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Depeche Mode (UK)
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February 25, 19:00
Olimpiisky Sports Complex 
 Originally a product of Britain's new romantic movement, Depeche Mode went on to become the quintessential electro-pop band of the 1980's. One of the first acts to establish a musical identity based completely around the use of synthesizers, they began their existence as a bouncy dance-pop outfit but gradually developed a darker, more dramatic sound that ultimately positioned them as one of the most successful alternative bands of their era. The band returned in early 2017 with their 14th studio effort, Spirit. The album's material was largely inspired by the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and was produced by Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford (Foals, Arctic Monkeys). Buoyed by the single "Where's the Revolution," Spirit debuted at number five on the Billboard 200.
After a grand summer concert in Moscow, the team will again visit our country, included it in its winter tour. Depeche Mode will present their new album "Spirit", which caused the most enthusiastic reviews of music critics. Should be noted that the large-scale "Global Spirit Tour" is held in cooperation with the Swiss watch brand: the Depeche Mode and the Hublot company were united by a charity mission. Its goal is to provide clean drinking water to people around the world.
The roots of Depeche Mode date to 1976, when Basildon, England-based keyboardists Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher first teamed to form the group No Romance in China. The band proved short-lived, and by 1979 Clarke had formed French Look, another duo featuring guitarist/keyboardist Martin Gore; Fletcher soon signed on, and the group rechristened itself Composition of Sound. Initially, Clarke handled vocal chores, but in 1980 singer David Gahan was brought in to complete the lineup. After one final name change to Depeche Mode, the quartet jettisoned all instruments excluding their synthesizers, honing a slick, techno-based sound to showcase Clarke's catchy melodies.
As Gore grabbed the band's songwriting reins, the remaining trio recruited keyboardist Alan Wilder to fill the technological void created by Clarke's departure. While 1982's A Broken Frame deviated only slightly from Depeche Mode's earlier work, Gore's ominous songs grew more assured and sophisticated by the time of 1983's Construction Time Again. Some Great Reward, issued the following year, was their artistic and commercial breakthrough, as Gore's dark, kinky preoccupations with spiritual doubt ("Blasphemous Rumours") and psychosexual manipulation ("Master and Servant") came to the fore; the egalitarian single "People Are People" was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic and typified the music's turn toward more industrial textures.
In a time of sociopolitical upheaval, Depeche Mode emerged with Spirit. Dark, brooding, and painfully relevant upon its release, the collection is one of their most intense and aggressive statements, isolating the frustration, anger, tension, and dread coursing across the globe in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Brexit. With little subtlety, Depeche Mode take aim and leave few survivors. Producer James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, Arctic Monkeys, Florence + the Machine) revives the trio after their two prior lackluster efforts and turns Spirit into a highlight of their late era, the strongest effort since 2005's Playing the Angel. From a fiery pulpit, Dave Gahan hurls line after line chastising the masses, wondering how the world got into such a bind. He points the finger at "misinformation," "misguided leaders," "apathetic hesitation," and "uneducated readers" on "The Worst Crime," taking his own share of responsibility by admitting "we are all charged with treason." On "Going Backwards," he fears a regression "to a caveman mentality." When Martin Gore joins him, they come to a dire conclusion: "We feel nothing inside/Because there's nothing inside." If the perpetually gloomy pair think affairs are this bad, perhaps there really is no hope (a decision Gore flirts with on "Fail" when he laments, "Our conscience is bankrupt/Oh, we're fucked"). Despite such desperation, the band doesn't allow for much time to be paralyzed by fear and complacency.
Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom. Some of Spirit manages to avoid politics or societal damage completely. "Move" nods back to the sleek, sexy grooves of "It’s No Good’"(used as the unlikely music to an unlikely pole-dancing scene in Friends, fact fans) with a slightly off-kilter rhythm. "Cover Me" is one of those redemptive songs that Depeche Mode are so good at, with that slow climb out of misery toward some sort of anguished optimism. The track includes an extended analogue middle section that feels like the coda from "Violator’s "Clean" expanded into a full song. It's reverential, but fresh at the same time. Some of this can be attributed to producer James Ford from Simian Mobile Disco, who manages to encourage a certain wonkiness and roughness to the modular synth sections where these have felt a little too formulaic on recent Depeche Mode albums.
Politics aside, it is easy to approach "Spirit" as nothing especially new in the almost forty year legacy of this band – especially when tracks like "Eternity" and "So Much Love" feel like a band covering themselves. But listen closely and something has altered; the bluesiness that seemed to dominate recent records is here transformed into a much more soulful sound, with Martin Gore’s guitar largely absent and Dave Gahan’s frontman swagger played down ever-so-slightly. One of the most interesting songs here, "No More", sounds like a late 80s pop song filtered through a distinctly Depeche lens, while ‘Poison Heart’ sounds like a Motown anthem pushed through cavernous distortion. These are tender, if bittersweet moments that offset the negativity elsewhere. Tickets
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