Playing the Angel

Playing the Angel
Depeche Mode studio album
Publication (s)	October 14, 2005
Label (s)	Mute Records
Genre (s)	Synth-Pop , Industrial Rock , Synth Rock , Dance Rock , Alternative Rock
Title (number)	12
running time	52:23
occupation	Dave Gahan Martin Gore Andrew Fletcher Christian Eigner Peter Gordeno
production	Ben Hillier , Depeche Mode
Studio (s)	Sound Design (Santa Barbara), Stratosphere Sound Studios (New York), Whitfield Street Studios (London)
chronology Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel Sounds of the Universe (2009)
Single releases September 30, 2005 Precious December 6, 2005 A Pain That I'm Used To March 6, 2006 Suffer Well June 2, 2006 John the Revelator / Lilian

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Playing the Angel   DE 1 10/31/2005 (37 weeks)   AT 1 10/30/2005 (27 weeks)   CH 1 10/30/2005 (20 weeks)   UK 6th October 29, 2005 (4 weeks)   US 7th 05/11/2005 (16 weeks)

Singles

Precious   DE 2 10/17/2005 (25 weeks)   AT 9 10/16/2005 (21 weeks)   CH 12 10/16/2005 (24 weeks)   UK 4th 10/15/2005 (6 weeks)   US 71 October 29, 2005 (3 weeks) A Pain That I'm Used To   DE 11 12/26/2005 (11 weeks)   AT 24 December 25, 2005 (5 weeks)   CH 23 December 25, 2005 (14 weeks)   UK 15th 12/24/2005 (4 weeks) Suffer Well   DE 13 04/10/2006 (9 weeks)   AT 67 04/07/2006 (1 week)   CH 66 04/16/2006 (6 weeks)   UK 12 04/08/2006 (3 weeks) John the Revelator / Lilian   DE 16 06/19/2006 (9 weeks)   CH 70 06/25/2006 (3 weeks)   UK 18th 06/17/2006 (3 weeks)

Playing the Angel is Depeche Mode's eleventh studio album . For the first time in the history of the band made it with Suffer Well , I Want It All and Nothing's Impossible, three songs written by Dave Gahan on the album. The name of the album comes from the song The Darkest Star . There it says in the first stanza : "Oh you sad one / Playing the Angel / Isn't so easy where you're from".

The album was followed by the global tour Touring the Angel and, in September 2006, the concert recording Touring the Angel: Live in Milan .

style

With this album, the band did not reinvent itself, but went old ways. The musical style is based on various earlier albums, from Black Celebration to Violator . The entire album is pretty dark, the lyrics pessimistic . In contrast to its predecessor, Exciter , which is characterized by predominantly digital sounds, Playing the Angel has increasingly focused on rough, analog sounds with distortion and overdrive .

The subtitles "pain and suffering in various tempos" ("pain and suffering in various tempos ") on the back of the cover and "pain and suffering in various countries" ("pain and suffering in various countries") on fan articles for the tour the motto of the album, but on the other hand play self-ironically on the image of the band.

Track list

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

The songs Suffer Well , I Want It All and Nothing's Impossible were written by Dave Gahan with Christian Eigner and Andrew Philpott, all other songs are from Martin Gore's pen. Macro and Damaged People sings Gore, the rest of the songs Gahan. Introspectre is an instrumental piece .

Single releases

1. Precious - September 30, 2005
2. A Pain That I'm Used To - December 6, 2005
3. Suffer Well - March 6, 2006
4. John the Revelator / Lilian - June 2, 2006

The videos for Precious and A Pain That I'm Used To were shot by Uwe Flade .

Goldfrapp contributed a remix to the single A Pain That I'm Used To .

Suffer Well is Dave Gahan's first, and since Just Can't Get Enough (1981), the band's first single not written by Martin Gore. The song was nominated for a Grammy in 2007.

After Blasphemous Rumors / Somebody, John the Revelator / Lilian is the band's second double A-side . The song John the Revelator is inspired by an eponymous American Work Song . Together with Martyr, Lilian is the only single release that the band has not yet played live.

The setlist Touring the Angel 2005-2006

First and second tour section:

1. I Want It All (Instrumental Intro)
2. A Pain That I'm Used To
3. John the Revelator
4. A question of time
5. Policy of Truth
6. Precious
7. Walking in My Shoes
8. Suffer Well
9. • Damaged people
   • Macro
10. Home
11. I want it all
12. The Sinner in Me
13. I feel you
14. Behind the wheel
15. World in My Eyes
16. Personal Jesus
17. Enjoy the silence
18. • Somebody
    • A Question of Lust
    • Shake the disease
    • Leave in silence
19. Just Can't Get Enough
20. Everything Counts
21. Never Let Me Down Again
22. Goodnight Lovers

Third and fourth tour section:

1. I Want It All (Instrumental Intro)
2. A Pain That I'm Used To
3. A question of time
4. Suffer Well
5. Precious
6. Walking in My Shoes
7. Stripped
8. Home
9. • It doesn't matter two
   • Judas
   • Blue dress
10. In your room
11. • Nothing's Impossible
    • The Sinner in Me
12. John the Revelator (was not played on all gigs)
13. I feel you
14. Behind the wheel
15. World in My Eyes
16. Personal Jesus
17. Enjoy the silence
18. • Shake the disease
    • Leave in silence
    • It doesn't matter two
    • Somebody
19. • Photographic
    • Just Can't Get Enough
20. Never Let Me Down Again

Trivia

• The cover of the album, designed by Anton Corbijn , shows the character Mr. Feathers .
• The title Suffer Well was recorded for the computer game The Sims 2: Open for Business in the fictional language Simlish and offered as a free download. In addition, a video was created in game graphics.
• As a special feature for the fans, Depeche Mode recorded all the concerts of the second section of Touring the Angel (April to August 2006) with Live Here Now and offered them as a limited CD package or download ( Recording the Angel ).

Web links

• Playing the Angel , Precious , A Pain That I'm Used To , Suffer Well and John the Revelator / Lilian on the official band homepage
• Criticism on laut.de
• Criticism on plattentests.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Data and Charts
2. ↑ musicline.de: Depeche Mode in the German single charts ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Austriancharts.at: Depeche Mode in the Austrian charts
4. ↑ hitparade.ch: Depeche Mode in the Swiss charts
5. ↑ Playing the Angel in the Official UK Charts (English)
6. ↑ billboard.com: Depeche Mode on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart
7. ↑ musicline.de: Depeche Mode in the German album charts ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ billboard.com: Depeche Mode on the US Billboard 200 album charts
9. ↑ Depeche Mode: Live Here Now CDs ( Memento from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )