Depeche Mode – Memento Mori review

It’s no secret that a few weeks prior to the start of recording Memento Mori Depeche Mode suffered the loss of Andy Fletcher, who died suddenly at his London home aged just 60. Whilst as all parties acknowledged Fletcher’s musical input had for a long time been peripheral, his role as mediator, confidante and voice of reason formed the glue that kept them making music. In conversation after his passing Dave Gahan, talking about his relationship with band member of forty years Martin Gore, set out the work the pair were left having to face up to: “We had to find a way of communicating, becoming friends.”

If becoming friends sounds like an unlikely process to begin when making your fifteenth album together, then so be it. Where 2017’s Spirit was the result of a fractious schema that Fletcher mediated extensively on, here the combustible elements presented by finding The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler on demo work and the inclusion of two songs written by Gahan have passed off without incident. And despite a raft of pre-written material that considers themes of loss, addiction and death, those left behind vowed not to change direction even in the face of tragedy.

If one track embodies the crux of Memento Mori, it’s Ghosts Again, a return to the quiet synth pop universe of the distant past and a way marker Gahan has compared to Enjoy The Silence in terms of meaning. Elsewhere they embrace sorrow through typically oblique filters on Wagging Tongue, go Vaudeville on Soul With Me and refract the pavement noise of a desolate city at four am on opener My Cosmos Is Mine.

Fittingly though given that even in grief the thing must go on, it’s closer Speak To Me that offers a dim light on the horizon. Written by Gahan and gradually rising from an introspective start until it eventually flames, he’s revealed that in part the message it sends is for Gore, a token of their uncharted territory as a new bound partnership. Blood brothers now, Memento Mori finds Depeche Mode turning old rituals into one of a hundred possible futures.

You can read a full review here.