Depeche Mode Memento Mori 180g 2LP

Analog Planet Rated 9/10 Music, 8/10 Sonics!

Memento Mori is Depeche Mode's 15th studio album and its 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 its ominous opening to its closing resolve-running the gamut from paranoia and obsession to catharsis and joy, and hitting myriad points between.

Memento Mori's first single, "Ghosts Again" — co-written with The Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler — features a video directed by Anton Corbijn who also designed the album cover.

Memento Mori is an excellent album, and a fine addition to the Depeche Mode catalog... how great is it that a band like Depeche Mode can still create compelling new music after all these years that doesn't feel tired, and in turn rekindles and/or sparks interest in their past works? Bottom line — the wonderful listening vibes Memento Mori evokes, and what they in turn inspire in listeners like me, are all very good things indeed.

...track-for-track, Memento Mori is their most solid effort since [Playing the] Angel and a catalog best, a wonder coming four decades into their career. Facing mortality and the inevitable sunset of their lengthy, storied careers, Gore and Gahan transform tragedy into something profound and universally relatable. Though not their most immediate offering, Memento Mori is their most heartfelt, thoughtful, and moving statement in decades.