Playing the Angel is the eleventh album by English Alternative Dance band Depeche Mode, released on 13 October, 2005 through Mute Records in the UK and in conjunction with Sire Records & Reprise Records in the US. A departure from the relatively mellow Trip Hop soundscapes of Exciter before it, the album sees the band return to the aggressive industrial grunge style of Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra, the end result of the group once again being faced with personal crisis. Specifically, chief songwriter Martin Gore had gone through an acrimonious divorce as a result of more than a decade of battling alcoholism, with the music and lyrics on the album vividly characterizing his state of mind at the time.
Sound-wise, the band also makes greater use of analog synthesizers to an extent not seen since the early 80's, deviating from the heavy use of digital synths and samplers that had previously characterized their Gothic Dark Wave sound. Furthermore, the album sees David Gahan step into a songwriting role for the first time, specifically providing the lyrics for "Suffer Well", "I Want It All"note and "Nothing's Impossible". The end result of all of this is an album that is both familiar and new, returning to previously tread ground while planting new seeds into it.
Upon release, Playing the Angel was a considerable commercial success for the band, debuting and peaking at No. 6 on the UK Albums chart and No. 7 on the Billboard 200, topping Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and topping the national albums charts in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the collective European Union. The album would also become the second-best-selling dance/electronic album of 2005 in the US and the 5th best-selling album of 2006 in the same category, later being certified triple-platinum in Russia, double-platinum in Germany, platinum in France, Hungary, Poland, and Spain, and gold in the UK, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Mexico, Portugal, and Sweden.
Playing the Angel was supported by four singles: "Precious", "A Pain That I'm Used To", "Suffer Well", and "John the Revelator"/"Lilian", the band's first double-A-side since "Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody" 21 years prior.
During the tour of Playing the Angel, aptly named Touring the Angel, Dave Gahan wrote various other songs, and also had some extras left over from the album's recording sessions, which inspired him to produce Hourglass, released two years later in 2007, with the same duo that assisted him with writing in this album, that being Andrew Phillpott and Christian Eigner.
Tracklist
- "A Pain That I'm Used To" (4:11)
- "John the Revelator" (3:42)
- "Suffer Well" (3:49)
- "The Sinner in Me" (4:56)
- "Precious" (4:10)
- "Macro" (4:03)
- "I Want It All" (6:09)
- "Nothing's Impossible" (4:21)
- "Introspectre" (1:42)
- "Damaged People" (3:29)
- "Lilian" (4:45)
- "The Darkest Star" (6:55)
We are damaged people troped together:
- Accentuate the Negative: The album is far angstier than its predecessor, with the back cover even sporting the tagline "pain and suffering in various tempos."
- Album Title Drop: In "The Darkest Star":Oh you sad one
Playing the angel
Isn't so easy where you're from - Angst: This album's central theme is pain, suffering and sin (hence the names of the three of the four starting tracks). The tour, while officially named Touring the Angel, had an informal title Pain and Suffering in Various Countries, a play on the album's tagline.
- Answer Song: "John the Revelator" acts as a direct response to the Gospel Music hymn of the same name, depicting the titular Biblical figure as a drugged-out, dogmatic liar rather than a prophet of God. The Depeche Mode song even quotes the hymn's repeated line "Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator," modifying it as "Well, who's that shoutin'? John the Revelator."
- Biblical Motifs: "John the Revelator" focuses on imagery from the Book of Revelation and specifically its author, the end-of-first-century John that gives the song its name.
- Bird People: Mr. Feathers, the album's mascot, is technically one of these, being a humanoid made of feathers. In which case, he's more like "a person made of birds".
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: What the album title likely refers to, that being someone who pretends to be good to manipulate others. In the context of "The Darkest Star", which uses the album title in its lyrics, this refers to someone who fails to hide their manipulation.
- Central Theme: This album deals with pain, suffering and sin, influenced by Martin Gore's state of mind in the wake of his divorce.
- Consummate Liar: The titular "John the Revelator" in the aforementioned song is noted to be a chronic liar, apparently having lied 343 times (7x7x7) hyperbolically.Seven lies multiplied by seven
Multiplied by seven again - Epic Rocking: Both "I Want It All" and "The Darkest Star" surpass the 6-minute mark, with the latter just barely falling short of seven minutes.
- Fading into the Next Song: "I Want It All" hard-cuts into "Nothing's Impossible".
- Go Mad from the Isolation: "Free", the B-Side of "Precious", appears to be about the protagonist losing their sense of morality upon being eternally and figuratively bound by 'chains'.
- Gospel Music: Gore said that "John The Revelator" was influenced by this genre.
- Hell Is That Noise:
- "A Pain That I'm Used To", the starting track, begins with loud, dissonant screeching sounds that reappear throughout the song at several points. The song itself isn't any less intense, however, as it features an overwhelming amount of sadness and anger in conjunction with Dave and Martin's melancholy vocal tones.
- "The Sinner In Me" features an alarm-like wailing synth in the verses, and in the post-verses, it features a grating repeating squishing synth sound, with echoing bells backing it up.
- Certain elements of "I Want It All", such as the synth string chord shifting downwards in pitch just before the chorus, as well as the whistle-like distorted synth in the second pre-chorus, and, notably, as the entire instrumental ending sequence. The chorus as a whole seems to fit this, too, sounding hopeless and empty in itself.
- "Lilian" features a creepy guitar melody on top of pounding electronic drums in the main chorus segment, which serves as the main drive of the chorus instrumentally.
- Hope Springs Eternal: The final verse line in "A Pain That I'm Used To" appears to address the narrator's brief moment of hope, despite the entire song being about the inability to endure pain.I can't conceal what I feel, what I know is real
No mistaking the faking, I care
With a prayer in the air, I will leave it there
On a note full of hope not despair - Instrumentals: "Introspectre".
- Longest Song Goes Last: The nearly 7-minute "The Darkest Star" both closes the album and outpaces every other song on it.
- Loudness War: Playing the Angel actually maxes out in places, used more egregiously at the very start of "A Pain That I'm Used To", which is the first song on the album. The heavy indulgence in this trope remains a common point of criticism surrounding the album, and the lack of it on the LP version led to it becoming the most coveted vinyl release in the band's discography.
- Love at First Sight: The chorus of "Nothing's Impossible", penned by Dave Gahan, establishes that the song is mostly about the concept of "love at first sight". This is in spite of the lyrics discussing a complicated partner who fails to communicate what they think of the narrator, making this seem like a case of false hope.Even the stars look brighter tonight
Nothing's impossible
I still believe in love at first sight
Nothing's impossible - Macho Masochism: On "Lilian".Pain and misery always hit the spot
Knowing you can't lose what you haven't got - Miniscule Rocking: "Introspectre" clocks in at only 1:42, the shortest track on the album.
- My God, What Have I Done?: "Precious" includes the line "my God, what have we done to you?" in its first verse.
- Mythology Gag: The loud electronic screeches that open "A Pain That I'm Used To"— and by extent the album— hark back to the loud tire screech that opens "I Feel You" and, by extension, Songs of Faith and Devotion. The same noise also acts as a nod to "The Dead of Night" from Exciter.
- New Sound Album: Ben Hillier replaces Mark Bell, and the sound is full of call backs to their 20th century work (especially the 90's stuff), but with the anger and harshness toned down. More specifically, the band returns to the industrial rock style of Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra, but mix it in with the analog synth sounds of Speak & Spell and A Broken Frame (acting as a prelude to the even more analog-heavy Sounds of the Universe) and the dance-rock style of Violator. In essence, this is an amalgamation of everything Depeche Mode had ever done up to this point.
- One-Woman Song: "Lilian"
- One-Word Title: "Precious", "Macro", "Lilian"
- Punny Title: "Introspectre" derives its name from a portmanteau of "introspective" and "spectre," both of which aptly describe the tone of the instrumental piece.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The album as a whole was heavily influenced by the collapse of Martin Gore's marriage; this is most prominent on "Precious", which Gore wrote for his kids as a way of helping them cope with the divorce.
- Religion Rant Song: "John the Revelator" is a "Hate the Leaders" variant, criticizing Christian establishments' abuse of scripture for their own ends and describing it as having stained people's perceptions of Judaism and Islam (which share parts of their scripture with Christianity) in the fallout.
- Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: On the album itself, though it is definitely the most wistful and to some degree a Power Ballad, "Precious" is also the most upbeat and least fear-inducing song on the album, somewhat falling under the idea that Hope Springs Eternal like "A Pain That I'm Used To" seems to briefly invoke. This is the only song on the album that is like this, with every other song being hypnotically disturbing and angry than sad and emotional.
- The Scapegoat: The woman in "Lilian", written by the divorced Martin Gore at the time, is blamed for 'ripping apart [the narrator's] heart' and 'not being there for protection'. This is explicitly referring to said real-life divorce and how Martin is calling her out for divorcing him in song.
- Shout-Out: Martin Gore can be seen on the back cover sporting a "God Save the Queen" tee shirt.
- Singer-Songwriter: "Suffer Well", "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible" written and performed by Gahan, with "Macro" and "Damaged People" written and performed by Gore.
- Step Up to the Microphone: As usual Martin Gore sings two songs: "Macro" and "Damaged People".
- Title Drop: "Playing the angel" is casually mentioned in the beginning of the last track, "The Darkest Star".
- Trip Hop: On the slow-burning, creepy "The Sinner In Me" and "The Darkest Star", nodding back to the prominence of the style on Exciter and the non-album material immediately after Ultra.
- True Love Is Boring: "I Want It All", penned by Dave Gahan, seems to address the narrator's belief that their partner giving them everything isn't enough and only brings the narrator pain.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Following the lighter tones of 2001's Exciter, the band follows up their previous album with a group of dreary and yet atmospheric songs that stand out as their darkest work, influenced largely by the current events occuring in 2005. Then after PTA, they would return their more sexually-driven and political themes, yet convey them in a more upbeat and uplifting way.
