Construction Time Again is the third studio album by the English electronic band Depeche Mode, released on 22 August 1983 by Mute Records. It was the band's first album to feature Alan Wilder as a member, who wrote two of the album's songs. The album's title comes from a verse of the track "Pipeline". It was recorded at John Foxx's The Garden studios in London, mixed at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, and supported by the Construction Time Again Tour in Europe, which ran from September 1983 through March 1984.

The album, which reached number 6 on the UK Albums Chart, was supported by two singles: "Everything Counts", which reached number 6 on the UK singles chart, and "Love, in Itself", which charted at number 21.

Depeche Mode had released their previous album, A Broken Frame in September 1982 and supported it with their A Broken Frame Tour, which lasted until May 1983. In early 1983, while still on tour, the band started to plan how to approach recording their new material; according to producer Daniel Miller, it was "the first record where you could say we actually sat down before we started and really decided how we were going to utilize the technology that was available at the time." In April, while on the Asian leg of the tour in Thailand, the band were unsettled by the poverty and open child exploitation. New band member Alan Wilder noted that songwriter Martin Gore "wrote pretty much all [the songs of Construction Time Again] in a couple of weeks straight after those trips. They seemed to come together pretty quickly and it was obvious that all these bizarre places such as Bangkok had opened up a few eyes in the band." This was the first Depeche Mode album to include Wilder in the writing and recording process, who had been inducted into the band in late 1982, after their previous album had been recorded and released.

The band, as well as Miller, wanted to change up their recording process for this new album, and collectively they decided to work at a new studio, and so the first time did not record at Blackwing Studios, instead choosing to work at John Foxx's Garden Studios in London. There, they worked with Gareth Jones as their sound technician, who had worked with Foxx on his debut solo studio album Metamatic (1980), as well as with German new wave band Ideal on their album Bi Nuu (1982). Initially, Jones was reluctant to work with Depeche Mode as he felt they were too commercial and viewed them as "pop" and "lightweight," but Foxx persuaded Jones to work with the band as Foxx felt that the band would be worthwhile as Miller was their producer and they were a Mute label artist. In the studio, Gore and Jones bonded over their interest in the band in German experimental music group Einstürzende Neubauten, who Gore had seen at a show in January that year, giving him the idea to experiment with the sounds of industrial music in the context of pop. Said Jones, "It turned out that we had compatible approaches to the studio. We all wanted to discover new sound worlds, and give a sense of depth, scale and edge to the songs and music." Wilder, as the new member of the band, felt he had to be diplomatic about how he asserted himself in the studio without appearing pushy, but the other members of the group appreciated Wilder's input, presence and classical music training, with Gore saying "I quite liked the fact that he was there. It was almost like having a teacher check your work before it goes out."

For the album, Wilder and Miller had brought both a Synclavier and an Emulator, which allowed the band to capture and manipulate sounds in a way they hadn't been able to prior. They were inspired to buy an expensive Synclavier after it was used to produce Michael Jackson's album Thriller (1982), which was on its way to becoming the best-selling album in history. The band found it cumbersome to use, but were happy with the results on their previous single, "Get the Balance Right!". To get a "tougher" sound out of their music, they often hooked up the synthesizer to amplifiers and recorded the sounds in the studio space, as Jones said, "we often recorded the sound of the space as well as the sound of the synthesizer". They also had a portable Stellavox tape recorder, which allowed them to record sounds outside the studio for inclusion on the album. Wilder remember that initially, recording the album "was like a pioneering expedition. All of us would go off to derelict areas armed with a hammer and tape recorders." Gore found the approach to be "a revelation": "We were going out, smashing pieces of metal with sledgehammers, raiding the kitchen drawer for utensils to make percussion sounds." With regards to the heavy amount of sampling, the band would sample various 'found' sounds, such as toy instruments or other objects like stones and objects found in construction sites which they would manipulate using the Synclavier. Wilder said, "You can take the purest voice in the world, and fool around with it digitally until it's the most evil, monstrous sound. Or you can take a moose fart and make it beautiful." Miller recalled "Martin [Gore] would turn up with some toy or some other weird instrument and we just started recording it, sampling it, doing shit with it." He looked back on the recording process as one of the most enjoyable he has been through stating "I sit at home with my synthesizers making great noises, but when you can put those experiments into the pop form that's thrilling."

The song "Pipeline" reflected the "found sound" ethos of the album the most; for the vocals, Martin sang on location beside train tracks near Shoreditch. According to Miller, Gore sang the song while standing under an arch of an old building: "You can hear the trains in the background, and all sorts of stuff." The song's final mix didn't include any additional overdubs, the only changes were adjustments to balance levels.

Although they had a reputation as an all-synth band, two tracks from the album incorporated guitar ("Love, in Itself" and "And Then..."), as had their previous single, "Get the Balance Right!", which, despite having been recorded only a few months prior to the Construction sessions, was not included on the album, as the band felt that the song had little in common with the newer material they were recording. Miller described the recording process as "a massive leap forward" from previous albums.

Despite calling themselves a "non-political" band, Gore started to write more socially-conscious lyrics, especially after the trip to Thailand. "Everything Counts" was, according to Gore, "about things getting out of hand. Business getting to the point where individuals don't count, and you'll tread on anybody." Wilder wrote two of the songs on the album, "The Landscape is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning", both of which reflected the band's growing political and social lyrical focus. Wilder felt that, as this was the first Depeche Mode album he worked on, he should take part in songwriting, although he did not consider it his strong suit. Said Wilder, "I felt I should participate in the process. However, it became clear that my strengths were more to do with placement of sounds and the structuring of the music, and I suppose my classical upbringing was a factor in this. What I really added was an enthusiasm and desire to experiment more. I was also desperate for us to be taken more seriously, which meant producing a darker, more weighty sound."