Of all the songs on Dave Gahan's terrific solo album Paper Monsters, I Need You is perhaps the most Depeche Mode-like. The bouncy club rhythm and electronic warblings are the backdrop to a deceptively simple lyric - "You'll always need me more than I'll need you" - which by the end becomes a mantra, but fools no-one.
This is a song about admitting you can't always go it alone. Gahan, who famously survived a majorly self-destructive phase, shows that there can be light at the end of the tunnel. When it comes wrapped in such an elegant package we should all rejoice.
The B-sides are gorgeous too - Closer has a heavier rock feel with a touch of The Doors, and Breathe is an amazingly atmospheric idyll with sliding harmonies that suggest, bizarrely, both early Pink Floyd and Benjamin Britten.
more 