“That’s my Porsche 911 at the beginning…”: the synth-rock anthem that kicked off with the sound of the singer’s sports car, sampled fireworks and inspired Trent Reznor to start writing Nine Inch Nails’ debut album

Depeche Mode in 1985.

In the latter months of 1985, Depeche Mode entered the studio to work on their fifth album determined to emerge from it a different band. At that point, the quartet, as they then were, were still considered a lightweight teenybopper band – this despite the fact that their previous record contained the BDSM-themed 1984 single Master & Servant. For some, the idea of the band as the fresh-faced Essex teens who’d made Just Can’t Get Enough was immovable.

Black Celebration, as their fifth record would come to be called, changed everything. It was, frontman Dave Gahan explained to Smash Hits at the time, “an attempt to get away from the softness of contemporary pop.”