Depeche Mode has survived the demise of the synth-pop movement the band helped launch in the early 1980s, weathered the onslaught of grunge and punk, and laughed in the face of nu-metal upstarts like Korn and Limp Bizkit.
Trends come and go, but nothing can stop the British electronic band from selling records — 50 million all told in the last 20 years, and more on the way with the recent release of “Exciter” (Reprise), the trio’s 10th studio release. Even a mid-’90s bout with heroin that left singer David Gahan depressed and suicidal, and the departure of founding member Alan Wilder, only momentarily slowed the Depeche express.
The fallout of that period is assessed on “Exciter,” an album that combines Depeche Mode’s electro-acoustic pop melodies with a more brooding tone and a heavier emphasis on melodramatic ballads.
“Hey you pale and sickly child/You’re death and living reconciled/Been walking home a crooked mile,” Gahan sings on the album’s first single, “Dream On.” The song, written by Gahan’s bandmate Martin Gore, likens love to co-dependency, a topic with which the singer is intimately familiar after struggling to break the grip of his drug addiction.
On another song, Gore takes a rare vocal turn to continue the theme: “Comatose, almost/You’ve got me dreaming/Slipping in/And sliding out/Life has no meaning.”
On one level, the album could be heard as a series of coded letters from Gore to his once deeply troubled bandmate. Gahan, 39, doesn’t see it that way, but acknowledges that he could relate to the love-is-a-drug scenarios described in the songs.
“We both have very similar struggles,” Gahan says of his longtime collaborator. “When I was singing some of these songs, I was coming from a different place than Martin was writing the songs from, because I’m very much in love at the moment, and enjoying being part of my family, and learning how to be a father and a husband.
“I’m not struggling with the idea of love and being chained to one person–that’s always been Martin’s torture. I can relate to what he’s writing about, though, and I can identify purely on the addiction level. The root of all addiction is some kind of codependency.”
The band was in such a fragile state a few years ago that it refrained from touring behind its previous studio album, “Ultra,” released in 1997. When Depeche Mode finally ventured back on the road in late 1998, for the first time in five years, Gahan was a more subdued presence.
Addiction had taken its toll, notes ex-bandmate Wilder, who describes the singer in Steve Malins’ “Depeche Mode: A Biography” (Cooper Square Press) as a shell of his former self. “The whole basis of his treatment is that you have to come to terms with the fact that you’re not special in any way. So he’s concentrating on humility all the time and that takes his edge away.”
Gahan agrees to an extant. “I thought I had to compromise a lot of my personality to get by, day to day,” the singer says. “But I felt I was in a safer place. Before that, I would overload on everything. The center of attention was something that I was very accustomed to. In the studio, on tour, to be always at the center of whatever prank was going on, playing the joker, always trying to lighten things up when the going got rough.
“It takes a lot of energy, and I got tired of playing that role. But I found over the last couple of years that isn’t the case anymore. I’ve become a lot more accepting of who I am, and through that have been able to produce a lot better work and be a nicer person to be around.”
Depeche Mode’s other core members — Gore and Andrew Fletcher — also have mellowed, Gahan says. He says the 1993-94 tour behind “Songs of Faith and Devotion,” which prompted Wilder’s departure, nearly broke the band, and everyone has pulled back from the brink.
“The other guys still have a drink now and again, but it’s nowhere near the ridiculous excess it got to,” he says. “For everybody’s sake, I hope it will never get to that stage again. To be honest, I don’t think we’re able to do that anymore.
“Elton John once said that partying every night when you’re 20 is fine, it’s almost expected; when you’re 25, it gets tougher; at 30 it gets silly, and by the time you’re 40 it just looks embarrassing. I understand what he was talking about now.”
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Depeche Mode headlines a show that starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Tweeter Center, 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park. $45-$59.50. 312-559-1212. Poe opens.
Hear Greg Kot on “Sound Opinions” at 10 p.m. every Tuesday on WXRT (93.1) FM.
