Depeche Mode: Memento Mori (2LP, limited edition, opaque red vinyl) [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This limited 2LP set spreads the album over three sides of opaque red 180g vinyl and etches the fourth. Memento Mori went to No. 1 in Germany and nine other countries, reached No. 2 in the UK, and scored 85 on Metacritic.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Opaque red vinyl
• Limited edition
• 180g vinyl
• Etched side
• Poster included
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

It took a pandemic and a loss to make it, and Depeche Mode came out of both with one of their strongest records. Martin Gore had started writing during lockdown, partly with The Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler, who co-wrote four songs by trading lyrics and music with him at a distance. Then Andy Fletcher died suddenly in May 2022, and Gore and Dave Gahan decided to carry on as a duo, sure it was what Fletch would have wanted.

James Ford produced the sessions at Electric Ladyboy in Santa Barbara and Shangri-La in Malibu, and Marta Salogni mixed, engineered and helped rebuild "Speak to Me" from Gahan's demo using an old EMS Synthi. "Ghosts Again" is the band at their most elegantly bittersweet, "My Cosmos Is Mine" opens in brooding fashion, "Wagging Tongue" pulses, and "My Favourite Stranger" and "People Are Good" kept the singles going well into 2024.

Pitchfork called it their best since Ultra, and the Memento Mori World Tour filled stadiums across two years. The title is Latin for remember you must die, which, for a band this gloriously dark, counts as a fairly cheerful slogan.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia (cat# 19658792641), the 2023 album.