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Playing the Angel

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Untitled

Playing the Angel is the eleventh full-length album by Depeche Mode and was released 17 October 2005. It was supported by the Touring the Angel tour.

Overview

The album is the first of Depeche Mode's to feature Dave Gahan as co-writer: three of the tracks ("Suffer Well", "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible") had their lyrics written by the singer, while Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott wrote the music on these. Gahan is the lead singer on all songs except for the instrumental "Introspectre", and Gore-sung tracks "Macro" and "Damaged People". Gahan also sings backing vocals on "Macro", which was the first time he had sung backing on one of Gore's songs since Violator's The Sweetest Perfection.

The album has been called a more organic record for using more analog synths than digital ones. In addition, most of the soundscapes presented are harsher and groovier than the more mellow Exciter.

In mid-July 2005, the unfinished video for "Precious" was leaked online. It is believed to have been leaked through the website of the production team that helped make the video.

Tracks recorded during the Playing the Angel sessions that did not make the album include "Martyr", which was originally planned to be the lead single but was eventually deemed too poppy for the album and saved for their new The Best Of, Volume 1 album. Other songs include "Everything," which evolved into "I Want It All," and "Free," which ended up on the "Precious" single and the Japanese version of Playing the Angel.

The album was released as a standard CD and a deluxe SACD/DVD version (CD/DVD version in the U.S.) which includes the album on hybrid multi-channel SACD as the main disc and a bonus DVD featuring an exclusive studio performance of "Clean" (from Violator), the video for "Precious," a photo gallery and a 5.1 mix of the album. There's also a documentary on the making of the album. All ten of the earlier Depeche Mode albums were re-released in similar format to Playing the Angel, a CD/SACD hybrid (in the US simply a remastered CD) with a DVD featuring a 5.1 mix of each album and a documentary, though Playing the Angel's documentary is far less extensive and also shorter than the classic ones.

The iTunes deluxe edition of the album has several bonuses, including another "bare" version of a Violator track — "Waiting for the Night", and the music video for "Precious". People who placed the album on pre-order were eligible to participate in a ticket pre-sale for most Touring the Angel concerts - the first time such an offer was made by iTunes and Ticketmaster.

In the UK the album debuted at #6, and in the U.S. it debuted at #7. Both are improvements on the band's previous effort, Exciter, which charted at #9 and #8, respectively. Since its release, Playing the Angel has sold over three million copies [1] worldwide, with U.S. sales as of February 2007 at 412,000 units, just short of gold certification.

As of April 2007 Playing the Angel also sold over 500,000 copies in Germany, with the result to get Double-Platinum there and 190,000 copies in the UK and got Gold there. It also went gold in the Canada, for shipments of 50,000 units.

With sales of 3,5 mio. copies, Playing the Angel is Mute Records' best selling album in the 2000s.

Depeche Mode's preceding album Exciter sold about 3,4 mio. copies. In contrast to this, Violator was with sales of about 8,2 mio. copies, the best selling Mute Records LP in the 1990s.

Track listing

All songs written by Martin Gore except where noted.

  1. "A Pain That I'm Used To" – 4:11
  2. "John the Revelator" – 3:42
  3. "Suffer Well" (David Gahan, Christian Eigner, Andrew Phillpott) – 3:49
  4. "The Sinner in Me" – 4:56
  5. "Precious" – 4:10
  6. "Macro" – 4:03
  7. "I Want It All" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott) – 6:09
  8. "Nothing's Impossible" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott) – 4:21
  9. "Introspectre" – 1:42
  10. "Damaged People" – 3:29
  11. "Lilian" – 4:49
  12. "The Darkest Star" – 6:55

Bonus tracks

  • "Clean" (Bare) (on the DVD version of the album) – 3:44
  • "Free" (B-side to UK LCD BONG 35 Precious CD, on the Japanese version of the album) – 5:11
  • "Newborn" (B-Side on the "A Pain That I'm Used To" single)
  • "Waiting for the Night" (Bare) (iTunes Pre-Order Track)

Singles

  1. "Precious" (03 October 2005)
  2. "A Pain That I'm Used To" (09 December 2005)
  3. "Suffer Well" (20 March 2006)
  4. "John the Revelator / Lilian" (4 June 2006) Double A-Side

Reaction

Playing the Angel was welcomed by fans as a return to the form for Depeche Mode. Many felt that the band had finally found itself after losing Alan Wilder in 1995.

Reviews have been mostly strong for Playing the Angel. E! Online and Entertainment Weekly gave the album high scores. Indie music website Pitchfork Media gave the album a positive review but criticized its lack of innovation. There are some negative reviews however - Rolling Stone magazine, historically unfriendly to Depeche Mode albums, gave the album a 2.5 out of 5, lower than what Exciter received.

The album was #20 on E! Online's top 20 albums of 2005 list and #68 on Woxy 97.7's top 97 albums of 2005.

Miscellanea

  • The name "Playing the Angel" is taken from a lyric in the closing song "The Darkest Star". ("Oh you sad one, playing the angel. Isn't so easy where you're from.") It is the fourth Depeche Mode album to get its name from a lyric in its album, the other three being Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward and Black Celebration, whose titles come from "Pipeline," "Lie to Me," and "Black Celebration" respectively. However, even excluding "The Darkest Star", the word "angel" appears in the songs "John the Revelator," "Suffer Well," and "Precious." As such, it is easy to see that there was a recurring theme in the album that likely helped decide the title.
  • By mistake, the Playing the Angel booklet mistakenly credits Dave McCracken as the piano player in "I Want It All." However, there is no piano in "I Want It All." He really should be credited for the piano in "The Darkest Star."
  • The symbol for the album is a little creature called "Tubby Goth" (by the band) and "Mister Feathers" (by the label, the webmaster and the fans.)
  • In late March 2006, it was reported on depechemode.com that Robert Smith of the Cure was asking for a cease production of the album due to the symbol, claiming that the "Tubby Goth" creature resembled the cover of the 1986 reissue of Boys Don't Cry. This, however, turned out to be an April Fool's joke.
  • "Precious" and "I Want It All" were both played in their entirety in two Smallville episodes, both in the fifth season. "Precious" was played at the end of "Arrival", and "I Want It All" at the end of "Fanatic." "Precious" was also featured on CSI, while "A Pain That I'm Used To" was featured on Bones.
  • A parody of "John the Revelator", entitled "Martin the Divorcer" was released on the internet, and features lyrics about Martin Gore's divorce from lingerie designer and model, Suzanne Boisvert, in January 2006.
  • "Suffer Well" was featured, with vocals re-recorded in Simlish, in The Sims 2: Open for Business. A machinima video for the song was also made.[2]
  • The album is considered by numerous fans to be poorly mastered [3] [4], relying on heavy compression to intentionally and artificially boost the output. Due to the format's inherent characteristics, vinyl versions are unaffected by the poor mastering of the CD versions.

External links

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