Clarke had never envisioned the band as a long-term project, and was ready to move on after making Upstairs at Eric's, but having already walked out of Depeche Mode after just one album he was persuaded that it would not be a good idea to do the same thing again only a year later.

[4] On the other hand, Moyet, whose background was the unpredictability of punk bands and pub rock and who had enjoyed the spontaneous recording process of the first album, complained that, "I just can't work under conditions that I think are contrived, everything has to be done really quickly".

"[3] Despite the tense atmosphere between the duo, Moyet said the only serious argument she and Clarke had during recording of the album was over the song "Happy People", which she refused to sing.

[6] Moyet later re-recorded the track for her 1994 album Essex in a more acoustic style, which she explained was more consistent with how she envisioned the song to have sounded when she originally wrote it.

The album cover photograph, showing two Dalmatian dogs fighting while barely visible against a snowy outdoor scene, was chosen by Moyet as it represented how she felt at the time.

[8]NME said, "Well over half this record puts pop's foremost maverick duo in a superlative master class where finely detailed atmospherics are matched to unbridled sensuality and compassion to make it the prime pop music of its time... You and Me Both is a record of loss, yearning, warmth, anger and defiance, and it stands as one of 1983's major achievements.

"[15] However, Melody Maker felt that the tension between the duo had affected their music, observing that "considering the upheavals and the onset of disillusionment, it was only to be expected that the quark, strangeness and charm of Upstairs at Eric's would be hard to match.

Sure enough, the new album reflects the problems ... You and Me Both is a far more accessible, far straighter, more direct, more open, more commercial and far less intriguing affair ... You and Me Both desperately shows that the duo were beginning to grow further apart, and perhaps it's as well they split while the going was good.

It's not a bad album, it's actually very well played and the vocals and atmospherics are delightful, but the material is simply not as challenging or as unexpected as we could have hoped for.