Depeche Mode fans will soon get the chance to revisit the atmosphere of the band’s Memento Mori tour from home. Netflix announced on Monday that it will begin streaming Depeche Mode: M, a combined concert film and documentary centered on the group, starting Friday, Jan. 9.
The project blends live performance footage with documentary storytelling and is directed by Fernando Frias. It captures Depeche Mode during three nights at Mexico City’s Foro Sol in September 2023. Beyond the music itself, the film delves into Mexico’s cultural relationship with death and how that perspective reflects themes found throughout the band’s catalog, particularly following the loss of keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher. The Memento Mori tour marked Depeche Mode’s first run of shows without Fletcher, who died in 2022 from an aortic dissection.
According to a statement released by the band in April, Depeche Mode: M offers “a window into the band’s timeless global influence, and a powerful tribute to the unbreakable connection between music, tradition and the human spirit.” The film includes narration from actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, along with interviews featuring fans, fellow musicians, and cultural voices.
The film made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in June before receiving a theatrical release in October, followed by a live album issued around the same period. Prior to its Netflix arrival, fans had the option to rent or purchase the film digitally.
“Melancholy has long been an important part of the Depeche Mode experience… they’ve specialized in vulnerability. That openness, a sense of surrender, is the essential ingredient to Depeche Mode now,” wrote Rolling Stone in its review of the album upon release. “Acknowledging mortality defines much of Memento Mori, but it never feels heavy-handed or even all that sullen. Some of the tracks even sound upbeat.”
