Review of the music documentary 'Depeche Mode: M'

When I saw about a month back that a music documentary on the British band Depeche Mode was soon to be released on Netflix, I was highly intrigued. I have been familiar with the music of Depeche Mode for decades, but what intrigued me about the documentary was its setting. For it focuses on just one part of the band’s extensive tour that had taken them to a great number of cities across Europe and North America in 2023-4. The documentary is exclusively concerned with three sold-out shows in Mexico City that, in total, were attended by 200,000 fans in the grand stadium of Foro Sol.

I wondered what the special connection was between the British band and the huge Latin American megalopolis. So the day "Depeche Mode: M," directed by Fernando Frias de la Parra, was released on Netflix, I eagerly watched the documentary to learn the answer. In the documentary, one fan explains the enduring popularity of the band:

"I think Depeche Mode belongs to a different time. Depeche Mode is tattooed in the heart of three of four generations, and that lets them connect with new generations. What I think is hard for a band nowadays is to last as long as Depeche did."

Nonetheless, similar sentiments could probably have been found in any other of the places in which the band performed on their tour. Also, whilst the trisyllabic chant of “Depeche Mode” given by the crowd sounds a lot like the proud national chant of “Mexico,” this could not be the particular reason for the special connection between the band and Mexico City either. However, it is soon clear in the documentary that it is the latest album by Depeche Mode, which the tour was promoting, that explains the link.

The name of that album is Memento Mori. For those who do not recognize this Latin expression, it means, in the translation given by the documentary “Remember You Must Die.” Depeche Mode have never been a bubbly band by a long shot, but from the documentary, it is understood that the obsession with death reflected by the new album is inspired by the loss of one of the founding band members