The frontman Dave Gahan, too, thinks that it was the hardest album. According to NME, in 2020 Gahan stated feeling ‘so drained from the Depeche Mode tour for ‘Spirit’ that he might never make music again.’ He also added: “For me, that was one of the toughest albums we ever made. I didn’t really want to do that again. I remember thinking, ‘I have to find why I’m somehow the antagonist’. I was the person messing things up, and that was never my intention. It was f*cking too much like hard work, and I didn’t join a band to do hard work!” Depeche Mode producer James Ford recently revealed the album he found the most difficult to work on. He stated:
“The most difficult was probably the [2017] Depeche Mode album ‘Spirit,’ because everyone was in a terrible place, the mood was strange, people weren’t getting on, and a lot of it felt like marriage guidance counselling to keep the whole thing from falling off the rails and the band splitting up.” Until this year, the producer has not worked with Depeche Mode since 2017. Ford also produced the band’s most recent album, ‘Memento Mori’. Ford was hesitant to continue with the record when Andy Fletcher died, but Martin Gore and Dave Gahan thought it was ‘the best thing to do.’ The album was published in March, and the title was not intended to honor Fletcher, who was involved in the record’s composition.
