Let’s get this out of the way: Imposter isn’t a covers album. Or at least not one in the “Spotify Wrapped-core” sense where a pop star phones in a tired Velvet Underground tribute from their bathroom. No, Imposter is Dave Gahan’s personal excavation site—twelve songs that feel more like torn-out diary pages than curated setlists. “Someone said, ‘Did you pick the songs or did the songs pick you?’” he recalls. “And the truth is, they picked me.”
Cut live with longtime collaborators Soul Savers just before the pandemic, Imposter is sequenced like a film—one that starts with a slow unraveling and ends with a half-smile and tear. “I knew right away Dark End of the Street was going to open the album,” Gahan says. “Then it was like, how’s this movie gonna end?” His choice? Always On My Mind. But don’t call it a happy ending. “It’s the Hollywood ending,” he laughs. “The one that makes you cry because you know it’s too late.”
The real turning point is his take on Bob Dylan’s Not Dark Yet, plucked from Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, an album Gahan reveres as “Dylan saying, ‘I’m still here, and I’m still good at this.’” Gahan connects with the song in the same way Dylan fans connect with everything: through an apocalyptic sense of timing. “I could only have sung that song after 40 years of doing this,” he says. “It takes some balls… but apparently Dylan’s camp gave it the seal of approval.” He pauses, grinning. “That was quite the honor.”
Sequencing matters here. Dylan’s darkness bleeds into Always On My Mind, turning it into something bleaker and more desperate than Elvis or Willie Nelson ever intended. “It’s the storm before the calm, or maybe the other way around,” Gahan says. “That last song is me asking for forgiveness.” The album plays like a confessional booth disguised as a jukebox, and Gahan’s voice—a veteran of synth gospel and stadium gloom—has never sounded more human.
And that’s where the name Imposter starts to feel like a trick. “I thought I was playing a character,” Gahan admits. “But making this record… it’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to showing who I really am.” There’s no sonic filter, no Depeche Mode machinery to hide behind. Just Dave, channeling Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Mark Lanegan, Neil Young, and yes, Elvis. “Is that your Elvis voice I’m hearing on Held My Baby Last Night?” I ask. “That’s definitely the imposter,” he chuckles—though you get the sense that he’s still working out which voice is his and which is the act.
When he covers A Man Needs a Maid, one of Neil Young’s most misunderstood songs, Gahan doesn’t shy away from the mess. “Being a man, being married, having a family… and not knowing what the fuck I’m doing?” he says. “That song is my confession. I need help. And I’m lucky—I get that a lot.” It’s one of several moments on the record where Gahan leans into the vulnerability rather than the mystique. He even adjusts some lyrics, flipping PJ Harvey’s “girl” to “boy,” and adding a whispered line in Metal Heart: “It’s not me, it’s the woman by my side.” He’s not just singing about redemption—he’s actively crediting the support systems that keep him from burning out.
And then there's the story about playing along to Exile on Main St. in his bedroom, pretending he’s in the Stones. “There were moments when I was in the Stones,” he says, still riding the high. “You just don’t think about it. That’s the trouble with singing or playing guitar—too much thought ruins it.”
Which brings us full circle. Imposter is not a covers album. It’s an album by a man who has spent decades fronting one of the most influential bands in the world, finally figuring out how to be alone in a room with his own voice. “I get these moments more now,” Gahan says. “Moments where I feel like I’m having a good time. Like when we made this record.”
Then he pauses, and you can practically hear the fade-out. “Life is really fucking good.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
