Depeche Mode’s “Wrong” Video Is Right Freaky

The video for Depeche Mode‘s new single, “Wrong,” only takes three minutes to be more nerve-wracking than most of the horror movies or Hollywood thrillers I see every year. The Justin Daughters-directed clip begins with a car careening backwards, running into things, its driver slumped over in the front seat. The driver comes to, and you see that he’s bound by duct tape, his face covered in a mask. It’s like the Bizarro World version of that first scene in North By Northwest where Roger Thornhill drunkenly careens down a twisty mountain road—only the difference here is that the lack of the “driver’s” control is palpable, and not played for laughs. You knew Cary Grant’s gonna make it out in the end. But this poor schlub?

I love the fact that these days Depeche Mode is perfectly happy being Depeche Mode. The band’s career had some missteps (Songs of Faith and Devotion Live), but there aren’t many out-and-out stinkers, even with Dave Gahan’s “troubles.” The band plays it pretty straight because their sound at this point is so defined and… comforting? “Comforting”‘s probably not the right word for a band whose stock in trade is the kind of menacing, shuffled synth pop evident in this song.

“Wrong” is the first single released under the “iTunes Pass” experiment heralding the release of Depeche Mode’s new LP, Sounds of the Universe. For $18.99, an interested party can sign up for a season pass of sorts to the album; “Wrong” and a remix are immediately downloadable with purchase, with videos and other goodies being part of the 15-week subscription. That includes the album, which streets April 21. It’s an interesting concept, and iTunes is a good content delivery system for this sorta thing—but the price still seems high to me, given there is no physical product involved. Wouldn’t it be great if every album purchase had this sort of extra content for the same price as a regular album? As a preorder experiment, it’s nice. However, I feel like the major labels get that consumers want extra content but still haven’t figured out that, in the end, it’s the price (economy), stupid.

Depeche Mode – Wrong [Dailymotion]