"Policy of Truth" is a song by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 7 May 1990 as the third single from their seventh studio album Violator (1990). It is the only Depeche Mode single to chart higher on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (number 15) than on the UK Singles Chart (number 16), and it became the band's second chart-topper on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Depeche Mode had met in early 1989 in a studio in Milan, Italy to record new material, following the successful releases of their previous album, Music for the Masses in 1987 and a live album 101 in early 1989. The band invited Mark Ellis, known professionally as Flood, to be co-producer of the new album. The sessions in Milan resulted in the song "Personal Jesus", which was released as a single in August 1989 before the rest of the album was completed. Following the Milan sessions, the band moved to Puk Recording Studios in Denmark to record the rest of their new material.
Sessions at Puk Recording Studios started in the middle of 1989. Following "World in My Eyes", the second track the band recorded at Puk was "Policy of Truth". At the band's request, songwriter Martin Gore had brought in relatively simple demos for their new songs. Flood explained that, for "Policy of Truth", they worked off of Gore's simple demo and soon "we got the guitar riff together and the way the drums were programmed". He elaborated that "we started off a little bit in the way that it had been on the demo, but in the end decided to try and experiment, and try and get a feeling that was driven not by rock and not by synths." This track, alongside "World in My Eyes", marked a shift in the band's attitude about how they approached the recording process for the rest of the songs on the album. According to band member and producer Alan Wilder, the band went through over 100 different variants of the lead riff, trying numerous instruments before settling on a slide guitar. The intro melody uses a loop of a single note to obtain a vibrato effect.
Gore later said of "Policy of Truth", "It has been one of my all time favourite songs that we've ever recorded. I really like the words to it and the whole concept of having to lie to keep up appearances â maybe it's better to do that. I just really like the whole subject matter of the song."
"Policy of Truth" was released as a single on 7 May 1990 by Mute Records in the UK. The single was released on a variety of commercial formats, including a 7" vinyl single with catalogue number 7BONG19, a 12" vinyl single (12BONG19), a limited edition 12" vinyl single (L12BONG19), and CD release (LCDBONG19). The timing of the releases of the vinyl singles were staggered throughout the month of May, starting with the 7" on 7 May and ending with the limited edition 12" three weeks later on 29 May. Promotional-only releases included a CD single (BONG19R) and a 12" single (P12BONG19). Notable contributors to the remixes were The KLF, François Kevorkian and Daniel Miller. The single's B-side was a track called "Kaleid".
On the album Violator, the song was slotted in as the second track on the second side, after "Enjoy the Silence" and before "Blue Dress".
The accompanying music video for "Policy of Truth" was directed by Anton Corbijn and appears on the 1990 video collection Strange Too, The Videos 86âÂÂ98 (1998) and Video Singles Collection (2016).
The song has appeared on several later Depeche Mode compilation or remix albums, including The Singles 86âÂÂ98 (1998) and Remixes 81âÂÂ04 (2004).
"Policy of Truth" has been performed on several of the band's tours starting in 1990, including the 1990 World Violation Tour, the 1993 Devotional Tour, the 1994 Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94, Touring the Angel in 2005âÂÂ06, the Tour of the Universe in 2009âÂÂ10, The Delta Machine Tour of 2013âÂÂ14, the 2017âÂÂ18 Global Spirit Tour, and the 2023âÂÂ24 Memento Mori World Tour.
Jon Wilde from Melody Maker wrote "Depeche has never sounded so cute as they did on their recent hit "Enjoy the Silence". Then again, they have rarely sounded quite as ineffectual as this, not since the days when they were busy composing jingles for the mix 'n' match department of Woolworths (Basildon)." Paul Lester, in a review of the album from the same magazine, described the song as "based around a sadistic, cynical electro-riff and oozes with genuine danger" and suggested it would be a potential single from the album months before it actually became one.
All songs were written by Martin L. Gore.
UK 7-inch and cassette single
UK 12-inch single
UK limited-edition 12-inch single
UK CD single
UK limited-edition CD single
US 12-inch single
US maxi-CD single
US maxi-cassette single
Japanese CD EP