for comparison, here are Dave's vocals alone:

And both sets of vocals, Alan in left channel, Dave in right channel:

Enjoy The Silence

"Here in my arms / they can only do harm"

Live recordings

Alan contributes significant live backing vocals. Here are some general examples:

• Alan is prominently heard in the right channel of 1982-03-28 De Lantaren, Rotterdam, The Netherlands/Source 1.
• Alan is prominently heard in the right channel of 1982-02-21 Tiffany's, Glasgow, Scotland, UK/Source 1.
• Alan is prominently heard in the left channel of 1983-10-08 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK/Source 1 on most songs, with the exception of "See You" where the left channel is also shared by Martin's vocals.
• Alan is prominently heard in the left channel of 1984-06-02 Suedwest Stadium, Ludwigshafen, Germany/Source 2.
• Alan is prominently heard in the left channel of 1984-11-02 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK/Source 1.
• Alan is prominently heard in the right channel of 1993-07-31 Crystal Palace Sports Ground, London, England, UK/Source 1.

1983-1984 Construction Time Again Tour

Two Minute Warning

Alan's chorus backing vocals for Two Minute Warning from 1983-10-08 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK/Source 1, well isolated using phase cancellation:

1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour

If You Want

Alan provides backing vocals for the entirety of If You Want during live performances, whereas on the album, Martin provides the backing vocals. Here are Alan's vocals, reasonably well-isolated from the raw soundboard cassette recording of 1984-11-02 London using phase cancellation:

Since the audio is sourced from an analog cassette copy, results are not as ideal as the other examples sourced from higher-fidelity sources.

For comparison purposes, here are Martin's isolated vocals of the first verse from the album version:

101

The Things You Said

"I never try to hide them / you tried them"

Devotional

Several isolated backing vocal excerpts of Alan's backing vocals from the Devotional video soundtrack, prepared by alan_files, are below. Because they are vocal isolations from the stereo soundtrack, the quality is not as clear as the excerpts from multichannel mixes above.

Policy Of Truth

"Never again is what you swore the time before"

Halo

"And when our worlds they fall apart / when the walls come tumbling in / though we may deserve it / it will be worth it"

World In My Eyes

"Now let your body do the moving / and let my hands do the soothing / let me show you the world in my eyes"

1994 Exotic Tour

World In My Eyes

Alan's verse backing vocals for World In My Eyes from 1994-03-26 Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI, USA/Source 2, decently isolated using phase cancellation. The higher octave vocals are Martin's, and unfortunately for these examples, are unable to be phase-cancelled.

"Now let your body do the moving / and let my hands do the soothing / let me show you the world in my eyes"

"All the islands in the ocean / all the heavens in the motion / let me show you the world in my eyes"

Recoil

Missing Piece (Night Dissolves)

Alan contributes backing vocals to the "Night Dissolves" mix of Missing Piece from the "Stalker / Missing Piece" single releases.