Rock legends Depeche Mode return with a new album titled Memento Mori, an introspective, dark and catchy work, and one of their best pieces. It reflects on the passing of Andy Fletcher, the late central member of the band.

The Guardian writes: “In the wake of Fletcher’s death, Dave Gahan says that “for a minute” he was convinced once again that Depeche Mode was over. “But Martin and I had a conversation. I was just calling up to see how he was doing and he was like, ‘We’re moving on, right?’ I said, yeah. I didn’t miss a beat.”

Memento Mori is the band’s fifteenth studio album by Depeche Mode was produced by James Ford. It was inaugurated by the single “Ghosts Again” and the track “My Cosmos Is Mine” (released on streaming platforms). The cover and first video for Ghosts Again was shot by legendary photographer Anton Corbijn (who shot Nirvana, Pavarotti, Nick Cave, and PJ Harvey among others) long-term collaborator and friend of the band.

It is the first Depeche Mode studio album to be recorded and released as a duo, after the death of co-founder and keyboardist Andy Fletcher on 26 May 2022 which deeply saddened Gahan and Martin Gore. The 12 tracks are artistically evocative and often positively simple (“Caroline’s Monkey”). The music is grunge, industrial, rainy, and it also explores ideas of death, kindness and love in rimes and excellent lyrics too.

The Memento Mori World Tour will start tomorrow in Texas and will run until December 2023.

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