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Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel Audio CD

A fair review of the Depeche Mode "Playing the Angel" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Depeche Mode reviews here, or go back to the Depeche Mode tabs.

Depeche Mode Band: Depeche Mode
Title: Playing the Angel
Rating:
Release Date: 2005-10-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: A Pain That I’m Used To 2: John The Revelator 3: Suffer Well 4: The Sinner In Me 5: Precious 6: Macro 7: I Want It All 8: Nothing’s Impossible 9: Introspectre 10: Damaged People 11: Lilian 12: The Darkest Star

Damm good album.
Happily, DM is still one of those bands that I never tire of, and this album is awesome. I am a huge DM fan so it's hard to dissapoint me. A perfect blend of rock and synthpop. . . great lyrics, great beats, great presentation. Love this band!.


This is not their darkest album
The darkest album by Depeche Mode BY FAR is Black Celebration, a musical tour de force by a group that knew what they were doing. and to call it that is simply a huge overstatement. This album is just so so. Neither great, neither good, neither unlistenable. It' just kind of "there". it has the big emotional hit that sounds like Depeche Mode still has it (Precious), but that's it. I loved almost everything DM did up to their so so album Ultra. In retrospect, I even liked that album more than I thought I did. But Exciter (just awful) and this thing. . . . just not doing it for me. I want DM to be great again. They deserve it. They have been around for THIRTY YEARS (which shows how long I've been a fan). And I want to like the new album Sounds of the Universe and give it a try, but from what I can tell by the singles and the samples, I might be dissapointed. I think I'll go into my time capsule now, close the door, and listen to Violater, Music for the Masses, and 101.


This album can do no wrong...seriously
Normally I only like a couple of songs from albums (and in some cases bands altogether) but this album is just one hit out of the park after another. I've just finished my first listen of the entire album, and I am freaking speechless. I'm amazed that a band that's been around this long still has the mmph to put out addictive, intoxicating, TRULY STELLAR music like this. There's a DARK TONE to a lot of the songs that very few people have dared to even attempt, and they pull it off beautifully.
I can't throw out a couple of favorites because they're ALL incredible for one reason or another. There's NOT A SOUR NOTE in all 12 tracks. I don't just recommend this to DM fans, I recommend this to anyone who likes music with an 80s vibe.


Easily as good as Violator.
If you like the non-single tracks on any of their albums from "Some Great Reward" onward then you'll probably love this. If you're the kind of fan that mostly likes "Enjoy the Silence", "Policy of Truth", and some of Depeche Mode's other singles then you may be disappointed.

I decided it didn't make sense to just compare this to Depeche Mode's other albums (what worked decades ago doesn't work today, you know?) It made more sense to think of this ablum in the context of the music that was released in the same era as PTA. I thought that some of the slower tracks sounded like if you mixed the mood of the more somber tracks of "Violator" or "Ultra" with the kind of experimentation found in Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief", e. g. some DM fans complained that this album sounded over-produced but if you like Radiohead at all then you'll like what they did here. The faster paced tracks were more like "Black Celebration" meets The Bravery.

Actually, the reason I decided not to compare this to, say, "Violator", was because this album is a complete departure from their previous albums (at least I thought so). Is that a bad thing? Of course not, this is a fantastic album in it's own right (in my opinion, it's as strong an album as "Violator", in fact it was better in some ways). The only tracks I wasn't crazy about were "The Sinner In Me" (it was okay but not great) and "Damaged People" (horrible, horrible song).

Some of the reviews state that this was "classic" Depeche Mode, but what does that mean exactly? "Classic" could mean that PTA has the same dance hall, techno-pop sounding tunes found in "Some Great Reward" or it could mean that this album is in some way a "Violator: Part Deux". Obviously, Depeche Mode's sound has evolved over time and to call this album "classic" can be misleading. I just don't want someone that thinks "Black Celebration" is "classic" DM to expect PTA to be similar and be disappointed.

Not to harp on this, but you would be doing yourself a disservice if you listened to this once and decided to donate it to charity just because you were expecting to hear "Violator". You might need to listen to this a couple of times and keep an open mind but this really is a great album. It's just funny how some people expect a band to put out Violator clones for fifteen years and still remain relevant.


this shouldnt happen
i abouslutly love these guys. okay depeche mode is one of my favorite bands ever. but whats shocking is that theyve been to gether for um. . . 28 years!!!!!!!!and they made this! this is an industrial album either way you look at it. sinner in me,darkest star,pain im used to. timeless effort. the only reason it got 4 stars is because i wasnt comletly in love with it. but never the less its amazing buy it if you find it.


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