IN “GHOSTS AGAIN,” one of many introspective moments on Depeche Mode’s 15th full-length, Memento Mori, Dave Gahan croons, “Time is fleeting.” This is not a new revelation, but the tranquility in his voice feels fresh. More than four decades have passed since the group formed as a quartet of mostly teens eager to immerse themselves in the nascent synth-pop culture with party anthems like “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Now, with only Gahan and Martin Gore left in the lineup following the death last year of keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, they’re asking, “How much time do we have left?”

Melancholy has long been an important part of the Depeche Mode experience, and, other than in their earliest days when Vince Clarke (later of Yazoo) was leading the group with carefree dance songs, they’ve specialized in vulnerability. That openness, a sense of surrender, is the essential ingredient to Depeche Mode now. Even at their most romantic, like on, say, “Enjoy the Silence,” they’ve acknowledged how recognizing the absences in life are just as important as appreciating what you have. So it’s not surprising that the group, whose two members are now in their 60s, titled the album Memento Mori — a friendly reminder in Latin that you will (nay, must!) die someday — and they picked it while Fletch was still alive. (Fletch’s death didn’t make them second-guess the title. Instead, Gore has said, “It cemented it.”)

Acknowledging mortality defines much of Memento Mori, but it never feels heavy handed or even all that sullen. Some of the tracks even sound upbeat.

On “Wagging Tongue,” a rare Gahan-Gore songwriting collaboration, Gahan sings about feeling sadness “when you watch another angel die” over sparkly New Wave synths that recall the group’s earliest work. The lyrics, which Gahan sings ominously, could be a metaphoric indictment of politicians needing to act on gun safety or Gahan could be singing about rising above personal obstacles, but, either way, with the shimmery keyboard backdrop, the words have a way of sticking in your brain. And the album’s best song, “Soul With Me,” begins with an ambient intro that recalls the Eno-esque second side of David Bowie’s Low album before settling into a lightly poppy rhythm over which Gore serenely sings, “I’m going where the angels fly … and I’m taking my soul with me” over chords that also build Heavenward. The music sounds so gentle, almost like sci-fi easy listening, that it’s easy to be swept away in the chords while missing Gore’s allusions to a stairway to heaven and bidding adieu to this mortal coil.

The duo still specializes in pensiveness, too. “Before We Drown,” cowritten by Gahan, drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno (members of Depeche Mode’s touring lineup), builds tension minute after minute, as Gahan sings, “First we stand up, then we fall down/We have to move forward, before we drown.” Synths effervesce eerily like fireworks around his voice as he sings the final words. “Always You” features buzzy synths and an emulation of steel drums buried deep in the track as Gahan places all his hope in someone, “You’re all I need to keep believing.”

And on “People Are Good” — a Gore composition which feels like the long lost coda for “People Are People” — Gahan reminds himself that despite all the ills of the world, people are supposed to be good. The music, which builds layer upon layer, recalls the group’s mid-Eighties sound of Black Celebration and Music for the Masses; “Everything will be all right in time” they offer, before returning to the original message: “Keep fooling yourself that people are good.”

Occasionally, the sense of absence in the songs feels overwhelming; the chorus to “Caroline’s Monkey” is brutally sparse and stilted, as Gahan sarcastically sings, “Folding’s better than losing/Fixing’s better than healing” before eventually landing on “sometimes.” But mostly, the group packages its dark thoughts in ways that pay tribute to its past while acknowledging ghosts that haunt the present, and the spirits yet to come.

The final track, “Speak to Me,” even feels like Depeche Mode’s version of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” via fuzzy Nick Cave synths and Gahan’s pleas for human contact. “I’d be grateful [to connect with you], I’d follow you around,” he sings, “I’m listening, I’m here now, I’m found,” before the synths crescendo into a cacophony. As always with Depeche Mode, everything counts in large amounts, and on Memonto Mori, the stakes feel bigger than ever.

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Their first new music since the passing of member Andy Fletcher is a strong return

Depeche Mode are back; Martin Gore and Dave Gahan’s first new music since the sudden 2022 passing of bandmate Andy Fletcher with the song Ghosts Again is a poignant paean to loss and hope.

Featuring a tradermark Martin Gore guitar hook and Gahan croon, it’s a track the Essex icons are proud to return with. “It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to,” said Gahan “I’m excited to be able to share it.”

Ghosts Again is the first track from 15th studio album Momento Mori, released 24 March 2023.

Momento Mori tracklisting:

My Cosmos Is Mine
Wagging Tongue
Ghosts Again
Don’t Say You Love Me
My Favourite Stranger
Soul With Me
Caroline’s Monkey
Before We Drown
People Are Good
Always You
Never Let Me Go
Speak To Me

The band’s world tour starts in Sacramento on 23 March, though Depeche Mode will only play one show in their home country at Twickenham Stadium on 17 June.

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Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan on Urgent New LP, David Bowie Influence
World crises loom heavily on band’s 14th album
“Cover Me” highlights Depeche Mode’s 14th studio album, Spirit, which the trio issued in March. The song’s icy synth pads, arpeggiated synth-bass and spectral steel-guitar conjure the feeling of floating in space – or suffering heartbreak. “The air is so cold here/ It’s so hard to breathe,” Gahan sings. “Better take cover/ Will you cover me?”

In a statement about “Cover Me,” the singer told NPR he was surprised how the track unfolded in two thematic halves. “The song is here and then you kind of get in the spaceship and go somewhere else,” he said. The “Cover Me” clip follows Depeche Mode’s immersive, 360-degree “Going Backwards” video.

The synth-pop band is currently promoting Spirit on a North American tour that stretches until late October. While the trio recently canceled their September 13th concert in Tampa, Florida due to the devastation from Hurricane Irma, they currently plan to move forward with their September 15th show in Miami.

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You’ve been kept down
You’ve been pushed ’round
You’ve been lied to
You’ve been fed truths
Who’s making your decisions
You or your religion
Your government, yourcountries
You patriotic junkies

Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down
Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down

You’ve been pissed on
For too long
Your rights abused
Your views refused
They manipulate and threaten
With terror as a weapon
Scare you till you’re stupefied
Wear you down until you’re on their side

Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down
Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down

The train is coming
The train is coming
The train is coming
The train is coming
So get on board
Get on board
Get on board
Get on board
The engine’s humming
The engine’s humming
The engine’s humming
The engine’s humming
So get on board
Get on board
Get on board
Get on board

Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down
Where’s the revolution
Come on people
You’re letting me down

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As promised, Depeche Mode have shared their new song “Where’s the Revolution.” Listen to it below. It marks the band’s first new release since the album Delta Machine in 2013. The song will appear on a new album called Spirit, which is out March 17 via Columbia. Last year, the band released Video Singles Collection, their anthology of music videos and commentary from throughout their career.

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Depeche Mode have announced a new album. It’s called Spirit, and it’s tentatively out sometime in spring 2017. The album is produced by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford. Spirit follows the band’s recent announcement of Video Singles Collection, their anthology of music videos and commentary from throughout their career. They shared a sample of the new record during a press conference in Milan. Watch it below.

At the conference, they also announced plans to tour in support of the record on the Global Spirit Tour. The tour, which begins next May, will be 32 shows long in 21 stadiums. Tickets go on sale this week. Some of the proceeds will go toward charity: water. Find the full dates below.

Spirit will mark Depeche Mode’s 14th studio album, and their first since 2013’s Delta Machine.

Read our interview with Depeche Mode vocalist Dave Gahan.

Depeche Mode:

05-05 Stockholm, Sweden – Friends Arena
05-07 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome
05-09 Antwerp, Belgium – Sportpaleis
05-12 Nice, France – Stade Charles-Ehrmann
05-14 Ljubljana, Slovenia – Dvorana Stožice
05-17 Athens, Greece – Terra Vibe Park
05-20 Bratislava, Slovakia – Štadión Pasienky
05-22 Budapest, Hungary – Groupama Aréna
05-24 Prague, Czech Republic – Eden Aréna
05-27 Leipzig, Germany – Festwiese
05-29 Lille, France – Stade Pierre-Mauroy
05-31 Copenhagen, Denmark – Telia Parken
06-03 London, England – London Stadium
06-05 Cologne, Germany – RheinEnergieStadion
06-09 Munich, Germany – Olympiastadion
06-11 Hannover, Germany – HDI Arena
06-18 Zurich, Switzerland – Letzigrund Stadion
06-20 Frankfurt, Germany – Commerzbank-Arena
06-22 Berlin, Germany – Olympiastadion
06-25 Rome, Italy – Stadio Olimpico
06-27 Milan, Italy – Stadio San Siro
06-29 Bologna, Italy – Stadio Rentao Dall’Ara
07-01 Paris, France – Stade de France
07-04 Gelsenkirchen, Germany – Veltins-Arena
07-06 Bilbao, Spain – BBK Live Festival
07-08 Lisbon, Portugal – NOS Alive Festival
07-13 St. Petersburg, Russia – SKK
07-15 Moscow, Russia – Otkritie Arena
07-17 Minsk, Belarus – Minsk-Arena
07-19 Kiev, Ukraine – Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex
07-21 Warsaw, Poland – PGE Narodowy
07-23 Cluj-Napoca, Romania – Cluj Arena

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