Depeche Mode reveal their new release + Tour

Dave Gahan

golden boots and shiny stockings testify that Depeche Mode are coming back and in great shape. The band has announced the dates of the European tour in 2017: 29 stops in Europe, starting May 5th in Stockholm, ending July 24th in the Romanian Cluj, hoping to collect a million and a half spectators.

But the real new – that ‘was in the air – is that the tour will be the debut of the new album titled Spirit. It’s still under construction and it will be released next spring. For that reason Depeche didn’t say much about the record, despite the insistent questions of fans and journalists in a cheerful public meeting at the Art Theatre of Milan Triennale: we only know that the producer is new, James Ford, and that it will also talk about mopdernity, “with an uplifting and suggestivesound” said the three presenting the very first clip of Spirit with the song “Where’s the revolution?” that drips gospel and synth-pop.

“But everything it’s still to decide: it is not clear how it will come out Spirit, we don’t know the playlist or the sets of the tour, maybe we could ask to rate songs to be played at the Eurovision Song Contest” they joked, tonics and in good shape aswe rarely see them before. For everything else, it’s a matter of a few months.

The release of a Depeche Mode disc never goes unnoticed.

We talk about a team of 100 million records sold and that despite it became, today, a product commercially massive, has maintained the allure built in time. Probably that’s the result of well-aimed communication strategies, a coherent musical style and above all free from fads and trends; which does not mean that the thirteen studio albums to date products are, from a musical point of view, flawless. The last record labors, in fact, only offer some flash, although the style remains incorruptible and can hardly be disputed.

Not all rock bands in the 80’s can boast the same path. Just think – for example – to U2; Bonovox and company were able to communicate its own music through an image inexorably faded in time ; a disastrous fall, the result of engulfing communication strategies, supported above all by unnecessary disks only able to confuse fans and critics.

Depeche chose another way, preferring to nurture his “concealed” poetry, communicating it through careful choices and interpretations of great effect: think of the box-set of remixes released out over the years, especially those numbered 1 through 6 that could drive the cult and also corroborate the myth attached to it.

In Milan they celebrated themselves but without overdoing it: some information related to the new album, a great openness and a lot of “spirit”. It seemed to understand that the album’s songs were written by Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. Not exactly good news, we hoped that the frontman of the band – futile considering the contribution made to the latest productions – had definitively placed in the drawer songwriting ambitions, but …

In case it was not clear to the most, there is only one inside songwriter of Depeche Mode and his name – needless to remember – is Martin Gore.

To prove remain countless masterpieces he wrote. What to expect from Spirit? Gore, to a specific question, relates that the sounds will evoke fond ambiences presents in Songs of Faith and Devotion; considering the beauty of that disc, it is this rather fantastic news.

What to expect from the tour instead? Done the premise that a concert of Depeche Mode is always worth the price of admission. Who will see them for the first time, will fill thier eyes with wonder, those who will come back for yet another concert, will not remain baffled to hear the usual single sung loudly by the public, as well as will not be surprised to discover the eye-liner poured on the cheeks after being surprised by “sudden pearls.”

Lastly, a word on the graphics, another fundamental element of the brand. The band’s logo, again reissued on red background, is not convincing, as the first images of the operation turn out to be contradictory; to worry – at first glance, it is certainly Gahan’s pale blue robes, while reassuring, authoritative presence is undoubtedly the “hammer” on which the leader is supported. Fans of the first hour won’t make any effort to recall in that object the symbol of “Construction time again” cover; we are talking of the third recording effort of the group where appeared for the first time the dear departed Alan Wilder.