The world’s most famous synthpop band, Depeche Mode, released a new song today called “Ghosts Again.” It’s Depeche Mode’s first new music in six years.
“Ghosts Again” is a somber, sentimental track that doesn’t aim for bombastic sound effects or dancefloor energy. At 115 BPM, it hovers near the faster edge of mid-tempo dance music.
Like much of Depeche Mode’s latter output, “Ghosts Again” is built on a soulful guitar, but here the melody is understated and quite beautiful. Twinkling synths take off near the 2:15 mark that propel the track towards its conclusion—I do wish there was more of the synth riff at the start of the song. Dave Gahan’s voice sounds lovely, and Martin Gore’s poignant lyrics incorporate a simple rhyming scheme that make them instantly memorable.
“Ghosts Again” conveys special meaning for Depeche Mode and their legions of devotees. It’s the first song since the untimely passing of founding member Andy Fletcher, and the song itself conveys death with sensitivity and tenderness.
Artwork for the single and the album depict Depeche Mode as a duo for the first time ever. The black-and-white music video, directed by longtime visual collaborator Anton Corbijn, depicts Dave and Martin playing chess atop a building and later Dave crawling through a cemetery.
Music producer James Ford, an English musician who is part of the band Simian Mobile Disco, coproduced “Ghosts Again.” Ford previously produced Depeche Mode’s last album, Spirit. Notably, Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs is credited with lyrics and composition alongside Martin Gore.
Memento Mori coming March 24
“Ghosts Again” is the lead single from Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album, Memento Mori, which arrives March 24. Memento Mori is latin for “Remember that you must die,” but Depeche Mode noted that the seemingly morbid title has positive meaning too—live life to the max, it suggests.
Depeche Mode released “Where’s the Revolution,” the lead single from Spirit, in February 2017—exactly six years ago. Spirit arrived near the start of the Trump presidency and saw Depeche Mode tackle political and social subject matter, including cultural regression, climate change, and poverty. I didn’t care much for Spirit or its predecessor Delta Machine, which makes “Ghosts Again” the first DM song I’ve genuinely loved since 2009’s Sounds of the Universe.
Like Spirit, Memento Mori is influenced by the times in which it was recorded. Martin said in a press conference last year that they began work on the album near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and that Fletch’s death gave it deeper meaning. It’s certainly not the first time Depeche Mode have covered death in their music. Most notably, their fifth album Black Celebration evokes death throughout and includes the memorable line “Death is everywhere.”
“Ghosts Again” lyrics
Wasted feelings
Broken meanings
Time is fleeting
See what it brings
Hellos, goodbyes, a thousand midnights
Lost in sleepless lullabies
Heaven’s dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts, my friends
We know we’ll be ghosts again
Sundays shining
Silver linings
Weightless hours
All my flowers
A place to hide the tears that you cried
Everybody says goodbye
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again
Heaven’s dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts, my friends
We know we’ll be ghosts again
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again
