By Posted on Posted in Anton Corbijn, Depeche Mode, Life in General, Memento Mori Tagged with , , , ,

Ok, I’ll start by admiting. I’ve been AWOL from this site for almost the entire year. And what a year it’s been! We got a new Depeche Mode album (and a helluva a fine album). We also got treated to another great tour, which is still on-going (and of course I have plans to catch up with it in 2024). I obviously saw the band a couple of times (yes, I met Martin and he was the sweetest guy in the world). So why was I so absent from this blog so much? Well, dizzy Mr Busy, too much rush to talk to Billy. All the silly frilly things have to first get done. In a minute sometime soon, maybe next time, make it June, until later doesn’t always come. One of the best side effects of a DM tour is meeting with friends from all over the world. Me and the other Spirits also amanged to arrange a mini-reunion (during a DM show, of course) of our own. We didn’t get physical singles from “Memento Mori” (apart from the odd German 7″s and the newly announced white label series). To be honest, with the 12″ Singles box sets being released at the current pace, we’re going to reach MM in 2024 anyway. Since we’re talking about re-releases, “Strange” and “Strange Too” finally got their long-awaited DVD/blu-ray release. I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited for what 2024 will bring.

And yes, the title of this post and the accompanying image would have made more sense if I had pressed “publish” before January 1st, 2024. But you get the spirit. Raise your glasses and let’s have a black celebration!

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Music, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , ,

DMK has released their definitive tribute to Depeche Mode and unless you’ve spent more than a decade in a cave, you probably know their cover versions of DM’s songs. From internet viral sensations to being featured on 2019’s “Spirits in the Forest” feature film, everyone fell in love with their quality-time family videos. Using toy instruments and other household objects, they became known as DMK and they finally put those cover versions together in one album celebrating more than a decade of DM-relate fatherhood. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“After 12 years of creating music as a family, DMK are excited to wrap up this era with the release of our album “Songs of Tiny Devotion: A Family Tribute to Depeche Mode 2010-2022,” which compiles all of our DM covers, remixed and remastered, plus our original song “Pale Blue Dot.” The album is now available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, and more.”

Click on the link for access: dmk.hearnow.com

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Memento Mori, Music Tagged with , , , , ,

I was so very honored to have been invited to attend the press conference yesterday here in Berlin. What’s there to say? It’s impossible to look at the stage and not miss that extra chair with Fletch. The event would have probably lasted longer if he were around with his witty answers. It’s incredible that they managed to work on the album in such secrecy far better than before. The ideas were already going back and forth between Martin and Dave since the pandemic got us all locked down in 2020. All of the songs and even the grim title had been chosen before Andrew’s passing. Everything suddenly got a new meaning now.

Football jokes aside, after so many press conferences, we know that the band already says upfront what they are going to talk about and what they’re not. The journalists were really rather shy when they had the chance to ask them directly. Even I nearly raised my hand to end the awkward silence. I just didn’t have a question to make that I know that they could answer (and not about geography). In fact, Barbara Cherone, the interviewer, sort of exhausted the questions about the album and the tour that could be made.

The tour kicks off in North America this time with what seems like a warm-up, then heads to Europe for a stadium summer leg. I’m sure more dates will be added.

So many years and Marek Lieberberg still calls Dave GaRRÂN (it’s more like “gone” or “gawn”).

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode Tagged with , , ,

“A quick update from David and Kevin on the release of Halo:

As Depeche Mode fans will acknowledge, it’s been a sad and unsettling time over the last few months, especially for the family and friends of keyboardist and founding member Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, who passed away suddenly in May.

We were in the process of working through the final edits of ‘Halo’ when the news emerged that week – a massive high for us, which turned very quickly into a shocking and very sad low.

The story behind Depeche Mode’s classic album Violator doesn’t change as a result of Fletch’s untimely death (in fact, many parts in our book that feature him have a certain poignancy now) but we wanted to ensure we respectively give some distance between the grieving among family, friends, the band and fans with the book’s release.

As we write this post, we are also reading proofs from our publisher and getting excited once again about its release.

‘Halo’ will be available from all the usual online retail outlets from Thursday, September 29, via Grosvenor House Publishing in paperback and e-book.

We’re expecting a final pre-order date almost any time soon and a full list of retailers, too. We’ll share that information ASAP!

Thanks.

D+K x”

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode Tagged with , ,

When Placebo dropped their first single from their upcoming new studio album since 2013’s “Loud Like Love”, I was positively surprised. The title reminded me of the silly “Little James”, Liam Gallagher’s first contribution to Oasis about his then-stepson. It’s as silly as you’d expect for a Liam Gallagher track. But title coincidences apart, it was a very good return. So I waited for the album, which was released last March. But I didn’t get the memo on the second, third and fourth singles. All released prior to the album. I guess that’s the new normal in the 2020’s: just drop all singles ahead of the album. Singles aside, I found more coincidences. “Forever Chemicals” starts with the sounds of pots and pans like “People Are People”. And “Fix Yourself” has a synth line that reminded me a bit of “Cover Me”. But the album didn’t impress me right away. Maybe it’s a grower. It’s better than the two albums they released when we were on a break (“Meds” and “Battle For The Sun”). For now I’m just gonna let it sink in and wait for the placebo effect to kick in.