Nouvelle Vague – A Date With Depeche Mode

Nouvelle Vague's A Date With Depeche Mode arrives more than 20 years after the group's cult debut first made a calling card out of recasting post-punk and new wave songs in softer, more intimate forms. Here they devote a full album to Depeche Mode, turning 13 songs from that catalogue into warm, organic performances recorded between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. It is a neat fit for a band whose whole identity has long rested on revealing how sturdy these songs are underneath their original production.

Rather than mimic Depeche Mode's electronics, Nouvelle Vague strip the material back and let the melodies and harmonic detail carry the emotion. The arrangements draw on bossa nova, jazz, French pop and Latin rhythms, with acoustic instrumentation and subtle percussion giving familiar songs a different kind of weight. That approach comes through especially clearly on versions of Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus and Stripped, which keep their character while sounding newly conversational and close-up.

The guest cast is a real part of the album's appeal. Skye Edwards of Morcheeba, Beth Hirsch, Flavia Coelho, Mélanie Pain, Phoebe Killdeer and Fredrika Stahl are among the singers matched to individual songs, giving each performance its own personality without breaking the album's coherence. For anyone who likes Nouvelle Vague's understated style, this feels less like a novelty detour than a focused return to the idea they have always done best.