I’ve been a die hard Dim Zach fan for years. His gentle yet effective take on reworking classics is second to none, always with a sparkling finish and some fantastic synth work in there. This reworking of Depeche Mode’s Useless goes off in a synth filled sonic universe that is both inventive and yet remains in the same universe as DM.
In the aftermath of near collapse, when the wires were exposed and the machinery barely sputtered forward, Depeche Mode came back with Ultra—an album forged from the wreckage of addiction, departure, and the slow erosion of certainty. “Useless,” the fourth single from that 1997 record, wasn’t just another dark synth-rock track from a band long accustomed to shadows. It was a bitter dispatch from a broken faith, a scorched letter to the ones who disappointed, and maybe to the selves who allowed it.
Written by Martin Gore and sung with tired resignation by Dave Gahan—who’d barely survived a heroin overdose the year prior—“Useless” plays like a sneer worn down by disappointment. There’s no grand plea here, no redemption arc, just the hollowing echo of someone who once believed and no longer does. The guitars grind, industrial and cynical, as if processed through rusted gears, while Tim Simenon’s production surrounds the song in a thick, suffocating atmosphere.
Gone by then was Alan Wilder, the meticulous sonic architect who had helped shape the band’s golden era. Left in his absence was a more organic grit—less precision, more blood. “Useless” doesn’t aim for anthemic heights. It trudges forward, dragging its own disillusionment like a sack of wet concrete. And yet, somehow, it finds its own gravity.
The single version, remixed by Alan Moulder, put a tighter sheen on the edges, while Kruder & Dorfmeister turned it inside out with a remix that stretched the song’s wounded soul across downtempo dub. But at its core, “Useless” remained a statement of exhausted anger. Not a scream, but a shake of the head. Not an ending, but the sound of someone still walking, even if they no longer know why.
In their long career of mining darkness, “Useless” didn’t shine—it corroded, quietly and thoroughly. And maybe that made it all the more truthful.
Check out Dim’s rework of Liza’s Pet Shop Boys classic, Losing My Mind, which donned Discoholics Anonymous 5:
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