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.”
Frontman Dave Gahan agrees that it was the most difficult album. According to NME, Gahan revealed in 2020 that he was’so fatigued by the Depeche Mode tour for ‘Spirit’ that he may never compose music again.’ He also stated: “That was one of the most difficult albums I’ve ever worked on.” That was something I didn’t want to do again. ‘I have to figure out why I’m the adversary,’ I recalled thinking. I was the one who messed everything up, which was never my objective.
It felt a lot like hard labor, and I didn’t join a band to do hard work!” 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. You can hear ‘Spirit’ down below.