It’s today: Depeche Mode present new album at MEO Arena in sold-out concert – Music

“Memento Mori”, Depeche Mode’s 15th album, released in March 2023, sets the tone for the British group’s return to Portuguese stages.

Successor to “Spirit” (2017), the album is the band’s first as a duo, composed of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, following the death of Andy Fletcher at the age of 60, in 2022, victim of a rare vascular disease.

Depeche Mode return to Lisbon seven years after performing at the NOS Alive festival. The concert at MEO Arena should start at 9:30 pm, following the first part performed by Australian Suzie Stapleton, at 8:30 pm. Doors open at 7pm.

The performance is part of the “Memento Mori Tour”, which has more than 100 dates, from the USA to Europe, and is on its way to being one of Depeche Mode’s biggest tours ever.

In addition to songs from the new album, the concert is expected to include several of the group’s classics, such as “Just Can’t Get Enough”, “Personal Jesus” or “I Feel Good”, songs that have been part of the lineup of the most recent shows.

Fletcher’s death “solidified the title of the album in a way”, Martin Gore told AFP in 2022. “We thought it was a good name. After his death, it was completely appropriate”, he explained. The album’s title “may seem very morbid, but it can also be seen in a very positive way, in the sense of living each day to the fullest”, he added.

“‘Fletch’ was the one who arrived and said: ‘Martin, don’t you want to do this or that?’. Suddenly, he’s no longer here. And now Martin and I have to talk,” Gahan told the French newspaper Le Figaro .

“During the preparation of the album, Martin said to me: ‘It’s strange, I feel like I’m meeting an older brother again that I haven’t seen in a long time,” recalled Gahan.

Andrew Fletcher

” data-title=”Andrew Fletcher – It’s today: Depeche Mode present new album at MEO Arena in sold-out concert – SAPO Mag”>

“We had to communicate again and I believe that marked the album”, adds the main vocalist, who, despite internal disputes, has always been the main interpreter of Gore’s lyrics and songs.

Some compositions on “Memento Mori” express the strange relationship within the group, such as “My Favorite Stranger”, written by Gore and Richard Butler, leader of the Psychedelic Furs.

Fletcher died before the album, recorded in California, was completed. The album was produced by James Ford, with additional production by Marta Salogni, during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The album’s 12 tracks feature a vast range of environments, feelings and textures, from its more foreboding beginning to its more resolved end — from paranoia and obsession, to catharsis and joy, touching on a myriad of points in between. states of mind”, describes the publisher in a statement.