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May 24, 2023 By Mark Redfern

Depeche Mode released a new album, Memento Mori, in March via Columbia Records. Now they have shared a video for the album’s “Wagging Tongue.” The Sacred Egg directed the video, with creative direction by Anton Corbijn. Watch it below.

A press release says the video is “set in a cinematic universe where rules governing interpersonal communication are strict and surreal.” And adds that it tells the story of “a young couple from a small remote village who join their neighbors for a confrontational ritual—one that draws in participants from all walks of life: lawyers, businessmen, priests, policemen, even Martin Gore and Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode.”

Previously Depeche Mode shared Memento Mori’s first single, “Ghosts Again,” via an Anton Corbijn-directed video. “Ghosts Again” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Then they were the musical guests on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in which they performed “Ghosts Again” and their classic single “Personal Jesus.” They also announced a whole lot of tour dates

Then they shared the album’s second single, the atmospheric and ghostly slow-burner “My Cosmos Is Mine,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Memento Mori is the first Depeche Mode album to be released since the death of the band’s Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, who passed away in May 2022 at age 60. It was announced last October.

Fletcher did work on the album before his death. Memento Mori is the band’s 15th studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s Spirit. The Memento Mori tour will be the band’s first tour in five years and the band’s 19th tour overall. With Fletcher’s passing, that makes the official lineup for Depeche Mode as Dave Gahan and Martin Gore.

Gore had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time. After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.”

Gahan added: “Fletch would have loved this album. We’re really looking forward to sharing it with you soon.”

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