​Depeche Mode will release Memento Mori on Friday, the foreboding title the British band chose before the deaths of Andy Fletcher, bandmates Dave Gehan and Martin Gore.

“Memento Mori” is the 15th studio album by synth-pop legend Depeche Mode. It joins a series of disks marked by fate. As happened with “Closer”, the second and at the same time the last album of the band Joy Division, with photographs of grave statues on the cover, a choice made before the suicide of the lead singer and leader of the band Ian Curtis.

“After his death, it felt really fitting”

Andy Fletcher’s death “kind of cemented the title of the album,” Martin Gore told AFP in October 2022. “Anyway, I thought it was a good name. After his death, it was very appropriate,” he added.

It was no secret that “Fletch,” as he was known, and who died at the age of 60 in May 2022 of a rare vascular disease, was not a major musical element in the sonic architecture of Depeche Mode. But it was a connection between two leaders, Dave Gean and Martin Gore, who were notoriously not the best of friends.

“Fletch” was “the one who would come to me and say, you know, Martin doesn’t want to do this or that. Suddenly he’s gone and Martin and I have to talk to each other,” David Gaan told French newspaper Le Figaro, as quoted by Agerpres.

“During the making of the record, Martin said to me, ‘It’s amazing, I feel like I’ve found an old brother I’ve lost sight of for a long time.’ We got to talk again and I think it worked well on the album,” continued David Hahn, who interpreted the lyrics and music composed by Martin Gore. Dave Gahan also sometimes writes certain songs, as was the case with “Memento Mori”, one of the most successful albums of the British band.

Some of the songs on this album have an unusual resonance in relation to the usual dynamics of the group. This applies to the single “My favorite stranger”, an electro track signed by Martin Gore and Richard Butler (frontman of the band Psychedelic Furs). Her title can be considered a hint of Gahan and Horus, who have long maintained a distant relationship, although in his lyrics the narrator talks about another person that he sees every day in the mirror.

The album closes with “Speak to Me”, a song signed by Dave Gean and other collaborators, which is one of only two titles on this disc (comprising 12 songs) not written by Martin Gore.

“Ghost again” refers to the soul of “Fletch”, who died before the album was completed in the recording studio.

Depeche Mode concert in Bucharest on July 26

The British band will promote the album “Memento Mori” with a world tour, starting this week with a concert in the US.

As part of the world tour, Depeche Mode will also give a concert in Romania, at the National Arena in Bucharest on July 26.

The Depeche Mode show will also feature songs from the new album “Memento Mori”, as well as songs from previous albums that have already been released.

The Memento Mori Tour is Depeche Mode’s 19th tour and the first in over five years. Depeche Mode’s latest and longest tour – “Global Spirit Tour” (2017-2018) – more than 130 concerts – brought the group together in front of more than 3 million fans in both Europe and North America. Romania was among the lucky countries with a live show in Cluj-Napoca organized by Emagic in 2017 at the Cluj Arena. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)