Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode
Easily As Good As Violator.
The blasphemous opinions surrounding Depeche Modes 2001 release
Exciter were well warranted. Exciter didnt supply Depeche Mode diehards
much in the way of dance tunes, and the experimental sounds drummed
up by Bjork producer Mark Bell strayed from the industrial standard in an
overly delicate, less than welcoming way. True fans, luckily, forgive and
forget and as well they should, given Playing the Angels return to dark,
brooding greatness. The first single Precious is an emotionally loaded,
characteristically long faced, distortion-pocked masterwork - a Personal
Jesus level accomplishment. Also on that order are Suffer Well; the
droning, lovely and altogether danceable Lillian; I Want it All, whose
muffled beats and blasts of suck-you-in static recall the industrial glory
days; and the simple, synthy exercise in hyper-intelligent pop that is John
the Revelator. Those songs make it easy to salute the band for parting the
sea of imitators and returning to its roots, but an obvious stain prevents
Playing the Angel from being a perfect album. Two tracks are the problem.
Some will find Macrovision lovely, but its arguable that theres no room for
trilling on a Depeche Mode disc. The same goes for Damaged People, a
dangerous, show-tune-ish flirtation. A couple of clunkers dont spoil the lot,
though, and this return to form will alienate few. All hail the 80s. --Tammy
La Gorce
If youre the kind of fan that mostly likes Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth,
and some of Depeche Modes other singles then you may be disappointed.
If you like the non-single tracks on any of their albums from Some Great
Reward onward then youll probably love this.
I decided it didnt make sense to just compare this to Depeche Modes other
albums (what worked decades ago doesnt 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 Radioheads Hail to the
Thief, e.g. some DM fans complained that this album sounded over-
produced but if you like Radiohead at all then youll like what they did here.
The faster paced tracks were more like Black Celebrati on 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 its own right (in my opinion, its as strong an album as Violator, in
fact it was better in some ways). The only tracks I wasnt 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 Modes sound has evolved over time and to call this
album classic can be misleading. I just dont 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. Its just
funny how some people expect a band to put out Violator clones for fifteen
years and still remain relevant.
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