Depeche Mode has confirmed the release date of its eagerly anticipated new album, Memento Mori, which will be released March 24 via Columbia Records.
Memento Mori - 2LP vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital.
Memento Mori is Depeche Mode's 15th studio album and its first as a two-piece lineup of Gahan and Gore, following co-founder Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher's tragic passing in 2022. Produced by James Ford, with additional production work by Marta Salogni, Memento Mori's gestation took place during the early stages of the Covid pandemic, resulting in themes inspired directly by that period. The album's 12 tracks chart a vast expanse of moods and textures, from its ominous opening to its closing resolve—running the gamut from paranoia and obsession to catharsis and joy, and hitting myriad points between. The complete track listing for Memento Mori is:
My Cosmos Is Mine
Wagging Tongue
Ghosts Again
Don't Say You Love Me
My Favourite Stranger
Soul With Me
Caroline's Monkey
Before We Drown
People Are Good
Always You
Never Let Me Go
Speak To Me
Depeche Mode about the album's songs
"My Cosmos Is Mine"
Dave Gahan: "That is actually one of my favourites on the album. Not initially when Martin first sent me the demo, it didn't strike me. But quite often, it's the ones that creep up on me later that I most identify with for some reason. And that song was one of those. I remember singing it, I remember going into into Martin's house and in his studio. And I knew we had captured something, the combination of the song, and I'd found a place where I wanted to be with it. And I feel like I found a meaning in the song that I identified with. It's not something I talked to Martin about, and he might have a completely different concept about the lyrical content of the of the song, but I found my place with that song, and I knew it was going to be the something that was gonna be a great introduction to Memento Mori."
Martin Gore: "The last track that I wrote is also the first song on the album, 'My Cosmos Is Mine'. I wrote it shortly after Russia had invaded Ukraine. I thought, "How much should we still bear? What else will be thrown at us?" And my first reaction was to say: I will pull myself back into my little world, leave me alone. The song is about, when dealing with powerlessness, protecting your inner self from the attacks of the world and to, together with your loved ones, prefer to hide somewhere. Which is of course rather shortsighted, because we have to accept the responsibility of our planet's wellbeing, or else no one will be left anymore."
"Wogging Tongue"
Martin Gore: "The melody is excellent, and the entire song has something intoxicating. It's postive, it's pop, but it's not too much pop."
Dave Gahan: "Martin will take one of my songs, for instance, let's say 'Wagging Tongue', which is on this record. I sent my little demo to Martin of me hamfistedly trying to play the guitar, and get the song out and find the chords and all that. And then Martin sends it back with these beautiful Kraftwerk-esque chords and arpeggiated synths and stuff, and I'm like, "Oh, okay..." But that then takes me to another place, you see, because that changes the perception again." "It's the first song from both of us٭, that ever made it onto a record. I could sense early one that we really hit the mark with this one." "I composed it on my guitar, Martin enriched and enhanced it."
"Ghosts Again"
Dave Gahan: "When I first heard that song, I was like, 'Okay. I'm in.' The demo made me feel instant joy. I remember dancing around my living room, and my daughter came in and she was looking at me weird, like, 'What's going on?' I was like, 'Don't you love this?' She kind of started bopping along with me and she was like, 'I get it. It's a really good song.'" "To me, ‘Ghosts Again’ just captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy."
Martin Gore: "It’s not often that we record a song that I just don’t get sick of listening to – I’m excited to be able to share it."
"My Favourite Stranger"
Dave Gahan: "That song is about having a shadow, someone who follows you around the clock and tells you things. Do you listen to the lie or to the truth? A fun and a little risky song. With music you need to be transported to different places, sometimes it's places that are right in front of your eyes, other times it's open spaces. This is a direct song, like Suicide's Alan Vega, it has a New York '70s punk vibe."
"Soul With Me"
Martin Gore: "I really like 'Soul With Me' for its interesting confluence of influences. When I was writing it I felt like it almost had a Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys sound mixed with some Kurt Weill chords, but then also an homage to gospel music with its soul-influenced chorus. It's musically a very interesting outlier in our catalogue. And while the words are obviously about death, they're also very tongue in cheek."
"Caroline's Monkey"
Martin Gore: "This song is about a drug addict and addiction, yes."
"People Are Good"
Dave Gahan: "In fact, in a way, they both say pretty much the same thing. Not much has changed over the past 40 years. Why is there all this hate and all this fear? The question is always the same. But this new song is a bit different, because we thought it was quite funny to say that "people are good" and then add: "keep fooling yourself". This phrase, "people are good", is repeated many times, and what we ask is: are people actually good?"
"Speak To Me"
Dave Gahan: "Initially the idea sort of came to me, and the song was incredibly elevated by Martin and and James and Marta, into a into a different place, to another world, somewhere else. And that's exactly where I wanted the song to go as well. It was beyond what I could have really put together myself. It's quite a very simple song, but honest and and real. For me, it was a key to open the door to want to continue to make a record with Martin again that was going to be for a Depeche Mode record. It was like an answer to that question for me. It's a bit sarcastic, you know, "I hear you, I'm here, I'm found..." It's a bit sarcastic, but at the same time, there's an absolute peace and joy in the emptiness of the end. It was awesome when that happened in the studio actually, because Marta is a genius with a tape looping and sending stuff back into the tape machines and then all this process of using analogue tape to create these loops. And we just came to the conclusion that it should just be the end. I think it's the perfect bookmark to My Cosmos Is Mine which sets up everything." "In that song, I'm actually not referring to any of the leaders that we have right now. I'm talking about something that is not a person, but our conscience. I believe that we always know what the right thing to do is, and are given the possibility of choice, but we invariably end up making the wrong choices. Normally, we choose a path that serves our interests best. That's human, of course. But I think in that song I was trying to ask for something by saying: if there is something out there, show me and I will follow. It's me trying to summon something bigger."
EXTRA NOTE
"My Cosmos Is Mine" 5:16
World Premiere 9 March 2023. Format digital. Columbia G010005006874W. UK Chart - 32 position.
Reversed lyrics heard at the end of the song are Martin's vocals of "Don't play with my world / Don't mess with my mind / Don't question my spacetime / My cosmos is mine".
"Memento Mori"
Martin Gore: "Translates from Latin to 'Remember you must die'. "It’s a reminder to make the most of life," he calmly smiles from his hotel room sofa, "and make the most of each day.""
Vinyl Side D - Excerpt from an interview in the german magazine "Stern": At the concert in munich Gahan keeps looking over his right shoulder. His gaze is searching for Fletcher. "I had the feeling he was there," the singer says. Fletcher loved the applause, not for himself, but always for the band, he said. What he would have thought about the performance? Gahan grins. We had his favorite saying printed in Latin ("est vere malus") on the vinyl. It says, barely visible: 'That was really bad!'
SINGLES
Ghosts Again (Remixes)
Wagging Tongue (Remixes)
My Favourite Stranger (Remixes)
Before We Drown (Remixes)
People Are Good (Remixes)
VINYL RELEASE
2 x 12" BLACK (19658784211) / RED Opaque (19658792641) / RED Translucent (19658789791) / CRYSTAL CLEAR (19658789801) US/EU
LP 1
SIDE 1
My Cosmos Is Mine 05:18
Wogging Tongue 03:25
Ghosts Again 03:58
Don't Say You Love Me 03:44
SIDE 2
My Favourite Stranger 03:55
Soul With Me 04:15
Caroline's Monkey 04:17
Before We Drown 04:08
LP 2
SIDE 3
People Are Good 04:24
Always You 04:19
Never Let Me Go 04:04
Speak To Me 04:37
SIDE D
Etching of the word "Memento Mori"
● MATRIX: RUNOUT / BARCODE
BLACK
Barcode:196587842116
Other (Record 1, sleeve):19658784211SV1
Other (Record 2, sleeve)19658784211SV2
Matrix label side 1:C-309639/AL19658784211
Runout etching side 1:MRP4386/19658784211-A 254256E1 1516028 19658784211 A7 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Matrix label side 2:C-309639/BL19658784211
Runout etching side 2:MRP4386/19658784211-B 254256E2 1515166 19658784211 B3
Matrix label side 3:C-309639/CL19658784211
Runout etching side 3:MRP4386/19658784211-C 254256E3 1503486 19658784211 C3 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Runout etching side D:No
Vinyl record format:33 ⅓ RPM STEREO
RED Opaque
Barcode:196587926410
Other (Record 1, sleeve):19658784211SV1
Other (Record 2, sleeve)19658784211SV2
Matrix label side 1:C-309639/AL19658784211
Runout etching side 1:MRP4386/19658784211-A 254256E1 1507158 19658784211 A7 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Matrix label side 2:C-309639/BL19658784211
Runout etching side 2:MRP4386/19658784211-B 254256E2 1514050 19658784211 B3
Matrix label side 3:C-309639/CL19658784211
Runout etching side 3:MRP4386/19658784211-C 254256E3 1516037 19658784211 C7 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Runout etching side D:No
Vinyl record format:33 ⅓ RPM STEREO
RED Translucent
Barcode:196587897918
Other (Record 1, sleeve):19658784211SV1
Other (Record 2, sleeve)19658784211SV2
Matrix label side 1:C-309639/AL19658784211
Runout etching side 1:19658784211 A2 = MATT @ METROPOLIS = 40880.1(3)...
Matrix label side 2:C-309639/BL19658784211
Runout etching side 2:19658784211 B2 40880.2(3)...
Matrix label side 3:C-309639/CL19658784211
Runout etching side 3:19658784211 C2 = MATT @ METROPOLIS = 40880.3(3)...
Runout etching side D:No
Vinyl record format:33 ⅓ RPM STEREO
NOTE:Release sales start on June 12, 2023.
CRYSTAL CLEAR
Barcode:196587898014
Other (Record 1, sleeve):19658784211SV1
Other (Record 2, sleeve)19658784211SV2
Matrix label side 1:C-309639/AL19658784211
Runout etching side 1:254256E1 1425731 MRP4386/19658784211-A #16 19658784211 A3 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Matrix label side 2:C-309639/BL19658784211
Runout etching side 2:254256E2 1457055 MRP4386/19658784211-B #16 19658784211 B3
Matrix label side 3:C-309639/CL19658784211
Runout etching side 3:254256E3 1425738 MRP4386/19658784211-C #5 19652784211 C3 = MATT @ METROPOLIS =
Runout etching side D:No
Vinyl record format:33 ⅓ RPM STEREO
The vinyl has two 180 Gram BLACK vinyl discs, in a tri-fold jacket, foil print on cover, printed inner sleeves, 12” x 24” poster and special etching on fourth side D, with the inscription in Latin "est vere malus" (translation "That was really bad!" Andy Fletcher's favorite phrase). On the cover, "D" and "M" are foil-embossed. Memento Mori Exclusive RED Opaque Limited Edition Vinyl. Exclusive Translucent RED Vinyl + And Is Exclusive to the UK Though The UK Depeche Mode Store. Memento Mori Exclusive Edition CRYSTAL CLEAR colored.
Sticker on front states - Black LP : "DEPECHE MODE NEW ALBUM MEMENTO MORI 2X 180G VINYL 19658784211S1" / Red LP : "DEPECHE MODE NEW ALBUM MEMENTO MORI 2X 180G VINYL LIMITED EDITION OPAQUE RED VINYL 19658792641"
Writers 1,6,9,10,11 : Martin Gore. Writers 2 : Dave Gahan, Martin Gore. Writers 3,4,5,7 : Martin Gore and Richard Butler. Writers 8 : Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner. Writers 12 : Dave Gahan, Marta Salogni, Christian Eigner and James Ford.
Single disc in standard CD. Single disc in digisleeve with foil print and 16 page insert booklet. On the cover, "D" and "M" are foil-embossed.
Sticker on front states - "DEPECHE MODE NEW ALBUM MEMENTO MORI FEATURING GHOSTS AGAIN 19658784202S1"
Writers 1,6,9,10,11 : Martin Gore. Writers 2 : Dave Gahan, Martin Gore. Writers 3,4,5,7 : Martin Gore and Richard Butler. Writers 8 : Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner. Writers 12 : Dave Gahan, Marta Salogni, Christian Eigner and James Ford.
Single disc in standard CD. On front cover hype sticker with logo. The barcode is stickered on the digibook. Released in a 28-page digibook with pictures and lyrics. On 2nd page memorial note to Andrew Fletcher.
Sticker on front states - "DEPECHE MODE 19658789812"
Writers 1,6,9,10,11 : Martin Gore. Writers 2 : Dave Gahan, Martin Gore. Writers 3,4,5,7 : Martin Gore and Richard Butler. Writers 8 : Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner. Writers 12 : Dave Gahan, Marta Salogni, Christian Eigner and James Ford.
CASSETTE RELEASE
Memento Mori Exclusive Translucent Red Cassette (19658792664) UK
SIDE 1
My Cosmos Is Mine 05:18
Wogging Tongue 03:25
Ghosts Again 03:58
Don't Say You Love Me 03:44
My Favourite Stranger 03:55
Soul With Me 04:15
SIDE 2
Caroline's Monkey 04:17
Before We Drown 04:08
People Are Good 04:24
Always You 04:19
Never Let Me Go 04:04
Speak To Me 04:37
● MATRIX: RUNOUT / BARCODE
Barcode:19658792664 9
Label Code:LC00162
Other:BIEM/GEMA
Label Side 1:CT-313415/19658792664A
Label Side 2:CT-313415/19658792664B
Other:Made in the UK
Single translucent red cassette shell with 7 panel J-Card insert in standard Norelco Box. Insert is printed with matte finish. Shell is translucent red with silver on-body printing.
Writers 1,6,9,10,11 : Martin Gore. Writers 2 : Dave Gahan, Martin Gore. Writers 3,4,5,7 : Martin Gore and Richard Butler. Writers 8 : Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner. Writers 12 : Dave Gahan, Marta Salogni, Christian Eigner and James Ford.
DIGITAL RELEASE
Digital Download (G010004948630J) Columbia / Worldwide Release
1My Cosmos Is Mine 05:18
2Wogging Tongue 03:25
3Ghosts Again 03:58
4Don't Say You Love Me 03:44
5My Favourite Stranger 03:55
6Soul With Me 04:15
7Caroline's Monkey 04:17
8Before We Drown 04:08
9People Are Good 04:24
10Always You 04:19
11Never Let Me Go 04:04
12Speak To Me 04:37
Writers 1,6,9,10,11 : Martin Gore. Writers 2 : Dave Gahan, Martin Gore. Writers 3,4,5,7 : Martin Gore and Richard Butler. Writers 8 : Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner. Writers 12 : Dave Gahan, Marta Salogni, Christian Eigner and James Ford.
VIDEO
Teaser New Album "Memento Mori"
"Memento Mori" Dave Gahan
"My Cosmos Is Mine" (Audio)
"Memento Mori" Unboxing Black Vinyl
AUDIO | RELEASES
PRODUCTION DETAILS ALBUM
"My Cosmos Is Mine" 05:18 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore.
"Wogging Tongue" 03:25 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Dave Gahan and Martin L. Gore.
"Ghosts Again" 03:58 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore, Richard Butler.
"Don't Say You Love Me" 03:44 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore, Richard Butler.
"My Favourite Stranger" 03:55 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore, Richard Butler.
"Soul With Me" 04:15 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore.
"Caroline's Monkey" 04:17 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore, Richard Butler.
"Before We Drown" 04:08 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner.
"People Are Good" 04:24 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore.
"Always You" 04:19 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore.
"Never Let Me Go" 04:04 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Martin L. Gore.
"Speak To Me" 04:37 • Produced by James Ford, Marta Salogni. Mixed by Marta Salogni. Engineered by Marta Salogni. Assisted by Gregg White, Francine Perry, Grace Banks. Songwriter by Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner.
ANDREW JOHN FLETCHER 1961-2022 "in our HEARTS and MINDS" dave & martin
/Depeche_Mode_My_Favourite_Stranger_(Remixes).jpg)
