Depeche Mode have shared the opening track from their upcoming LP Memento Mori, “My Cosmos Is Mine.”
On the heels of the pulsing synth-pop first single, “Ghosts Again,” “My Cosmos Is Mine” is darker, slower, and more foreboding than its predecessor and kicks off the band’s first album without late keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher on a somber note.
“Don’t play with my world / Don’t mess with my mind / Don’t question my spacetime / My cosmos is mine,” Dave Gahan sings near-monotone on the atmospheric track. “Don’t toy with my heart / Don’t knock down my shrines / Don’t alter my headlines / My cosmos is mine.”
On the bridge, Gahan chants, “No war, no more, no fear, not here, no rain, no clouds… no final breaths, no senseless deaths.”
As Gahan previously told Rolling Stone of the Memento Mori in October, “To me, it’s got a cinematic quality to it. It takes you on a bit of a trip, starting in a place where we’re like, ‘This is my world,’ and ending with, ‘How do I make the most of it?’”
Memento Mori — Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album, their first since 2017’s Spirit as well as their first as a duo — arrives on March 24. A day before the album’s release, the band will embark on a brief North American trek before heading overseas to Europe for a summer-long tour. They’ll then return stateside for a more extensive trek in support of the LP.
“The direct translation [for ‘memento mori’] is, ‘Remember that you must die,’” Gahan told Rolling Stone of the LP. “A lot of the songs are going into that place of reminding ourselves that our time is fleeting, and you got to make the best of it — in a positive way.”
