You Move

"You Move" is the fifth track on Spirit.

Lyrics

Dave's Take

"It was a weird song. Martin had sent me this rhythm track that was really odd, and he said, 'I don't know what to do with this, maybe you can have a go at doing something to it.' So I was baffled at first, but it almost felt like he had sent me an incredible challenge, because it has such a weird time signature and weird sounds. And there wasn't a lot of chord structure to it that I could really latch onto. So I let it just simmer and I left it alone, and I was like, 'I don't know, this is like a jigsaw puzzle.' But then one night I was in bed and I suddenly remembered this rhythm playing that Martin had sent me, and I suddenly got this hookline into my head, 'I like the way you move'. And there was something about what he had sent me too. I just couldn't get it out of my head, so I got out and kind of threw something into my iPhone. And the next day I went into my studio and I kind of formulated my idea into a melody and this lyric came out. I don't really know why. Sometimes music is like that; you respond to something, it's call and response, somehow. But I thought it's really interesting, us doing a little collaboration too. I hope that in the future we can do more of that. I'm certainly open to the idea of Martin sending me things. He's a great songwriter, and if he comes with a finished song and gives it to me, I think there's plenty of room for us to maybe explore it too. I'd quite like that, that's definitely a taste of what could come."¹

My Take

The odd, syncopated beats here make this sound very much like a modern, hip-hop song. And both Dave and Martin's vocals sound heavily processed here, and Dave especially sounds like he's singing far away through a megaphone or something. Lyrically, this song has echoes of "In Chains" from two albums prior, but it also has an embittered tone about the other person. It basically seems to describe the experience of a one-night stand or lack of a better description, the relationship between "fuck buddies." Of course, the more innocent interpretation could be that it merely describes the dynamic between two dance partners, but this is Depeche Mode we're talking about here! I was also somewhat surprised to read that this song was touted as the "first" true songwriting collaboration between Dave and Martin because they actually already had done one before- namely "Long Time Lie" during the Delta Machine era. But maybe that song wasn't counted because it wasn't included on the album proper? I don't know.

Music Video

There is no music video for this song.

References

1. "Backstage mit Depeche Mode", Amazon (April 28, 2017)