Ultra is the ninth studio album by the English
electronic music band
Depeche Mode, released on 14 April 1997 by
Mute Records. The album was the band's first since the departure of
Alan Wilder, who had left the band in 1995 having become disillusioned with life in Depeche Mode. Wilder's departure and lead singer
Dave Gahan's drug problems, which culminated in a near-fatal overdose, had caused many people to speculate that the band was finished. This is their first album as a trio since 1982's
A Broken Frame.