Electronic music legends Depeche Mode are back with the first single from their upcoming album Delta Machine, out March 26th. “Heaven” made a surprise debut on an LA radio station yesterday morning. Watch the official video on YouTube now. The song grips my guts just as potently as their best works always have, though I think it (as well as its B-side “All That’s Mine”) falls more in line with their last two albums than their earlier classics (and I say that as someone who reeeaallly likes Playing the Angel [2005] and Sounds of the Universe [2009].) There was a blown-up comment made by chief songwriter Martin Gore that this album would sound a lot like fan favorites Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, which has gotten a bunch of overly-sentimental fans in a tizzy because maybe this song doesn't really so much. But come on, peeps. Those albums are gorgeous, but that was 20 years ago when they were all perma-drunk and on heroin anyway. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I genuinely love most of what they've done in the last 10 years, and it's rare that a band follows up their agreeably best work with some also really excellent shit. Sober.
So, yeah, I love it. The single is gritty, raw, and mournfully beautiful, and yet it continues to affirm my idea that Depeche Mode is not a dark group, despite the pervasive idea that they are depressing. Some folks clearly don’t listen to their lyrics:
I stand in golden rays
radiantly
I burn a fire of love
over and over
Reflecting endless light
relentlessly
I have embraced a flame
forever and ever
Yeah, jeez, the bleakness. WTF, y’all. If Rumi had said it, this shit would be all over Facebook. Martin has been writing through the same meaty themes for nearly 30 years, even in, and probably because of, the depths of the band’s personal struggles: the limitless potential of the spirit, earthly redemption, universal oneness, and sweet, burning, whips ‘n’ chains love. Some call that dark; I call it faithfully insightful and majorly hot.
Delta Machine will be Depeche Mode’s 13th studio album. They kick off their supporting world tour on May 7th in Israel. North American tour dates TBA soon! HOLYSHITYAY.
