Depeche Mode Gets More Political Than Spiritual

Sure, dozens of other outlets reviewing Depeche Mode’s Spirit have writer’s old enough to remember the day this quirky, electronic group released their synthpop debut titled Speak and Spell, while others were there to witness them go into grunge and alternative rock territory with the release of Songs of Faith and Devotion.

Whatever the case, the point is I may not have the same history with this legendary group as other writers have. Depeche Mode has been around for more than 30 years, released 14 studio albums and seen a fair share of members come and go. Now, 36 years after the aforementioned debut, Spirit has been released to stream.

To sum up my countless listens and analyzations, I will say this: Spirit is a good album. It’s not perfect and may overstay its welcome, but it works. It achieves what albums by bands from the 80s and 90s try so hard to do but ultimately fail—be good despite having the highest of standards.

It is not surprising to know that the album (or at least the first half) is very politically charged. Lead songwriter Martin Gore has always had a penchant for social and political commentary, as seen with Spirit’s lead single, “Where’s the Revolution.”

Unfortunately, subtlety is not one of the album’s strongest points.

Lyrically, the album makes it very clear that the current political climate is deteriorating. Song titles like “Going Backwards” and “The Worst Crime” already give away their politically charged stances, and it’s very groan-inducing.

Political satire and commentary is never a bad thing and when done right (like in other Depeche Mode albums) it can be witty and impactful. Here, Gore seems to throw all that subtlety out of the industrial sounding window and dives deep into his 80s-filled paranoia thanks to our wonderful commander in chief.

While the first half of the album is so heavy-handed, the second half is filled with some of the best sounds this group has delivered in years. Building upon the sound from 2013’s Delta Machine (which in turn was building upon 1990’s Violator), it uses an industrial-like sound reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails (a group definitely influenced by Depeche Mode). Lyrically, the second half is full of innuendo, clever wordplay, and some more sardonic rhymes that Gore has been famous for since the beginning.

Spirit is not perfect. I wouldn’t rank it among my favorite Depeche Mode albums, since that goes to 1984’s Some Great Reward, but it’s still an enjoyable effort by the pioneers of electronic music.

When I’m done crying over the words to “Somebody,” the political hysteria of Spirit is able to pick me back up.