Even way back in the 80s, I thought that the dancier tracks were more immediately accessible but a really good slower song was often the best song. It's just that really good slower songs were rare compared to mediocre and unexciting slow songs. One thing that Martin Gore did mention in the Making the Angel mini-documentary is that he had been DJing a lot, and he was perhaps a little surprised even himself at the tempo that Playing the Angel had. So it's not surprising that when Precious was a remarkable enough single to motivate me to go buy the new DM album; the first time I'd done so in fifteen years, I might add, I found the album pretty accessible overall, and never had much problem adapting to it and liking it right away.
There's some stuff that is not said in the documentary, but which almost certainly plays into the formulation of the album. There's chatter that Dave Gahan and Martin Gore were really at odds about song-writing. Gahan, having released his own solo work (with a couple of collaborators) Paper Monsters in 2003, really wanted to contribute some songs to this album. He had mentioned earlier that he mad material for Exciter, but didn't feel that it was the right time to bring it up. Apparently Fletch patched up this rift and offered some kind of compromise that was accepted. In any case, of the twelve tracks on Playing the Angel, three are Gahan tracks (with Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott; the latter two wrote the music while Gahan wrote the lyrics.) Given Gore's writers block last time out, this was probably a good thing. Gore was also undergoing a divorce or separation at the time, which may have contributed to the rougher, edgier sound compared to Exciter. I have to also suppose, not that any of the band have admitted it, that the general reception to Ultra and Exciter may have been a bit of a wake-up call to the band that they were migrating too far from their branded sound to retain their fans' good will. Playing the Angel is often seen as a kind of throwback sound to their "golden years"; I think it actually sounds quite a bit like Songs of Faith and Devotion in many ways. A Pain That I'm Used To has a very I Feel You sound to it in particular. Precious is often compared to Enjoy the Silence. In fact, I've even seen some fans go so far as to say that Playing the Angel is a tired and cynical retread of their Violator/Songs era. I think this is a bit unfair; it certainly returns a bit to the sound that Depeche Mode had cultivated for a long time. And Precious in particular is one of their better tracks overall; it compares well to anything that they've done in their entire repertoire.
I think that that becomes a bit of a feature going forward, though. Depeche Mode needed to put stuff out that pleased the fans, so that they can sell albums and have an excuse to tour, which is where the real money is. Their concerts play a few songs from their current album; half a dozen at the most, and then focus on old fan favorites in general, if reports are to be believed (I've only seen Depeche Mode once in concert, and it was the Playing the Angel tour; that certainly summarizes that show. Which is fine; that's exactly what I would have wanted too.)Anyway, it's a bit curious about Playing the Angel and my reaction to it. After having been disappointed and even in fact quite apathetic or even antagonistic towards picking up new Depeche Mode following Songs of Faith and Devotion (I didn't pick up or even listen to Ultra or Exciter until after Playing the Angel was out, and I'd never bought Songs of Faith and Devotion either, although while I was still hanging around close to home, I could always listen to my brother's copy when I wanted to) I heard Precious on the radio (itself a pretty monumental thing, given that I don't really listen to the radio and haven't since about 1987 or so, unless I'm accommodating someone else in the car. I went out and got this album (and eventually the other three that I had missed previously, and kind of made my peace with Depeche Mode and where they were.
In general, I'd say that the quality and sound of this album compares very closely to Songs of Faith and Devotion, but my attitude towards it had changed quite a bit; rather than being disappointed with that, it was more than I'd hoped for after so many years.
Anyway, I'm going to modify the five questions some what; rather than talking about the most radical track, because I don't think that I've been able to pick one that I thought I had anything interesting to say on that topic for most of these albums, I'm going to change question 2, 3 and 4 to just discuss a few highlight tracks in general, and then I'll pick a best track out of that discussion. I won't number my questions anymore either; it'll just be a discussion on what songs I don't like, culminating in my least favorite, a discussion on the songs I do like, culminating in my favorite, and then a ranking. I'm finding with regards to the rankings, that going through this comparison and listening to the albums again as part of it means that I'm reassessing a lot of stuff that I thought that I knew about the albums, or thought that I thought about them, maybe more accurately. When I'm done after catching the next three, I'll do a big summary, where I rank all of the albums worst to best. I might even do it as a YouTube or podcast format rather than a blog post.
But before I start discussing the tracks I should point out that the selection is rather broad, and should include a number of other tracks that have the same general vintage as the album but which aren't on the album itself, notably Martyr, which they decided to save (it was supposed to be the opening single from this album) for the greatest hits compilation that they put out a little bit later. There are also three really quite good b-sides from this era; Free, Newborn and Better Days. They are quite good; certainly better than the ugly, awkward Martin Gore ballads and the somewhat pointless instrumental, at least, although I don't think I'd say that they necessarily are the same calibre as the best tracks of the album.
I guess without really meaning to, I introduced the three worst tracks on the album right there. Introspectre is a little two minute instrumental, and it's not nearly as good as some of the very early instrumentals. Although even then, I don't think the Depeche Mode instrumentals are really wonderful; even back on Speak & Spell or A Broken Frame, I'd rather have had some of the b-sides in their place, I think. (Curiously, for the American release of those two, the tracklistings were quite different than they were for the British releases, and the b-side instrumental Further Excerpts from: My Secret Garden was an album track for us. Go figure.) In any case, Introspectre is kind of pointless, but it doesn't offend. For that "honor", not surprisingly, the uncomfortable Martin Gore ballads get nominated. Damaged People is actually the less offensive of the two, and there are times when the melody and vocal harmonies remind me of some of the slower work by Erasure at times, which I thought was odd. Macro is definitely the worst song here, and the one that is just terrible. It absolutely gets the boot if I were the producer.
Much of the rest of the work on the album is quite good, actually. This is why I'd prefer this to Songs of Faith and Devotion; just the overall song quality is higher; Songs had more songs that I actively didn't like than this one, and this one has more songs that I do like, even though there are gradations there too. I actually don't think the Gahan songs are as good as the good Gore songs, but they're competent and I don't have any problem with the fact that they were included. Gore's writer's block seems to have given way to plenty of tracks this time around, given that the album itself has twelve, and a non-album single and three b-sides all came out of the same recording sessions. Even with three Gahan tracks thrown in, that's a decent number. Of the remaining tracks, much of which are quite good, I'll pick three particular standouts; John the Revelator (although the lyrics are very confusing; maybe that's a good thing; it's hard to be offended by the song if I can't tell for sure what it's talking about, although I kind of suspect that maybe I ought to be), Lillian and Precious. Precious may indeed have been somewhat similar, by design, to Enjoy the Silence, but it isn't a retread. I think it's clearly the best track from this period, and in fact, one of the very best tracks of Depeche Mode's entire oeuvre. But A Pain That I'm Used To, Suffer Well, The Sinner In Me, I Want It All, Nothing's Impossible, and Darkest Star are all quite good too, and as I said, the three b-sides from the era, Free, Newborn and Better Days should all not be missed.
I give the album a seven out of ten. That is the same score I gave the first three albums where Depeche Mode was figuring out their sound, and the same score I gave Violator. In general, I'd say I like this as much as Violator. Maybe it's not quite as much concentrated goodness, and it has a few miss steps (Macro, especially) but it works pretty well, and it's got a lot of good material. I like listening to it quite well. It's the high point of the last couple of decades, certainly.
I suspect, although I can't prove it, that DM are trying to kind of recreate the same type of album to keep the fans happy, but that they're also kind tired and bored of it. There are still some bright moments and good songs that come out in the albums after this, but it's almost by accident, because Gore and the rest of them are kind of phoning it in, trying to recreate the Violator/Songs era without trying to sound too much like that's what they're doing. I think they were burned by Exciter and the reception to it, and are worried that it will impact their ability to sell future albums and specifically ticket sales to their shows.
Realistically, they could probably do the shows without releasing new material completely, and maybe that would be fine. But then again, I could be wrong with my suspicion. It does do a pretty good job of explaining what we're seeing, though.
In any case, as I've gone over this, I've revised some of the scores for earlier reviews that I did, because I ended up giving Ultra a better score than I thought I was going to after listening to it again for the first time in quite a while, and listening to this and trying to figure out how well I like it compared to others. I actually dropped the scores for Speak & Spell and A Broken Frame just a bit to put it in better context, and because having five of fourteen albums all sitting at a seven seemed kinda like a cop-out, honestly.. I'll make a big summary when I'm done, but in the meantime, here's where I am right now:
- Speak & Spell (1981): 5
- A Broken Frame (1982): 6
- Construction Time Again (1983): 7
- Some Great Reward (1984): 9
- Black Celebration (1986): 10
- Music For the Masses (1987): 10
- Violator (1990): 7
- Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993): 5
- Ultra (1997): 6
- Exciter (2001): 2
- Playing the Angel (2005): 7
- Sounds of the Universe (2009): TBD (4) - added in edit
- Delta Machine (2013): TBD (3) - added in edit
- Spirit (2017): TBD
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