Music

Depeche Mode released its latest album, Memento Mori, on Friday 24 March. During the day, I started listening to the songs on my way to work and I was quite happy. Happier than with some of the previous albums to be honest. Interestingly, I felt that the second half of the album was stronger than the first half but, because I was commuting, I knew I needed to give the album a proper listen before deciding.

The next day, after lunch on Saturday 25 March 2023 at 14:00, Christina, Kyan and I properly listened to Momento Mori from the first song to the last. We got the album on TIDAL (FLAC 48KHz 24bit, MQA 96KHz) and listened on our dream Hi-Fi setup.

During the 50 minutes, I took some notes and rated the songs:

• “My Cosmos Is Mine”: Industrial. Lots of reverb. Atmospheric. Good way to start a concept album. 7/10.
• “Wagging Tongue”: Organic. Arpeggiated. Simple lyrics. Not too profound. 6/10.
• “Ghosts Again”: Anthemic Depeche Mode song. Good singing. Nice bridge. 8/10.
• “Don’t Say You Love Me”: A much slower It’s No Good. Orchestral. “I’ll be the punchline of course.” 7/10.
• “My Favourite Stranger”. Another anthemic DM song. Recognizable baseline (Fade to grey?). Slow electro. Heavy distortion. 8/10.
• “Soul with Me”: Generic DM ballad. Martin Gore singing. Good chorus. 7/10.
• “Caroline’s Monkey”: Starts like Dream On. Chorus could be better. Sometimes… and chord. 7/10.
• “Before We Drown”: Fantastic song, music and lyrics. Restrained voice. Beautiful electro. Fantastic strings. 9/10.
• “People Are Good”: Kraftwerk / DM symbiosis. Crooner-kind of singing. Effective electro. 8/10.
• “Always You”: Nice Grahan ballad. Very electronic and organic. Recognizable. Repetitive. 7/10.
• “Never Let Me Go”: Dark Depeche Mode. Great music and lyrics. Orchestration good. Guitar distortion. 8/10.
• “Speak to Me”: Tranquil outro. Easy way to end the album. Very predictable. 6/10.

Overall, I gave the album 7.5/10. In fact, I like the album very much as it is sounds much more electronic than previous albums (which were too rock-oriented for my own taste). One criticism is that some of the songs use way too much saturation and distortion but this looks like to be fashionable these days. I wonder what would happen if the next album (if made…) was produced by someone like Deadmau5? Will Depeche Mode then have a Violator 2 album? Who knows?

Here are my favourite five songs as reflected in the ratings I gave:

• Ghosts Again
• My Favourite Stranger
• Before We Drown
• People Are Good
• Never Let Me Go

At some point, I will have to restrict this to the three songs I like most to add to my Top 50 Depeche Mode songs (which will then have 53 songs). Give me a few days to make up my mind.

I discovered Depeche Mode in 1985 and, for the past four decades, I have been a massive fan of the group and electronic music in general.

Last night, I gave it a go and I selected the 50 Depeche Mode songs I like the most. There are a lot of songs which I didn’t choose despite loving them but I tried to keep things balanced by choosing three songs from each album, except for some seminal albums such as Violator where I had to choose more than three songs. For good measure, I also chose Shake The Disease which, for some reason, was never part of any album but only released as a single.

At the end, this is what I consider to be my Top 50 Depeche Mode songs ever:

• Just Can’t Get Enough (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
• Photographic (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
• Leave in Silence (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
• My Secret Garden (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
• See You (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
• Everything Counts (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
• Love, in Itself (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
• Told You So (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
• Blasphemous Rumours (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
• Master and Servant (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
• People Are People (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
• Shake the Disease (from the 1985 album Shake the Disease (Single))
• A Question of Time (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
• Black Celebration (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
• Stripped (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
• Behind the Wheel (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
• Never Let Me Down Again (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
• Strangelove (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
• Enjoy the Silence (from the 1990 album Violator)
• Halo (from the 1990 album Violator)
• Personal Jesus (from the 1990 album Violator)
• Policy of Truth (from the 1990 album Violator)
• Waiting for the Night (from the 1990 album Violator)
• World in My Eyes (from the 1990 album Violator)
• I Feel You (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
• In Your Room (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
• One Caress (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
• Walking in My Shoes (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
• Barrel of a Gun (from the 1997 album Ultra)
• Home (from the 1997 album Ultra)
• It’s No Good (from the 1997 album Ultra)
• Useless (from the 1997 album Ultra)
• Dream On (from the 2001 album Exciter)
• Freelove (from the 2001 album Exciter)
• Goodnight Lovers (from the 2001 album Exciter)
• I Feel Loved (from the 2001 album Exciter)
• A Pain That I’m Used To (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
• John the Revelator (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
• Precious (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
• Suffer Well (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
• In Chains (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
• Peace (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
• Wrong (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
• Heaven (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
• My Little Universe (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
• Should Be Higher (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
• Cover Me (from the 2017 album Spirit)
• Going Backwards (from the 2017 album Spirit)
• Where’s the Revolution (from the 2017 album Spirit)

This is more than four hours of pure enjoyment.

Take a nice scotch. Relax. Close your eyes. Marvel.