Depeche Mode - Only When I Lose Myself

What this video is

Released in September 1998 as a non-album single exclusively created for The Singles 86>98, 'Only When I Lose Myself' represents a deliberate artistic statement at a career crossroads. Depeche Mode had survived internal near-collapse and Dave Gahan's personal crises during the Ultra era (1997), and this single served as a reflective, consolidating cultural moment rather than a forward thrust. Brian Griffin's…

Why it matters

A pivotal late-period Depeche Mode artifact demonstrating the band's evolution from synth-pop pioneers to emotionally mature electronic auteurs. The video's car-crash ghost narrative represents a high-water mark of art-directed dark storytelling in British electronic music video production,…

The director

Brian James Griffin (13 April 1948 – 27 January 2024) was a British photographer, filmmaker, and music video director born in Birmingham. Named 'photographer of the decade' by The Guardian in 1989. He photographed Depeche Mode extensively and created cover…