DEPECHE MODE - IT’S NO GOOD

Released: March 31, 1997

Charted:  UK: #5   US: #38 

"It's No Good" a song released as the second single from the 1997 ninth studio album Ultra”. It was commercially successful, reaching number one in Denmark, Spain, Sweden and on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.

"It's No Good" carries a subtle synth melody, with lyrics that express emotions of unrequited love. The song emphasizes atmosphere, with suspenseful overtones and no huge crescendos to be found, but that didn’t stop this tune from shuffling its way up the charts.

The song is about a relationship gone wrong. In the song, the singer is trying to convince the person they are with that they should stick together, no matter how difficult it might be. The singer is trying to convince the person that although it might not feel like it right now, it will eventually work out and they will be together happily in the end. He also acknowledges that they can't keep the person from moving on, but they firmly believe that it won't be good without them. The song ultimately comes to the conclusion that the two of them belong together and that it's no good when they're apart.

Martin Gore said in 1998: "This is the one that sounded most like Depeche Mode on “Ultra”, but I still really like it, because it's again, just on that right side of commerciality. I think it's really good when we achieve that balance." Dave Gahan told MTV in 1997: "It was the most Depeche Mode sounding song that we've put out for a long time. The title itself is pretty funny, Depeche Mode's new single, 'It's No Good'. I like that."

Gore described having felt initially hesitant to record 'It's No Good' at the demo stage due to its apparent mainstream pop-like qualities in a 2016 interview: There's a friend of mine who lives in Australia, and I don't see her very often at all, but when I wrote that song, I thought that maybe it was a little on the "poppy" side. We always have this kind of like, line that we draw in the sand, and if a song crosses over too much, then it's like, "Ohhh, we're not sure, what are we gonna do?" If we do it, we're gonna have to really change it or something. So I didn't think, 'Oh, this is an amazing song, this is a great hit', I was like, "I'm not sure about it", and I actually remember playing it to her on a guitar, and she said: 'No Martin, that's it. You gotta do that. That's a hit'.”