Well, Depeche Mode's Memento Mori dropped. On a whim, I pre-ordered it from Amazon, so I'll get a physical CD copy later today sometime, but meanwhile, I've listened to the whole album once now on YouTube, and I'll probably play it a couple more times today. The million dollar question; is it any good?
I don't know yet. I'll need to digest it a bit more. I guess that means that it wasn't so good that I immediately thought it accessibly great, like I would have if it sounded more like Music for the Masses, for example (for a more recent example, De/Vision's Popgefahr did that) but it's also not so bad that I'm immediately put off by it either. I have a funny feeling that I'll end up thinking that it's kind of bland. It ditched a lot of the affectations that I didn't like in a lot of the "late phase" Depeche Mode (which I consider everything after Ultra—although maybe I should go all the way back to Songs of Faith and Devotion; I could certainly make a case for it). Well, that's good, I suppose. But they weren't really all that bold with anything that they did that was good, either. And some of the songs are iffy. There's your obligatory awkward and sometimes almost grotesque Martin Gore ballad, for instance. "Caroline's Monkey" is just strange in every way.
Anyway, on to play it again and see if anything unexpected grows on me. But I don't think so. I think I'll end up finding this an album that played it pretty safe, didn't do much that I didn't like, but didn't do much that I did either.
I've only seen Depeche Mode in person once before; nearly 20 years ago at the Palace in Detroit on the Playing the Angel tour. The setlist for that show was the following:
- Intro
- A Pain That I'm Used To
- John the Revelator
- A Question of Time
- Policy of Truth
- Precious
- Walking in My Shoes
- Suffer Well
- Damaged People
- Home
- I Want It All
- The Sinner in Me
- I Feel You
- Behind the Wheel
- World in My Eyes
- Personal Jesus
- Enjoy the Silence
Encore:
- Somebody
- Just Can't Get Enough
- Everything Counts
Encore 2:
- Never Let Me Down Again
- Goodnight Lovers
A decent setlist for the time. Obviously, heavily leaning on Playing the Angel songs, some of which I could take or leave, but still there was enough 80s material to make me happy, and I don't hate the 90s material that much, especially the Violator classics like "Enjoy the Silence" or "Personal Jesus."
I'm going to also see this new tour in Chicago (for the curious, I don't live in either Detroit or Chicago; those are just the shows I went to or am going to) and so obviously the setlist isn't out yet for that show, but the Sacramento show was last night, and it was the first show of this tour. Here's the setlist for that show:
- Speak to Me (Outro) (This is the final song on the new album)
- My Cosmos Is Mine (This is the opening song of the new album. I'm mixed so far in my reaction to it)
- Wagging Tongue (another new track from early on the album playlist, and so far I'm thinking one of the better ones.)
- Walking in My Shoes (I knew they had to play a bunch of SOFAD songs, because a lot of the fans want to hear them, but I could skip this and not feel bad at all.)
- It's No Good
- Sister of Night (A couple of Ultra songs in a row? Surprising. I mean, I could miss them, but it's still nice to see them playing something unexpected. They're also saying that "Sister of Night" was not acoustic and had Dave sing the vocals rather than Martin. Curiouser and curiouser. I wonder if these are some of the ones that they play around with show to show, though. Imagine if we got something like "But Not Tonight" or "The Sun and the Rainfall!"
- In Your Room (Zephyr Mix) (Eh. More SOFAD. OK.)
- Everything Counts (They've been doing this as an encore song for so long, it's a bit surprising to see it here. At least they're playing it.)
- Precious
- Speak to Me (It looks like they're using the outro to this song as the intro to the concert, so... OK.)
- A Question of Lust (first time since November 15, 2017) (Another pleasant surprise to hear an 80s song that hasn't been played much in the last few decades. I probably would much rather have heard "A Question of Time", but sometimes you take what you can get.)
- Soul With Me (Another new one, that I didn't love. The typical Martin Gore ballad that you have to just endure and hope that it doesn't last too long.)
- Ghosts Again (Well, hardly surprising. Pretty sure that this song will stay at the top as the best song of the album.)
- I Feel You (Probably my favorite of the SOFAD songs. I'd still rather hear something from the 80s, like "Strangelove" here, or "People Are People"—which I know, I know, they don't like to play—but I'd rather hear it.)
- A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont's Remix) (This is an OK song, but the Jazques Lu Cont baseline is not my favorite. It kind of destroys the structure of the song, and makes the chorus indistinguishable from the verse. Blegh. Don't know why they're playing this version of it.)
- World in My Eyes (Dedicated to Andrew Fletcher) (I know it's kind of a hit single from their commercial peak and all that, but I've always thought this song was kind of forgettable and I wouldn't have minded them forgetting it. Maybe it was one of Fletch's favorites or something.)
- Wrong (Very pleasant surprise. An underrated top tier song, in my opinion.)
- Stripped
- John the Revelator (another Playing the Angel song? Curious.)
- Enjoy the Silence
Encore:
- Waiting for the Night (first time since November 21, 2009) (This one is surprising. I do like this song well enough. Don't even know what it would sound like live.
- Just Can't Get Enough (They don't ever not play this, as far as I know.)
- Never Let Me Down Again
- Personal Jesus (Weird that these two are in the encore, but I'd have been very disappointed not to hear them, especially "Never Let Me Down Again."
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