Prior to the release of their album titled 'Memento Mori', Depeche Mode musicians found themselves in a similar situation to Nick Cave during the recording and promotion of 'Skeleton Tree' (2016). When he was working in the studio, he found out that his son had died, and the album, which is dark and repeatedly deals with the theme of death, was already largely recorded. However, Cave did not give up on its release, nor did he run away from the tragic events concerning his loved ones (there was even a film, 'One More Time with Feeling', documenting these events).

The death of a friend

In recording 'Memento Mori', Depeche Mode musicians had to deal with the death of Andy Fletcher - a colleague, co-founder of the group and a member since 1980. By all accounts, Andy had been involved in coming up with the concept for the release (including its title) and was planning to take part in the recording session. However, on 26 May 2022, he suddenly died. The cause of death turned out to be aortic dissection.

The title 'Memento Mori' (a medieval monk's call meaning 'remember death') suddenly took on a very concrete meaning, which had to be dealt with not only by the musicians themselves, but also by the staff responsible for promoting the album (and the tour) and Anton Corbijn, as usual responsible for the graphic design of the album cover, concert visuals and videos.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE Recently someone asked him: "If someone hasn't seen any of [your] music videos, is there one you want to start with (...)? Anton: Yes, the new one from Depeche Mode, which is coming out in February." In fact, it works very well with the atmosphere and lyrics of the song. Funerary themes play a leading role in the clip for 'Ghost Again' - a reference to the chess game from Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal', a motif of skulls, ghosts, war and a graveyard. Here, Martin Gore and David Gahan not only manage an unforeseen yet somehow forced ambivalence, but also - not explicitly - allude to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic.

Death in Czechoslovakia

In 1988, Depeche Mode gave a concert in Czechoslovakia. The performance took place as part of the tour accompanying the release of the album 'Music For The Masses'. Prague was the location of an unusual photo shoot that was done for the band by Anton Corbijn - the aforementioned prominent Dutch photographer and director who significantly influenced the group's image. One of the locations was the Jewish cemetery in Prague. There, the musicians visited the grave of Franz Kafka, among others.

Watching the video for "Ghost Again", I had the impression that history had come full circle. Back then - the band still together, as a quartet, two years before their biggest commercial success and after releasing the excellent album that made them conquer the USA, today - experienced with life, after rehabs, life's twists and turns, the break-up with Alan Wilder and the death of Andy Fletcher. And 35 years older. Again with Corbijn - their faithful companion - and again with death in the background.

Depeche Mode never fitted in with the new romantic trend with which they were associated, especially in the early 1980s. From their third album onwards, the themes of their songs became more and more serious, with religion, the impossibility of understanding others, love and sex as the main themes in their lyrics. Balancing between commercialism and experimentation, they became an alternative star with a worldwide reach.

The visit to Czechoslovakia took place at a turning point in their career. The concert at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena (USA), documented by the album "101", marks a breakthrough. From then on, in terms of popularity, they started playing in the same league as, for example, U2, The Cure, Van Halen and Madonna.

Death in songs

"Death is everywhere / There are flies on the windscreen / For a start" sang Dave Gahan in 1986 on the album 'Black Celebration'. We have had quite a few albums marked by death in the history of rock and alternative. The contexts sometimes vary. Most often, the mortal is the theme of the songs and part of the image.

Sometimes, too, a real death surprises the musicians during the recording of an album or just before its release and this fact, together with the nature of the music, then gives the release 'cult' status (e.g. Joy Division's 'Closer', Morphine's 'The Night' or Johnny Cash's 'American IV: The Man Comes Around').

It also happens that an artist awaiting his or her own death creates farewell songs or entire albums. Probably the most famous examples are Queen's 'Innuendo' (and partly 'Made in Heaven'), recorded by the terminally ill Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie's 'Black Star'.

In the case of Depeche Mode, death-related themes were most strongly present on the albums 'Black Celebration' (1986) and 'Songs Of Faith And Devotion' (1993). For different reasons. By the mid-1980s, the band had developed their mature style definitively moving away from the light, often cheerful songs present in their repertoire at the beginning of their career. The sound became heavy, almost industrial, and the atmosphere of the music and lyrics became dark. This was certainly influenced by Gore's move to the then still divided Berlin, inspiration from the music of Einstürzende Neubauten and ... artistic maturity.

A few years earlier, the controversial DM song 'Blasphemous Rumors' had made headlines. In it, Gore gave voice to a rebellion against the meaninglessness of death and "God's macabre sense of humour". What was still quite naïve in it, on 'Black Celebration' became a new manifesto of decadence for fans around the world. This is most audible in the title track and the aforementioned 'Fly on the Windscreen'.

However, a dark atmosphere fills the entire album, where bitter comments on reality ('A Question Of Time', 'New Dress') sit alongside a loud call for authenticity in human relationships ('Stripped', 'Sometimes').

'Songs Of Faith And Devotion' marks another stylistic breakthrough. DM have opened up with guitars and a strong rock sound. In the lyrics, reflections on death were enriched with religious themes, also strongly present on the cult 'Violator' ('Personal Jesus', 'Halo'). This is clearly an existential struggle with the pain of existence. Listen, for example, to 'Walking In My Shoes', 'Condemnation', 'Judas' or 'Death's Door', released as a B-side and present on the soundtrack of Wim Wenders' film 'Until The End of the World'.

At the time, however, it was not just about views, but also the disintegration that was taking place in the musicians' lives - Gahan, a drug addict, twice, miraculously escaped death after a heroin overdose, Gore was losing his fight with alcoholism and Fletcher was suffering from depression. All this led to Alan Wilder leaving the band. Little by then, death would have ended a chapter of popular music called Depeche Mode.

Memento Homo Mori

Today, Depeche Mode is de facto the Gore/Gahan duo. Both musicians are now in their sixties. They have re-evaluated many things, stabilised their lives and, without making artistic compromises, achieved worldwide success, symbolically summed up by the induction of the band from Basildon into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (2020). Given the style they have developed and their reputation as one of the world's most obscure bands, I am surprised that only now has death become the subject of an entire album.

There is also much to suggest that 'Memento Mori' is the best and most important DM album of the 21st century. And it's not just the sad context that obviously significantly influenced its final shape. The choice of two producers - James Ford (known for his duo Simian Mobile Disco) and Marta Salogni - was a very good idea. They helped to give the band's new songs a raw feel and set them firmly in the electro genre.

The compositions effectively combine Gore's solo techno-industrial achievements (as MG) with the early face of the group, going back to the 'Some Great Reward' era and even the period when they were still performing with Vince Clark. All the songs (except one) were sung by Gahan. The whole album is extremely compact and quite short, allowing the heavily reflective, not to say melancholic, musical themes to ring out perfectly. Gore's guitar appears frequently, but mostly plays a supporting role. The exceptions are 'Ghost Again' and 'Never Let Me o'.

Analogue synths still play an important role, but they sound different to those on 'Sound Of The Universe', 'Delta Machine' and 'Spirit' - with their saturated colours enhancing a rhythmic backbone that has not been so powerful and expressive in their work for a long time ('People Are Good'). Gore and Gahan also unexpectedly bow to the tradition of film music and easy listening from the 1960s and 1970s, placing echoes of it in 'Don't Say You Love Me' and 'Soul With Me'. While the album's sound is marked by a skilful fusion of early DM (and mid-Kraftwerk) style with modern production, its atmosphere is perhaps closest to 'Black Celebration'.

Interestingly, although death appears in almost every track, in a moment its majesty and horror are countered by an affirmation of life "in spite of everything". Paradoxically, therefore, 'Memento Mori' is not a depressing album; at times it is even full of light ('Wedding Tongue') and - yes, difficult - optimism. The opening track "My Cosmos Is Mine" and the closing, moving "Speak To Me", which dissolves into industrial sound patches towards the end, form a wonderful framework for this fascinating musical story.

***

Depeche Mode is a band that has been listened to attentively for decades. Fans waited especially impatiently for 'Memento Mori', as it was not clear whether the death of Andy Fletcher would end the group's history. Fortunately, the opposite happened, and the death and the so-called difficult times - as is unfortunately often the case among artists - became the inspiration for a work of exceptional expressive power. The old masters did not disappoint. I hope this is not their last word.

– Marek Horodniczy
- Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists