Dave Gahan - Imposter

140-gram vinyl

Lead singer and frontman for Depeche Mode tackles first covers album

A story of songs featuring "Lilac Wine," "Always On My Mind," and "Metal Heart"

Imposter is the third collaborative studio album by English singer-songwriter Dave Gahan and electronica producer Soulsavers. On this, his first covers album, Gahan tackles everything from standards to Cat Power.

Gahan is no stranger to singing other people's songs. Although for most of his career, those songs all came from the same source. As the lead singer and frontman for seminal synth-rock outfit Depeche Mode, Gahan spent his first flush of fame as an interpreter of sorts, using his plaintive, sensual baritone to turn songs written by bandmate Martin Gore into deathless goth-pop anthems, inspiring acts as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, the Deftones and Coldplay. But aside from a few one-offs, he'd never attempted a full album of covers until now.

Imposter, set for release tomorrow, is Gahan's third full-length collaboration with the Soulsavers, led by multi-instrumentalist Rich Machin. It's also, somewhat ironically, the first project that the outfit recorded live together in studio, with 2012's "The Light the Dead See" and 2015's "Angels & Ghosts" both produced remotely. The collection of songs is impressively eclectic — stretching all the way from old standards like "Smile" and "Lilac Wine," to recognizable Neil Young and Bob Dylan tunes, to deeper cuts from the likes of PJ Harvey, Cat Power and the late Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard — and manages to place Gahan's voice in strikingly different contexts than his Depeche Mode heyday.

Side A

1. The Dark End Of The Street

2. Strange Religion

3. Lilac Wine

4. I Held My Baby Last Night

5. A Man Needs A Maid

6. Metal Heart

Side B

1. Shut Me Down

2. Where My Love Lies Asleep

3. Smile

4. The Desperate Kingdom Of Love

5. Not Dark Yet

6. Always On My Mind

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