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Rating: Yes, I know, this album has already been reviewed twice (or rather one and a half times), but honestly, and with all due respect, I think it hasn't been done full justice yet. So I want to share my opinion, hoping and deluding myself to set things right. "Playing The Angel" is truly a great album, a new surprising chapter in the series "great bands that seemed finished and yet..." even though calling Depeche Mode finished always risked making a bad impression or at least they seemed less worn out than many others. Of course, "Exciter" had left us at least puzzled, an album too pretentious, at times banal and slow, at times pleasant and at times sharp and irritating, which failed in the attempt to find a balance between melody and experimental noise, which instead had always been the strength of Depeche Mode, creating over the years fantastic and futuristic music.
"Playing The Angel" at first seems even worse! A complicated album, almost annoying, that transmits a slight sense of anxiety and offers rare melodic glimpses, an album with a fast-paced and nervous, suffering, claustrophobic, twisted and crumpled rhythm upon itself, but above all an album dark, heavy, desperate and gloomy, I dare say almost dark. Only that in the end, there's an intriguing taste left in the mouth that makes you want to sample it again, and when this happens, it means something extraordinary is about to happen...
... and indeed it happened. I'd say after at least six or seven listens, everything begins to reveal itself in its perfection, the previously hostile and dirty sounds become clear and enveloping, and everything unfolds in a kind of mysterious spell that only we who listen to "difficult music" have the patience to wait for and know how to recognize, traveling the road that leads to absolute beauty. Thus, I discover that it is precisely the sense of claustrophobia and anxiety, the being dark, twisted, and dirty, and the melancholic desperation barely contained, that make this album fantastic, which I would now define as a modern "Violator," more complicated and darker.
Twelve tracks with the same key interpretation. The first five in series, stunning, sparkling, and sharp as blades starting from the ear-splitting attack of "A Pain That I'm Used To" which is an electronic rock 'n' roll, followed by the captivating "John The Revelator" which is a sort of cyber-blues, then there's "Suffer Well" strange and tight, indeed suffering, with sounds that recall the past, and then comes "The Sinner In Me" the most beautiful of the sequence, incredible, slow, sinuous and obsessive hypnotic ride on a single note that opens into a heart-wrenching chorus and then starts pounding hard again, stuff that's good from midnight onwards, until reaching "Precious", the famous single, which may be radio-friendly and catchy but damn if it's beautiful.
Then it slows down, the sixth track "Macro" sung by the immense creator of everything Martin Gore, starts fascinatingly but then gets lost in a somewhat too lyrical structure making it seem like a piece written for a musical. And when you're about to lose the thread, suddenly the bullet hits you in the heart, it's called "I Want It All" a fantastic and inescapable song, timeless, which will remain in our memories and in the anthologies of electronic music, a perfect paradigm of the new Depeche Mode. But it's not over here, because the crime repeats itself immediately after, second bullet, "Nothing Is Impossible" delirious electronic dark tending slightly towards the gothic, with a relentless and obsessive pace, a black and dark song that's chilling. Goosebumps. Then it slows down again with a short instrumental piece titled "Introspective" followed by "Damaged People" sung again by Gore which repeats some of the shortcomings of the other.
Before the end, however, comes the third bullet, the definitive one. It has a woman's name, "Lilian" fast and sharp, melancholic and shining pop-electronic lightning, I'm almost afraid to say it, but perhaps it's one of the most beautiful Depeche Mode songs ever. The album closes with a difficult track "The Darkest Star" vague melody, slow rhythm, and twisted arrangement, fascinating but elusive, changing continually and perhaps requiring more listens (which there will be no shortage of).
Behind the CD there is a writing, six words that perfectly summarize the album and make everything I have written unnecessary: "PAIN AND SUFFERING IN VARIOUS TEMPOS".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 A Pain That I'm Used To (04:11)
I'm not sure what I'm looking for anymore
I just know that I'm harder to console
I don't see who I'm trying to be instead of me
But the key is a question of control
Can you say what you're trying to play anyway
I just pay while you're breaking all the rules
All the signs that I find have been underlined
Devils thrive on the drive that is fueled
All this running around, well it's getting me down
Just give me a pain that I'm used to
I don't need to believe all the dreams you conceive
You just need to achieve something that rings true
There's a hole in your soul like an animal
With no conscience, repentance, oh no
Close your eyes, pay the price for your paradise
Devils feed on the seeds of the soul
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
All this running around, well it's getting me down
Just give me a pain that I'm used to
I don't need to believe all the dreams you conceive
You just need to achieve something that rings true
All this running around, well it's getting me down
Just give me a pain that I'm used to
I don't need to believe all the dreams you conceive
You just need to achieve something that rings true
02 John the Revelator (03:42)
John the Revelator, put him in a elevator
Take him up to the highest high
Take him up to the top where the mountains stop
Let him tell his book of lies
John the Revelator, he's a smooth operator
It's time we cut him down to size
Take him by the hand, and put him on the stand
Let us hear his alibis
By claiming God as his holy right
He's stealing a God from the Israelites
Stealing a God from a Muslim too
There is only one God through and through
Seven lies multiplied by seven
Multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well who's that shouting, John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well who's that shouting, John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
By and By
By and By
By and By
By and By
Seven lies multiplied by seven
Multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well who's that shouting, John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well who's that shouting, John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
By and By, By and By
John the Revelator
By and By, John the Revelator
By and By, John the Revelator
03 Suffer Well (03:49)
Where were you when I fell from grace,
a frozen heart an empty space
Something's changing it's in your eyes,
please don't speak they're only lies
I found treasure not where I thought
peace of mind that can't be bought,
Still I believe
I just hang on, and suffer well
sometimes it's hard, it's hard to tell
An angel lead me when I was blind
I said take me back I changed my mind
and now I believe
From the blackest room I was torn
you called my name, a love was born
So I believe
I just hang on, and suffer well
sometimes it's hard, it's hard to tell
I just hang on, and suffer well
sometimes it's hard, so hard to tell
04 The Sinner in Me (04:56)
If I could just hide
The sinner inside
And keep him denied
How sweet life would be
If I could be free
From the sinner in me
I'll never be a saint
That's not a picture that your memory paints
Not renowned for my patience
I'm not renowned for my restraint
But you're always around
You can always be found
To pick me up when I'm on the ground
If I could just hide
The sinner inside
And keep him denied
How sweet life would be
If I could be free
From the sinner in me
I'm still recovering
Still getting over all the suffering
More known for my anger
Than for any other thing
But you've always tried
To be by my side
And catch my fall when I start to slide
If I could just hide
The sinner inside
And keep him denied
How sweet life would be
If I could be free
From the sinner in me
05 Precious (04:10)
Precious and fragile things
Need special handling
My God what have we done to You?
We always try to share
The tenderest of care
Now look what we have put You through...
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you
If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
I pray you learn to trust
Have faith in both of us
And keep room in your hearts for two
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
06 Macro (04:03)
Overflowing senses
Heightened awareness
I hear my blood flow
I feel its caress
Whispering cosmos
Talking right to me
Unlimited, endless
God breathing through me
See the microcosm
In macro vision
Our bodies moving
With pure precision
One universal celebration
One evolution
One creation
Thundering rhythm
Pounding within me
Driving me onwards
Forcing me to see
Clear and enlightening
Right there before me
Brilliantly shining
Intricate beauty
See the microcosm
In macro vision
Our bodies moving
With pure precision
One universal celebration
One evolution
One creation
11 Lilian (04:49)
Oh Lilian
Look what you've done
You've stripped my heart
Ripped it apart
In the name of fun
Oh Lilian
I'm a poor man's son
And precious jewels
Weren't found in schools
Where I came from
Pain and misery
Always hit the spot
Knowing you can't lose
What you haven't got
Oh Lilian
I should have run
I should have known
Each dress you own
Is a loaded gun
Oh Lilian
Oh Lilian
I need protection
I hear your voice
And any choice I had is gone
Oh Lilian
Once I'd begun
I couldn't stop
Till every drop
Of blood was sung
Pain and misery
Always hit the spot
Knowing you can't lose
What you haven't got
Oh Lilian
Look what you've done
You stripped my heart
Ripped it apart
In the name of fun
Oh Lillian
Oh Lillian
Oh Lillian
Oh Lillian
12 The Darkest Star (06:55)
Oh you sad one
Playing the Angel
Isn’t so easy where you’re from
Oh you wild one
Devil’s companion
You won’t stay satisfied for long
I don’t want you to change anything you do
I don’t want you to be someone else for me
Oh you dark one
Eternal outsider
Caught in the spider’s web you’ve spun
Oh you blind one
Gentle and kind one
Seeing the world as a loaded gun
I don’t want you to change anything you do
I don’t want you to be someone else for me
Stay as you are the darkest star
Shining for me
Majestically
I don’t want you to change anything you do
I don’t want you to be someone else for me
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Other reviews
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
The first notes of the new work announce a return to the origins, a balanced piece that is at the same time simple and brilliant.
Honoring the mysterious charm that still envelops this immortal band and its devotees even after 25 years.
By ma3x
Once the CD was put in the CD player, I shut up (which for some is really an event...).
It’s rough, dirty just right (probably the hard covers from various Manson types added a bit of spice)...
By Torre Ste
"The first track must capture the listener’s attention, and this song succeeds completely, marking a return to the golden years of the group’s sound."
"‘Precious’ is somewhat the new ‘Enjoy The Silence,’ with the same bite, the same melancholy, the same minimalism, yet at the same time as bright as few."
By Boris
"Playing the Angel seems to be a synthesis of two distinct periods of DM: those of the early ’80s and those of the late ’80s and early ’90s."
"DM have conceived an album worthy of their best works, capable of synthesizing 25 years of music as only a few bands can do."
By slyde81
Without much astonishment, we move to the following and more convincing John The Revelator, where we magically go back in time, to the periods of Violator or even Music For The Masses.
This comeback can never be compared to gems like Violator or Songs Of Faith And Devotion, perhaps it’s even a tad below Ultra, but the three survivors still have something to say.
