"Depeche Mode still at the top
With their new album, "Spirit", the British group has succeeded in remaining at the vanguard of pop while reaching out to a broad public. The album masterfully expresses the anxieties of our time in musical form.
As a globally famous pop group, it is difficult to stay true to oneself over the years while continuing to evolve, playing more and more while maintaining a high level of artistic standards.
Yet the complex balance of which Depeche Mode is already a past master shines forth in their latest album, Spirit, released on Friday. Serious and dense yet incredibly controlled, it presents twelve songs expressing a mature anxiety about our current era.
Indeed, Depeche Mode is now close to forty years old yet its three members continue to sing about the drama at the center of life at a time when adolescent revolt seems outdated. Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher also show that it is still possible to act, to influence the course of life and to defy the challenges of time.
“Previously, we had illusions/Now we have no excuses,” they sing in the disenchanted ballad The Worst Crime in Spirit, based on a slow tempo that rises over the course of the verses towards a dry and poignant conclusion.
The English group began their itinerary in the dreary village of Basildon in Essex at the end of the 1970s in the midst of punk and new wave music.
From these modest beginnings, Depeche Mode has traveled a long way to the triumphal release of their 14th album released on Friday at a great concert in the mythical Funkhaus room in Berlin.
They moved from being a “boys band” look with ridiculous hair and dancing songs of their beginnings to a creativeperiod saturated with almost excessive synthetic sound.
Next, they moved to a more rock sound in which one could discern the anguish and rage of young British people of the “No future” years, but which was already full of sophisticated melodies carried forward at an explosive tempo.
Next came the rock star years which caused fans to fear that Depeche Mode had lost its talent in a haze of drugs and would never rediscover the path back to the studios or would simply finish as a parody of its greatest years.
And now we have Spirit, a bare album in which the emotions and torments are contained but still audible below the surface in a creation full of tension and great artistic power. Where have “spirituality” and “revolution” gone? Depeche Mode asks.
“We're going backwards, Turning back our history, Going backwards, Piling on the misery," they sing in Going Backwards, the piece that opens the album.
“We're going backwards, Armed with new technology, Going backwards, To a caveman mentality.”
“We feel nothing inside… because there’s nothing inside,” sings Gahan.
His voice is somber and powerful as is the music of Depeche Mode. The electronic instruments remain clearly present, as well as their distortions, but here they are placed in the service of impeccable pop in a kind of cross between Kraftwerk and David Bowie.
A kind of “blues by whites” as only the British seem to be able to do these days.
And among the dozen songs of Spirit, we discover a true black diamond, Cover me, with its hypnotically rising sound advancing slowly towards a final instrumental virtuoso resonance resembling the beating of a crazed heart.
Depeche Mode
The group was founded in 1979 in Basildon, Essex. Its synthetic pop made it a new symbol of British music.
Renewing itself continually, Depeche Mode has previously released thirteen albums, with Spirit being the fourteenth and has sold more than 100 million records. Its members are David Gahan, 54, singer, Martin Gore, composer, lyrics writer, and guitarist, 55, and Andy Fletcher, keyboard player, 55.
Five significant albums
Black Celebration (1986) was its first major success powerfully resonating with the anger of the Thatcher years with its complex songs and serious songs. It also paid homage to composer Philip Glass.
Music for the Masses (1987), recorded at Suresnes, France, was their album of international fame with the song Never Let Me Down Again.
Violator (1990) provided the peak for Depeche Mode in an artistically innovative album that was also highly accessible to many people. Its most well know songs such as Enjoy the Silence and Personal Jesus are still played in stadium shows.
Playing the Angel (2005) signaled the return of Depeche Mode after their eclipse and shows the electronic pop group at their best.
Spirit (2017) is a mature, coherent and dense album."
