The Mic Recommends... In the End - Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode’s new single “In the End,” an outtake from the Memento Mori sessions, reflects the band’s enduring exploration of mortality with both darkness and optimism. Featured in their upcoming concert film Depeche Mode: M and live album Memento Mori: Live in Mexico City, the track reinforces that the synthpop icons still have plenty of creative life left. The Mic's Josh Holmes reports.

The critical success of Depeche Mode’s latest full length, Memento Mori (2023), painted the

powerful image of the synthpop veterans flawlessly executing a comeback following the

tragic loss of a founding member. Now, with a concert film and live album on the horizon, the

band share an outtake from the Memento Mori sessions, “In the End”, which will feature in

both.

Andy Fletcher’s passing in the year prior to Depeche Mode’s fifteenth studio album raised

real questions about the future of the band, even from the members themselves. Principal

songwriter Martin Gore referenced his own mortality as a driving theme when writing tracks

for the record, putting the future of Depeche Mode into as much doubt as the addiction-

tinged release of 1997’s Ultra.

Thankfully, the sombre yet never overwhelming exploration of death featured on Memento

Mori - in combination with an emphasis on the band’s Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial

stylings - all helped to propel the album to become the band’s most widely acclaimed since

2005’s Playing the Angel. Hence, it was no surprise that we’d get to hear more material

originally considered for the record - with “In the End” being one of four tracks from the

Memento Mori sessions that will appear on their upcoming live album Memento Mori: Live in

Mexico City.

The track itself shares many of the album’s overarching themes of accepting your own fate,

all delivered in a way that feels remarkably optimistic beneath Dave Gahan’s signature

baritone vocal. It’s the way the two-piece can pose death as something as peaceful as being

“weightless, floating endlessly” that ensures the track ties perfectly into the Depeche Mode

canon with their signature darkness. It’s quite a direct contrast from the choruses of the song, which seem far more focused on a sense of hopelessness to be found in life itself, with Gahan bemoaning the feelings of “chaos, confusion and decay” that persist through his days. Such a contrast is extremely

effective - even more so when you consider the synthesiser lines that come to accentuate

the track in the chorus. The short melody that appears just after the second chorus is like a

gloomy recontextualisation of nostalgic elements from the band’s past, feeling ripped straight

out of 1983’s Construction Time Again.

No matter what may be on the cards for Depeche Mode in the future, “In the End” helps to

provide more weight to what many already knew with Memento Mori - there’s still plenty of

life within the now two-piece synthpop legends.

“In the End” will appear in the credits for the live concert film ‘Depeche Mode: M’, in cinemas

October 28th. It also appears on the band’s newest live album, releasing December 5th.

Written by Josh Holmes

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Edited by Ben Dale

Photograph courtesy of Depeche Mode