Who wrote which piece? How does Martin Gore shape his lead vocals song? What sounds and moods characterize the album? What are the lyrics about? And is it a coincidence that one or the other song title sounds so familiar? Piece by piece through MEMENTO MORI – from Martin Gore’s invitation to see this album as a cosmos of its own, through Gahan’s pop moment and a few Gore-typical fan service jokes to the overwhelming finale about approaching death, this new Depeche Mode album will never be forgotten.
1. My Cosmos Is Mine
A pulsating, shimmering start – in the chronology of MEMENTO MORI, however, the last piece that Martin Gore wrote for the album. He formulates his world-weariness to dark electronic sounds, in particular the Russian war of aggression in the Ukraine with its countless senseless dead. Gahan succeeds in making the oppression clear with his singing, the piece is both: an indictment of world events, but also a retreat into the inner world. The title is therefore to be understood defiantly: My cosmos belongs to me – this is and will remain my little world!
CONCLUSION: World pain is followed by the longing for isolation – right at the beginning a key song to throw yourself completely into the album.
2. Wagging tongue
Originally a folky song written by Dave Gahan in a 70’s style style. Gore then turned the demo inside out: At the beginning you can hear analogue cosmic synths, like with Kraftwerk, Harmonia and other German electro krautrock pioneers. When the beat starts, the track locates itself in a chart show from the 80s: “Wagging Tongue” is melodic and carefree, a reminiscence of the time when Depeche Mode sometimes indulged in naïve happiness, especially with their singles.
CONCLUSION: Must be Vince Clarke’s favorite song on the album – suspicious of a single!
3. Ghosts Again
The lead single co-written by Martin Gore and Richard Butler, an old acquaintance of Gore, songwriter and vocalist for post-punk veterans The Psychedelic Furs. Even when small scraps of the song were circulating on the internet during the press conference announcing MEMENTO MORI, the sound of “Ghosts Again” triggered pleasant memories of the melancholic synth hits of the late 80s and early 90s among the fans. And in its entirety, the song keeps what it promised back then and fueled the anticipation: after many years, finally a Depeche Mode single that really catches fire.
CONCLUSION: The younger cousin of “Enjoy The Silence”.
4. Don’t Say You Love Me
A song that sounds like the Walker Brothers performing electro-style on a soundtrack composition by Ennio Morricone, which David Lynch then uses for an upcoming season of Twin Peaks. Gahan sings darkly soulful, including one of the album’s strongest lines: “You’re the singer, I’m the song”. Martin Gore and Richard Butler, who wrote the song together, of course know who plays which role, whether in music or in love: It’s the singer, not the song.
CONCLUSION: This is how the blues will work in 2023.
5. My Favorite Stranger
In the background, co-producer Marta Salogni bangs on, electronic noise that can hardly be located can be heard, and the atmosphere is frightening. The song consists of a recurring verse, chorus and resolution? none. The songwriters Gore and Butler keep the listeners in suspense, Gahan sings about another, destructive self: “my imitation”. In the end the blood is on his hands – post-industrial electro-blues with a high paranoia factor!
CONCLUSION: Uncomfortable, cold, highly intense – a Depeche moment for connoisseurs
6. Soul With Me
The track with Martin Gore as the lead singer. He gives the crooner – at least in the verse – singing with a lot of warmth. In the transition to the chorus, one expects a trip into kitschy ballad areas, but Gore breaks the expectation with a slight grin on his face, instead singing a smart soul chorus with a now slightly cracked voice – and in the text prepares to escape from the “earthly cages” to go where the angels fly: “I’m taking my soul with me.”
CONCLUSION: A hidden soul song about souls – Joke according to Gore’s taste.
7. Caroline’s Monkey
Also a collaboration with Richard Butler – and probably the least catchy track on MEMENTO MORI. It’s about drugs and addiction, the monkey on Caroline’s shoulder stands for the demon of dependency, for the “black elephant” that stands in the room and destroys life with its relationships.
CONCLUSION: Important topic, good lyrics – nevertheless a song that deliberately keeps you at a distance.
8. Before We Drown
Gahan’s big ballad on the album, starting with interesting harmonic arabesques, then later a song about the ambivalences of love, about the constant doubts, the ups and downs – and the need to move forward as individuals before going down together.
CONCLUSION: One of the best twisted love songs Gahan wrote for Depeche Mode.
9. People Are Good
Gore never liked “People Are People”: the song that made Depeche Mode big in the US and Germany was too flat for him in terms of lyrics, too clear. So now “People Are Good” – not a rip-off of their own hit (even if you can sing it on the basic beat), but a view of humanity that songwriter Martin Gore prefers: bitterly angry, full of ambivalence. The phrase “everything will be alright” is followed by the line “keep foolin’ yourself” – Gahan knows how to find the right tone for Gore’s taunt. With the bluesy tremolo in the verse, Gahan was inspired by the same teachers as Jochen Distelmeyer von Blumfeld.
CONCLUSION: Gore again in joke mode, here between cynicism and fan service.
10. Always You
The song begins with complex beats and hints of modern pop, then swings back towards 80s synth wave. Gahan shows once again that his vocals are more influenced by songwriter blues than ever. In his lyrics, Gore formulates lines for a love song as he imagines it: “My love, there are no more words / Life’s too absurd.”
CONCLUSION: The title of the song suggests a different kind of music than this gloomy farewell to warmth and closeness.
11. Never Let Me Go
A gag stays good even if you repeat it: For the second time, Gore makes reference to a classic in the title – and is the “Go” perhaps even a salute to Vince Clarke and his Yazoo hit “Don’t Go”? Here, too, the melody of the old piece can be sung along to the beat of the new piece. But then a very strong, independent song with 80s beats, sparkling e-guitars and very strong harmony vocals by Gahan and Gore develops.
CONCLUSION: Also here – single suspicion!
12. Speak To Me
The grand finale of the album that will leave many speechless. Dave Gahan has written a beguiling and larger-than-life ballad about a moment on the floor (actually, the bathroom floor), about a pleading speech to a higher being – and quite obviously about his concrete near-death experience. Like a prayer he asks someone to guide him, he will follow this voice. Whether back to life or to death? The piece begins without beats, the strings increase their playing to the climax, when they fade away, a throbbing beat remains, symbolizing the heartbeat of a human being. Of a living human being aware of his mortality: MEMENTO MORI. One of the most immersive listening experiences in the entire Depeche Mode discography!
CONCLUSION: Without words.
OVERALL RATING MEMENTO MORI: 5/6 stars
Listen to Depeche Mode’s MEMENTO MORI stream here:
This text first appeared as part of the biggest Depeche Mode special of all time in the MUSIKEXPRESS issue 04/2023, which incidentally also includes an exclusive vinyl single by “Ghosts Again”. On to the kiosk!
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