Depeche Mode, Ghosts Again: the lyrics & their meaning

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Ghosts Again is a song released by Depeche Mode in 2023, the first single anticipating their album Memento Mori. It represents the first music officially released after the death of their keyboardist Andy Fletcher in 2022: Depeche Mode are now composed only of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, two survivors dealing with death in their new album. Let’s analyze the meaning of the lyrics and how it fits the latest phase of their career. You will also find the complete lyrics at the end.

You can watch the official video of Ghosts Again below.

Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again (Official Video)

Dealing with death: Ghosts Again, the lyrics and their meaning

Ghosts Again is a song about death and mortality. In the lyrics, Depeche Mode reflects on how life looks temporary, and weightless, when we think about death and how it can suddenly put everything into a different perspective. In the video, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan reenact the historical chess game with the Death from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, a symbol of the impossible challenge for a human to win over death.

The lyrics of Ghosts Again are short and highly symbolic. They describe how things in life can suddenly disappear, break, and vanish. Reflecting on our mortal nature, we realize that one day we will be ghosts (again), dissolving our material consistency.

Wasted feelings
Broken meanings
Time is fleeting
See what it brings

Heaven’s dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts, my friends
We know we’ll be ghosts again

It’s a series of thoughts that don’t really bring us in any specific direction. If any, they invite us to be less attached to the material things of life: they will all be gone, and they can disappear in a single moment if death comes to visit us. Even faith and love can’t help: inevitably, life will turn into a ghost one day.

Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again

The meaning of the lyrics in Ghosts Again, therefore, represents Depeche Mode’s first take on life and death, after Andy Fletcher left the world. Memento Mori, the title of their new album, is a Latin expression meaning “remember you must die,” revealing that death will be a heavy topic of their music in 2023. Let’s wait for more songs and words in the upcoming months.

Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave

The complete lyrics

Wasted feelings
Broken meanings
Time is fleeting
See what it brings

Hellos, goodbyes, a thousand midnights
Lost in sleepless lullabies

Heaven’s dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts, my friends
We know we’ll be ghosts again

Sundays shining
Silver linings
Weightless hours
All my flowers

A place to hide the tears that you cried
Everybody says goodbye

Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again

Heaven’s dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts, my friends
We know we’ll be ghosts again

Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we’ll be ghosts again