Ghosts Again

I am coming to consider Depeche Mode a band of the past. Oh, of course I know that they've been around all along, but very little of what they've put out in the last 30 years or so has really impressed me that much. The Playing the Angel and Ultra albums were relatively good. Songs of Faith and Devotion had a few good songs. They haven't added very many "top tier" songs to their repertoire since Violator though. "Wrong", "Precious", "It's No Good", "Martyr", and maybe b-sides "Ghost" and "Oh Well". Maybe a few other tracks here and there are almost good enough to be top tier.

It's early, but so far I'm considering the newly dropped single (just three hours ago!) "Ghosts Again" from the upcoming Memento Mori album might qualify. So far, very good. 

I particularly appreciate how Dave is singing more normally. He's had a really affected style to his vocals in recent years, like he's trying to be a bluesy, rocky torch icon. I haven't really liked it. Granted, his voice has probably been somewhat damaged by the abuse that he's subjected himself to, and I don't expect it to sound now when he's in his 60s like he did 35 years ago barely into his 20s. But, apparently he can sound more like that than he's chosen to, because it's a bit more classic here.

I know Depeche Mode have kind of changed their tone, themes and sound over the decades too, but listening to a live stream from Vaughn George, someone in the chat made a good point, which he picked up on and talked about too—it kind of has a b-side vibe to it. The b-sides were often where Depeche Mode wandered a little further afield from their "trademark sound" and did stuff a little bit more experimental, or sometimes less experimental and more poppy. 

The video is unusual also in that it kind of looks like it was filmed on some leftover 80s set. I can't find the video now, but there was one of them—I thought it was an alternate video for "But Not Tonight" that looks very similar, if not even almost recycled. On the other hand, Martin and Dave—but especially Martin—are looking really quite old. Man, what happened to his face in the last few years? He almost looks closer to 80 than to 60. His face almost looks older than my dad's, and I'm only about ten years younger than Depeche Mode themselves.

Anyway, after many years of disappointment with what was once my favorite band, I'm cautiously optimistic after this quite good start.

My wife got me tickets to their upcoming show, in just a couple of months. It's likely that this is their swan song, although we'll see. It's very unlikely I'll see them again, and it's very unlikely that their show will be like their shows in the past, just because they're getting so much older. They're not even doing a third of the stops on this tour that they did for Angel. Alan left the band decades ago now, and Fletch died during the covid nonsense "suddenly." Make of that what you will. The last time I saw them was quite a long time ago now, during the Playing the Angel tour. One last hurrah for both them and me, in a way.