Deftones singer Chino Moreno has long considered Depeche Mode one of his favorite bands — if not his favorite. Over the years, he and Deftones have covered several songs by the synth-wave pioneers, including lending their rendition of "To Have and to Hold" to the DM tribute album, For the Masses, back in the late Nineties. Moreno also fronts his own synth-wave band, Crosses (†††), whose music is directly inspired by the electronic melancholy that his idols specialize in.
"It's darker-themed and there is a lot of love- and relationship-type things, but it's not happy music," Moreno told Rolling Stone of why Depeche Mode's songs resonate so deeply with him. "You never really know what they're singing about, they're never really just so open and out front about it. When you listened to them, you sort of ran with the mood of it and you connected it to wherever you were in your life at the time."
So for someone who has such a profound connection with Depeche Mode, Moreno had some trouble picking his single favorite song in their entire catalog. "That's a hard question — I have a lot [of favorites]," Moreno tells us.
Eventually, he was able to land on one DM song that he considers his all-time fave. See his selection and reasoning below.
"Lie to Me"
Probably my favorite record from Depeche Mode is Some Great Reward, so I would say maybe the song "Lie to Me" [is my favorite]. The mood ... A lot of music that I'm drawn to is sort of nostalgic to me, as well. So I want to say that record probably came out when I was in eighth grade or something — those are the times where you're seeing life through a different lens. Your first crush. Your first experience coming of age. And I feel like that record brings me right back to that moment.
