Walking in My Shoes

"Walking in My Shoes" is a song by British electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released on 26 April 1993 as the second single from their eighth studio album, Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993). The song reached number 14 on the UK Singles Chart and matched the success of the previous single "I Feel You" on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it reached one. The song is about redemption, forgiveness and understanding mistakes that people are doing.

The 7-inch version of "Walking in My Shoes" is not the same as the one in the Songs of Faith and Devotion album. The sound has been made more noisy and dirty, especially the drums in the verse, and the intro has been shortened. When performed live, elements of the "Grungy Gonads" mix are used in an extended intro and throughout the song.

The B-side is "My Joy", the only exclusive B-side from the Songs of Faith and Devotion album, and is a rock track in the vein of "I Feel You".

The song was cited by then-member Alan Wilder to be his favourite song from the album together with "In Your Room".

Martin Gore in Bong issue no. 37, 1998: "'If I really had to stick my neck out and choose my all time favourite song, it would probably be 'Walking In My Shoes'. I think it has a great melody – the words and the subject matter really complement each other perfectly. The instrumentation is also interesting.'"Q&A from Alan Wilder's Shunt:"Xavi Martí : I'm fascinated with the darker-pretty-magical-elegant-emotive-cleanest-perfect sound of the DM song 'Walking in My Shoes'. What was the process you used to construct this song?""A : It was constructed using an unusual method for us, i.e. jamming together. Martin played the guitar, I played bass and we ran a rhythm machine - this was just to get the basic feel for the track - and after much trial and error, the chorus bass line and guitar pattern fell into place. From that point onwards, Flood and I began to construct the various drum loops, the string arrangements, the main riff (which combined a piano and harpsichord through a distorted guitar amp) and all the other bits and pieces. By contrast, the bass line for the verses was much more problematic and in fact didn't get written until the very last moment."Alan Wilder said in the May 1993 issue of Keyboard magazine:"'The piano part at the beginning of 'Walking in my Shoes' was put through a guitar processor, which distorted it and made it more edgy. We added a harpsichord sample on top of that.'"

Release and commercial reception
The single was released on 26 April 1993 in the UK and on 27 April of the same year in the United States; "Walking in My Shoes" failed to enter list of the UK top ten and the American top 40, nevertheless the song became a top ten hit in some countries of Continental Europe, and became a recurring song during the live performances of the band since 1993. The song peaked number 14 on the UK Singles Chart and number 69 on the US Billboard Hot 100, however, it peaked number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Track chart.

U2 lead singer Bono listed the song on his "60 Songs That Saved My Life" playlist.

The single was featured during the opening credits of episode 9 of season 2 of USA Network series Mr. Robot, entitled "eps2.7_init_5.fve".

Critical reception
Leesa Daniels from Smash Hits gave the song three out of five, writing, "The great thing about the 'Mode is their songs always have a chorus that's easy to sing along to. That's the case here, although for a change it does take a few listens to get the hang of it. The song is very atmospheric in a black-and-white-grainy-film for the video kind of way. Lovely."

Music video
The music video for "Walking in My Shoes" was directed by Anton Corbijn. At the beginning of the second verse, there's a shot of Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Alan Wilder with naked women on their laps. This was removed in the MTV version in the US and replaced with footage of the three members standing still, alone, from earlier in the video. The uncut version is on The Videos 86-98, Devotional, The Best Of, Volume 1 and Video Singles Collection DVDs.