Dave Gahan’s favourite PJ Harvey song: “She sings with such honesty”
Depeche Mode singer and frontman Dave Gahan has always lent the pioneering electronic group a distinctly soulful presence, his baritone croon and powerful vocals, coupled with Martin Gore’s principal songwriting, an essential ingredient of the Basildon outfit right from their Speak & Spell days.
Dave Gahan’s soulful reach reached its pinnacle on 1993’s ‘Condemnation,’ the stirring gospel track from Songs of Faith and Devotion that even managed to sway the UK music press’ most dedicated naysayers with its testament to the band’s impressive songcraft. Later singles like ‘Peace’ and ‘Heaven’ further revealed Gahan’s creative ambitions, delivered with such heartfelt conviction that they could easily be mistaken for his own songwriting contributions in the band’s later years.
Needing a new foil for his love of blues and pop, Gahan joined forces with production duo Soulsavers after having toured together in 2009 and released The Light the Dead See and Angels & Ghosts, swapping synths for late-night ballads and embracing his inner Nick Cave or Scott Walker. For 2021’s Imposter, Gahan offered a collection of much-loved songs from an intriguing array of artists, including Bob Dylan, Rowland S Howard, and even Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 theme to Modern Times ‘Smile’.
One selection that received significant critical and promotional attention was the cover of PJ Harvey’s ‘The Desperate Kingdom of Love’. A quiet, poetically introspective piece from 2004’s Uh Huh Her, Harvey shared insight into the album’s creative break from the more polished Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea during an interview with Mojo for the record’s release: “I don’t think ‘tender’ is a word that could be applied to anything I’ve written before, but that’s how I feel about this album and I’m really pleased about it,” she said. “Some of the songs are very gentle, very loving; with others I had a lot of fun in the words I used and the way I sang them.”
Harvey’s embrace of a more gentle approach to songwriting struck a chord with Gahan at the time. In 2005, he revealed to Q what the song meant to him: “This is like an old Johnny Cash song. I tend to believe everything PJ Harvey says—she sings with such honesty. I’m drawn to her music, even when it’s pretty hard to listen to. You can hear the damage in her voice, which is probably what makes her so special, right?”
For Gahan’s rendition, he resurrects ‘Condemnation’s gospel spirit and injects the track’s sparse, haunting beauty with a full-throated, organ rock number filled with passion and evident love, going big but never drifting off to grandiose.
It’s a superb take which carries you with a sincere affection for the song, full of soaring emotional lift and cathartic, sermon-like spirituality which Gahan and Soulsavers so deftly have excavated from Harvey’s austere original.
Gahan gave further insight into his love for the track on Imposter’s tour programme: “This is another love song, but it’s from a woman’s perspective, which I think brings a certain energy to it that I can just feel. I think the openness and honesty in it is incredibly powerful.”
