Going Backwards

"Going Backwards" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode from their fourteenth studio album Spirit. It was released as the album's second single on 23 June 2017. The cover art was designed by Anton Corbijn. A physical CD and vinyl release was released on 15 September 2017. A live video was released on 22 June 2017.

Background
Martin Gore said in an interview with Amazon Music Germany "an album starts taking shape, for me, really, when you have about four songs together, and we had gone down a cynical path. And I thought, 'Okay well, maybe I just gotta go with this.'"

The theme of the song is the idea is about the regression of society as well as technology's role in the regression, but Gore also believed that "new technologies would bring the world together—the world would be united by them. We were all enthusiastic about the Arab Spring, when people started organizing themselves with social media and fought for their freedom. But then everything went wrong: the Middle East seems to be falling apart."

Depeche Mode

 * Dave Gahan – lead vocals
 * Martin Gore – guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
 * Andy Fletcher – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals

Additional musicians

 * James Ford – drums
 * Kurt Uenala, Matrixxman – programming