Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...a longer than usual gap, Playing the Angel was finally released and unlike previous albums, has tracks written by both Gore and Gahan and seems to benefit from it. Whilst not every track is a cracker, the album as a whole has shown a return to form almost matching their best work to date in my opinion, Songs of Faith and Devotion. The vocal duties are also more balanced. Traditionally each album has one track sung by Gore but this time there are ...
...provided by Gore have been heavily influenced and informed by his marriage breakdown and indicate a man in turmoil, wracked with guilt, especially regarding the damage being done to his young daughter. This provided the inspiration for the first single, Precious whose lyrics almost inevitably leave me less that dry eyed as he described wanting to take the pain and suffering from the innocent child caught up in the crossfire. The album starts with ...

ilaskey 07.03.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...The first time I heard Playing The Angel, it sounded like nothing I had been expecting and came as a total shock compared to the scaled down production evident on their previous two albums, Exciter and Ultra. Sticking with it, I listened to the album all the way through 2 or 3 times and slowly came round to it's heavy, more industrial sound, and it's distorted beats and dark lyrics. I now consider this album to be up there with previous highlights ...
...This album benefits from the alleged competition between Martin Gore and Dave Gahan, what with Dave taking some of the songwriting duties for the first time on a Depeche Mode album, and his 3 tracks (Suffer Well, I Want It All and Nothing's Impossible) are up there with the better Martin Gore tracks (Precious, John the Revelator, The Darkest Star). Album opens with Gore penned "A Pain That I'm Used To" containing probably the loudest introduction ...

andrewjfallon 26.04.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...however pleased to say that Playing the Angel is for the most part a strong album and is probably the most consistent Depeche Mode album since Violator. The album starts strongly with the semi-industrial sounding single A Pain That I'm Used To and in fact the first 5 tracks are almost flawless, with a decent variation in pace too. Given their strength it's not surprising that 4 of these first 5 songs were released as singles, although if I had to ...
...single, released before the album came out) sounds a little bit "Depeche Mode by numbers" to me. This is the first time Dave Gahan has contributed to the songwriting on a DM album and his 3 songs are amongst the best on the disc (Suffer Well, Nothing's Impossible and I Want it All). By contrast I found the 2 tracks featuring Martin Gore on lead vocals a huge disappointment, on both Macro and Damaged People he sounds like he is simply trying too ...

weaveab 20.03.2009 (22.04.2009) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...throughout their 25-year career. Playing the Angel successfull combines the band's synth-pop roots with guitar/drum rock beats to produce the strongest Depeche Mode album since 1994's Songs of Faith and Devotion and many of the tracks seem reassuringly familiar on first hearing. The opening grinding screech of A Pain That I'm Used To immediately makes you sit up and take notice; John The Revelator is a rocked-up gospel number reminiscent of Personal ...

GabyMolly 16.04.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...the first time i heard Playing the Angel I loved it! Its packed full of dark electric sounds and excellent guitar playing. John the revelator is a particularly good catchy song as well as lilian and the newly released single precious. Towards the end of the album some songs start to sound similar and perhaps this is due to some of the electric sounds used. Apart from that the album is great. Its definately one of their more mature albums and I would ...

inja111 19.10.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode

...dance band aswell. Playing the angel shows they are so much more! It`s diverse, dark but not depressing, kind of bittersweet, futuristic but in a good way, melodic, profound, raw on one side, soft on the other, overall it rocks! In my opinion this is one of their best cd`s. For me it`s peaks are A pain that I`m used to and Nothing`s impossible (Dave Gahan`s masterpiece if you ask me) but I could actually write down all the titles as I love them ...

mkmvmg 03.04.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Playing The Angel - Depeche Mode