Depeche Mode to hit the road next year

Readying a new album and stadium tour for next year, Depeche Mode feels free. The group, which helped bring electronic music into the mainstream with a flurry of hits, finally is setting its own pace.

Spirit, the first Depeche Mode studio album since 2013, will come out in the first half of 2017, and a 32-city, 21-country tour across Europe starts in May.

The shows together could pull in more than 1.5 million fans, even before dates in North America and Latin America expected later next year. But the group is relaxed.