Depeche Mode – Memento Mori (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Depeche Mode – Memento Mori (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:25 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Synth-pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia

2023 release. Memento Mori is Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album and it’s first as a two-piece lineup of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, following co-founder Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher’s tragic passing in 2022. Produced by James Ford, with additional production work by Marta Salogni, Memento Mori’s gestation took place during the early stages of the Covid pandemic, resulting in themes inspired directly by that period. The album’s 12 tracks chart a vast expanse of moods and textures, from it’s ominous opening to it’s closing resolve-running the gamut from paranoia and obsession to catharsis and joy, and hitting myriad points between.

If you’d told David Gahan and Martin Gore a year before the release of this latest album (which was still in the making at that time) that its title would be somewhat foreboding, the pair would likely have agreed, but for a rather different reason. Memento Mori roughly translates to ‘remember you’re going to die’—that’s what was on Gahan’s mind having just entered his sixties, whilst also remembering his stepfather, the man who raised and cared for him, who had died at just 61. But fate would prove both twisted and cruel when, without warning, it would take the life of Andy Fletcher on 26th May 2022. Depeche Mode’s third man was just 60 years old.

However, this sudden death was not what primarily guided the somber, melancholic content of the record. Most of it was composed during the pandemic, which must have forced the band to ask themselves countless questions about their existence, their future and how these doubts would be manifested within their music (though Fletcher’s death would inevitably alter their approach to these same compositions). This all gives rise to a record which, whilst rejecting any semblance of ‘joie-de-vivre’, is a real return to more gothic, vintage and organic sounds. The album’s quasi-industrial opener, ‘My Cosmos is Mine’, sets the tone for the darker journey to come. The album takes a more stripped-back approach to the melodies, where Gahan’s sobering voice steers clear of all excess.

In the midst of this darkness, the emphasis on synthesized sounds from a seemingly bygone era strikes a nostalgic chord without losing its edge (‘Wagging Tongue’, ‘Never Let Me Go’). These textures are accompanied by more saturated tones, taking us right back to their flirtations with rock in the 90s (‘My Favourite Stranger’). Memento Mori sounds like a kind of condensed version of the band’s more delicate songs without becoming a simple reconstruction of them. It has a subtle beauty which surely highlights the expertise of the musicians behind it, despite being somewhat overshadowed by the erratic nature of their discography over the last twenty years. Light filters through the cracks here and there on this album however, like the song ‘People are Good’, reminiscent of the classic ‘People are People’ released almost forty years ago. Remember that you’re meant to enjoy it… – Chief Brody

Tracklist:
1-1. Depeche Mode – My Cosmos Is Mine (05:16)
1-2. Depeche Mode – Wagging Tongue (03:24)
1-3. Depeche Mode – Ghosts Again (03:58)
1-4. Depeche Mode – Don’t Say You Love Me (03:48)
1-5. Depeche Mode – My Favourite Stranger (03:57)
1-6. Depeche Mode – Soul With Me (04:15)
1-7. Depeche Mode – Caroline’s Monkey (04:16)
1-8. Depeche Mode – Before We Drown (04:05)
1-9. Depeche Mode – People Are Good (04:24)
1-10. Depeche Mode – Always You (04:18)
1-11. Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Go (04:03)
1-12. Depeche Mode – Speak To Me (04:35)

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