| Where's the Revolution | |
| Cover: | Depeche Mode, Where's the Revolution, Feb 2017.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Depeche Mode |
| Album: | Spirit |
| B-Side: | Various remixes |
| Recorded: | 2016 |
| Genre: | Synth-pop |
| Length: | 4:59 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | James Ford |
| Prev Title: | Should Be Higher |
| Prev Year: | 2013 |
| Next Title: | Going Backwards |
| Next Year: | 2017 |
"Where's the Revolution" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode from their fourteenth studio album Spirit. It was released as the album's first single on 3 February 2017, on the 20th anniversary of "Barrel of a Gun". The cover art was designed by Anton Corbijn. The single was premiered on the Polish radio Trójka at midnight on 3 February.[1] [2] This single is notable for being the first Depeche Mode lead single to not chart on the UK Singles Chart, a trend that would continue with Spirits following singles.[3]
It was one of the first songs written for the album—according to Martin Gore, it was written at least two years before the release of album. The song is written from the perspective of Martin's view of the issues that were occurring in the world at the time. He discusses in an interview that "there was a sense of things going wrong and the world wasn't in a great place." He further goes, "The Syrian crisis had been dragging on for years... I live in America, and around that time there were blacks getting shot on a kind of weekly basis by the police and rioting, you know—the whole Middle East, is just a big mess."[4] [5]
In many interviews, the band have also stated that producer James Ford taught himself to play Gore's pedal steel guitar within one day while in the studio, and thus this guitar was used in "Where's the Revolution" and other tracks on the album.
The song was premiered audio-only on YouTube. A dystopian-themed black-and-white music video was released a week later, on 9 February. The music video, as well as the animated visuals with flying flags and marching boots for the audio-only video, were directed and designed by Anton Corbijn.[6]
The song is available as digital download from Amazon, HMV, Google Play Music and iTunes. It is also available as a 5-track CD single, as a double vinyl (containing 9 remixes, released on 28 April 2017) and as an exclusive 7″ vinyl promotional release in the April edition of the German music magazine Musik Express, with a live version of a Delta Machine song "Should Be Higher" as B-side.[7]
| Peak position | |
| Dutch Single Tip (MegaCharts)[8] | 26 |
|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[9] | 22 |
| Italy (Musica e dischi)[10] | 17 |
| Slovenia (SloTop50)[11] | 44 |
| Position | ||
| Hungary (Single Top 40)[12] | 52 |
|---|