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"Ghosts Again" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released on 9 February 2023 as the lead single from their fifteenth studio album, Memento Mori. It reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Sales charts, something that the band hadn't accomplished since their 2006 single "Martyr", later peaking at number 14 in November 2023.
Background
The song marks the first single release since the death of co-founder and keyboardist Andy Fletcher in May 2022. To Dave Gahan, the song "captures this perfect balance of melancholy and joy", while Martin Gore added that the song has "such an upbeat feel to it" and how rare it is for the band to record a song that "I just don't get sick of listening to".
Composition
In light of the death of Fletcher, the "reflective, mid-tempo" synth-pop song sees the two members commenting on motifs of death: the fragility of life and the possibility of an afterlife. Throughout the song, the duo keeps reminding the listener that every life will eventually turn into "ghosts again". However, it also gives the idea of being reunited with one another in some form, possibly as "ghosts".
"Ghosts Again" reached number 20 in the UK Singles Sales Chart upon release, later becoming a sleeper hit and peaking at number 14 on the same chart in November 2023. It has gained both commercial and critical acclaim.
Atwood Magazine praised the song, saying, "The aching stark beauty of the song and video is one to be unfurled within your own existence in pondering the spheres of life and death while seizing the fleeting time that life offers us. In this new single, we witness Depeche Mode writing and creating music that continues to set them into their own stratosphere of music that is like no other—an unparalleled band that always enables us to consider our own existence with greater forms of clarity and insight on the joy and melancholy of the human condition. 'Ghosts Again' is a sublime reveal by Depeche Mode, with Gore and Gahan aspiring to new heights of their creative powers in creating a song of perfection for the ages."
Music magazine Clash was positive on the composition stating, "Taken from the LP, new song 'Ghosts Again' pivots between light and shade, the imposing crunch of the electronics lit up by some distant form of hope. Expertly done, it finds Depeche Mode drawing on their decades of experiences, while also embracing new ideas... Challenging and emotive, it's also a pop song, with the English legends refusing to stray too far from their roots."
Damien Morris of The Guardian praised the song, saying "Gore's say-what-you-see lyrics are always best on the essentials of life—sex and death—and 'Ghosts Again' is the pair's best single in aeons, a singalong meditation on mortality that's concise and powerful."
Music video
The music video was filmed in New York City and released on 9 February 2023. It was directed by longtime visual collaborator Anton Corbijn. The story focuses on Gore and Gahan reenacting the chess game with Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1958) on an urban rooftop. It alternates with scenes of the two performing in a cemetery.
"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 10. týden 2023 in the date selector. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
