For four decades, Depeche Mode dominated electronic music, from the naïve melodies of 1981'sSpeak& Spell through to 2023'sMemento Mori. Through changing line-ups featuring Vince Clarke, Alan Wilder, and Andy Fletcher, singer Dave Gahan and main songwriter Martin Gore have been the band's core. Starting as teenagers and now in their 60s, they have survived worldwide fame, addictions to drink and drugs, and near-death experiences, while continuing to innovate as technology and the music business evolved.

An acclaimed live band, it is through their fifteen studio albums that Depeche Mode have best expressed themselves, from the industrial darkness ofBlack Celebration (1986) to their popular breakthroughs withMusic For the Masses (1987) andViolator (1990) and the emotional upheaval of 1993'sSongs of Faith and Devotion.

The band survived the chaotic fallout from that album and tour in the mid-1990s, with Gahan experiencing a near-fatal drug overdose, to regroup withUltra(1997). They continued their explorations of love, death, sex, and politics on acclaimed albumsPlaying the Angel (2005),Delta Machine (2013), andSpirit (2016). Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, proven survivors Depeche Mode have their story told here in song-by-song detail.

 Brian J. Robb is theNew York Times andSunday Times bestselling biographer of Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt. He has also written books on silent cinema, the films of Philip K. Dick, Wes Craven, Laurel and Hardy, the Star Wars movies, Superheroes, Gangsters, and Walt Disney, as well as science fiction television series Doctor Who and Star Trek. His illustrated books include anIllustrated History of Steampunk andMiddle-earth Envisioned, a guide to J.R.R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings(Winner, Best Book, Tolkien Society Awards). He is a Founding Editor of theSci-Fi Bulletin website and lives near Edinburgh, UK.