Before We Drown

"Before We Drown" is the eighth track on Memento Mori.

Lyrics

Dave's Take

Dave talks about this song in this video starting at the 16:32 mark:

My Take

This song feels like a long-lost Violator track! I know that every Depeche Mode song essentially feels like a journey, but boy, does this one especially take you on one! This song has a bit of a hip-hop beat and retro-sounding synths very similar to the Delta Machine bonus tracks. But unlike those which were mostly a miss for me, this track just blows me away and takes me to another level. I absolutely love the part where the music starts to fall away and quiet down on the first couple of "we drown" refrains as if there is tension building up. Then all of a sudden, that tension is released and the music blasts all of your senses at once culminating in a very satisfying release.

The words are very interesting to me, as well. As Dave is wont to do in his songs, he makes references to the sea ("standing on the shore" and "drowning") and an interpersonal relationship ("you and I"), using the sea as a metaphor for a malevolent force of sorts that can potentially destroy the relationship. The words, "first we stand up, then we fall down" conjures up images of standing knee-deep in rough ocean waters as the strong waves make it very difficult to stay upright. Therefore, the need to "move forward before we drown" is as important a warning as ever in the literal standing-in-the-ocean scenario as well as in a relationship with another person that is being bombarded by conflict.

Music Video

The black-and-white video opens to ocean waves rolling in onto a beach. This goes on for a while before a lone man is seen walking on the beach. He is wearing a bathrobe. He begins to slowly approach the ocean and as he gets further into the water, the waves lap at his feet and legs. He continues to walk forward, seemingly undeterred by the strong waves coming at him and he gets deeper and deeper into the water until the waves completely overtake him. A moment later, he is seen lying on his back in the water, presumably dead. Day turns to twilight and twilight turns to night as the lifeless man slowly floats back onto the shore.

My Take

I have to say that an ocean scene like this is exactly what I picture every time I listen to this song. There is an overall feeling of emptiness, vastness, and desolation which really comes across in this Anton Corbijn-directed video, though the waves also gives me a sense of peace and calm. The lone man walking towards the sea is reminiscent of a similar scene from the video for "Cover Me" where Dave, dressed up as an astronaut, is seen walking towards the ocean there. Unlike that one where we don't see whether Dave goes into the water or not, we do see the man in this video walk straight into it. He doesn't seem to going for a leisurely swim as he is not wearing swimming attire; instead he is wearing a bathrobe which might indicate that he came straight from the privacy of his home and now, is further extending his private moment by engaging in this ritual with no one else seemingly around to witness. As he walks further into the water, he seems to simply surrender to the ever-increasing depth and power of the waves and doesn't appear to try to fight them or stay afloat. When he is seen moments later floating on his back with his eyes closed, it can only be inferred that he meant for this to happen- to "off" himself by letting the sea take him. The fact that day changes to night without any movement seen from him hammers home the idea that he is no longer alive.

P.S. I must correct myself after the fact that the garment the lone man is wearing in the video actually appears to be a coat rather than a bathrobe. This does not change my view or interpretation of the video in any way, but I just thought it was rather funny that I initially thought it looked like a bathrobe!