In “Ghosts Once more,” one in every of many introspective moments on Depeche Mode’s fifteenth full-length, Memento Mori, Dave Gahan croons, “Time is fleeting.” This isn’t a brand new revelation, however the tranquility in his voice feels contemporary. Greater than 4 a long time have handed for the reason that group fashioned as a quartet of largely teenagers desirous to immerse themselves within the nascent synth-pop tradition with get together anthems like “Simply Can’t Get Sufficient.” Now, with solely Gahan and Martin Gore left within the lineup following the loss of life final yr of keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, they’re asking, “How a lot time do we now have left?”
Melancholy has lengthy been an necessary a part of the Depeche Mode expertise, and, aside from of their earliest days when Vince Clarke (later of Yazoo) was main the group with carefree dance songs, they’ve specialised in vulnerability. That openness, a way of give up, is the important ingredient to Depeche Mode now. Even at their most romantic, like on, say, “Benefit from the Silence,” they’ve acknowledged how recognizing the absences in life are simply as necessary as appreciating what you’ve gotten. So it’s not stunning that the group, whose two members are actually of their 60s, titled the album Memento Mori — a pleasant reminder in Latin that you’ll (nay, should!) die sometime — they usually picked it whereas Fletch was nonetheless alive. (Fletch’s loss of life didn’t make them second-guess the title. As a substitute, Gore has mentioned, “It cemented it.”)
Acknowledging mortality defines a lot of Memento Mori, nevertheless it by no means feels heavy handed and even all that sullen. A few of the tracks even sound upbeat.
On “Wagging Tongue,” a uncommon Gahan-Gore songwriting collaboration, Gahan sings about feeling unhappiness “if you watch one other angel die” over sparkly New Wave synths that recall the group’s earliest work. The lyrics, which Gahan sings ominously, might be a metaphoric indictment of politicians needing to behave on gun security or Gahan might be singing about rising above private obstacles, however, both method, with the shimmery keyboard backdrop, the phrases have a method of sticking in your mind. And the album’s greatest tune, “Soul With Me,” begins with an ambient intro that remembers the Eno-esque second aspect of David Bowie’s Low album earlier than settling right into a calmly poppy rhythm over which Gore serenely sings, “I’m going the place the angels fly … and I’m taking my soul with me” over chords that additionally construct Heavenward. The music sounds so light, virtually like sci-fi straightforward listening, that it’s straightforward to be swept away within the chords whereas lacking Gore’s allusions to a stairway to heaven and bidding adieu to this mortal coil.
The duo nonetheless makes a speciality of pensiveness, too. “Earlier than We Drown,” cowritten by Gahan, drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno (members of Depeche Mode’s touring lineup), builds stress minute after minute, as Gahan sings, “First we get up, then we fall down/We’ve to maneuver ahead, earlier than we drown.” Synths effervesce eerily like fireworks round his voice as he sings the ultimate phrases. “At all times You” options buzzy synths and an emulation of metal drums buried deep within the observe as Gahan locations all his hope in somebody, “You’re all I must hold believing.”
And on “Individuals Are Good” — a Gore composition which feels just like the lengthy misplaced coda for “Individuals Are Individuals” — Gahan reminds himself that regardless of all of the ills of the world, persons are alleged to be good. The music, which builds layer upon layer, remembers the group’s mid-Eighties sound of Black Celebration and Music for the Lots; “Every thing will probably be all proper in time” they provide, earlier than returning to the unique message: “Hold fooling your self that persons are good.”
Often, the sense of absence within the songs feels overwhelming; the refrain to “Caroline’s Monkey” is brutally sparse and stilted, as Gahan sarcastically sings, “Folding’s higher than dropping/Fixing’s higher than therapeutic” earlier than finally touchdown on “generally.” However largely, the group packages its darkish ideas in ways in which pay tribute to its previous whereas acknowledging ghosts that hang-out the current, and the spirits but to come back.
The ultimate observe, “Communicate to Me,” even appears like Depeche Mode’s model of the Beatles’ “A Day within the Life,” through fuzzy Nick Cave synths and Gahan’s pleas for human contact. “I’d be grateful [to connect with you], I’d observe you round,” he sings, “I’m listening, I’m right here now, I’m discovered,” earlier than the synths crescendo right into a cacophony. As all the time with Depeche Mode, every thing counts in massive quantities, and on Memonto Mori, the stakes really feel larger than ever.
