Memento Mori (Columbia/Mute)

Just as Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and Martin L Gore were ready to start recording 15th studio album Memento Mori last year, bandmate and founder member Andrew Fletcher passed away. the pair elected to soldier on and complete the record, with producers James Ford – also in place for previous album, 2017’s Spirit – and Marta Salogni. The title, translating as “remember that you [have to] die”, was confirmed before Fletcher’s death; first single Ghosts Again, with its ingenious Bergman-influenced Anton Corbijn video and catchy electro-rock hook, was a fine taster. So, how does the new Depeche Mode album, Momento Mori, fare in comparison?

Initial listens to Momento Mori suggest it could arguably be their best since 1993’s Songs Of Faith And Devotion, high praise given the quality of Depeche Mode’s five interim albums. Memento Mori contains no aural bric-a-brac in its 12 tracks, or words wasted; the blues guitar element of latter-day releases has given way to, in places, more of a subtle Kraftwerk or Roxy Music vibe. Here, Salogni’s tape loop techniques and mixing skills bring much to the table.

Although each song is drenched in words of darkness, despair and death, they sound sonically glorious: catchy choruses, cinematic flourishes and seriously meaty electronic grooves when required, with People Are Good and Never Let Me Go absolute belters in this respect. My Cosmos Is Mine, a glitchy and tense slow burner echoing Scott Walker’s The Drift, will make a great live set opener if chosen – their most atmospheric since SOF&D’s Higher Love, perhaps – and the infectious, synth-led Wagging Tongue, co-written by Gahan and Gore, boasts lyrics bitterly referring to “…watching another angel die”.

Gore shares songwriting duty with The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler on four songs: one, Caroline’s Monkey (could this be the same Caroline Butler mentioned in Pretty In Pink all those years ago, now battling demons somewhere darker?) carries a mantra-like chorus that could have been lifted from a meditation guide written by Satan disguised as a psychopathic preacher. And on Soul With Me, Gore gives the vocal performance of his life, sounding quite at peace heading towards heaven and getting away from the “world’s disasters”.

A Morricone vibe pervades Don’t Say You Love Me – this time it’s Gahan taking his vocals to another level; indeed, his voice is stunning throughout – while My Favourite Stranger, the Joy Division-like abrasiveness of Never Let Me Go and album closer Speak To Me, in which Gahan reaches out to the heaven’s above from his bathroom floor for answers, are all prime Mode cuts.

words DAVID NOBAKHT