Death and loss loom large over the mournful Memento Mori, Depeche Mode's 15th album and first without founding member Andy Fletcher. Started long before his passing in 2022 and influenced more by the effects of a global pandemic, the somber set took on even more gravity and significance after he died. Understandably subdued and emotionally heavy, this is the sound of two old friends reeling from tragedy while keeping an eye on the days that remain. Without Fletch as a buffer and peacemaker, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan were forced to get closer, resulting in one of their most engaging and thematically cohesive statements to date. Ominous opener "My Cosmos Is Mine" reclaims control in an unpredictable world, repeating the mantra of "No fear…no rain/No final breaths, no senseless deaths" atop industrial piston crushes and a haunted cosmic haze. The bittersweet tone and space-blips on the Gore/Gahan co-write "Wagging Tongue" carry them back to their early synth pop days, just as another throwback moment reveals one of their best singles with "Ghosts Again" (one of four tracks penned with the Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler). The melancholy beauty of this heartbreaker sparkles through the tears, filtering "Enjoy the Silence" through New Order's "True Faith" as Gahan laments, "Everybody says goodbye." The drama is heightened on the goth waltz "Don't Say You Love Me," a string-washed throbber that sounds like Gahan brought Soulsavers to a haunted ballroom, and on the requisite Gore solo of the album, "Soul with Me," a swaying ballad where he finds resolve in the face of the inevitable, singing, "I'm heading for my ever after" in his vulnerable, angelic croon. The detached "Caroline's Monkey" resurrects the digital coldness of Exciter and themes of addiction from the band's darkest '90s period, just as the pulsing menace of "My Favourite Stranger" builds to discomfiting yet alluring levels of anxiety, cutting post-punk guitars through a squall of distortion. In terms of major moments that should eventually find their way onto one of the band's inevitable future compilations, the most immediate make clever nods to past hits, luring fans in with familiarity before hitting them with the exact Depeche Mode hallmarks that they crave. Pulsing with an irresistible club beat and dark neon synths, "People Are Good" shows that not much has changed in the world since the release of their similarly titled 1984 breakthrough single, as Gahan tries to convince himself to believe in humanity. Meanwhile, the driving "Never Let Me Go" cuts caustic NIN-style guitars into an urgent plea that could have been plucked from the Playing the Angel vault. Speaking of that career high point, track-for-track, Memento Mori is their most solid effort since Angel and a catalog best, a wonder coming four decades into their career. Facing mortality and the inevitable sunset of their lengthy, storied careers, Gore and Gahan transform tragedy into something profound and universally relatable. Though not their most immediate offering, Memento Mori is their most heartfelt, thoughtful, and moving statement in decades. ~ Neil Z. Yeung
