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Rating: Let me tell you... Depeche Mode have always "sucked" for me (hmmmmm I could have found a kinder euphemism, but I'm average-sized and survived the eighties unscathed (so to speak))...
I've never been able to stand them, even when they were popular in the eighties (for those younger than my 165 years [wait, you are 165 years old, awesome! ed.] you need to know that in that century, saying you listened to certain bands was "cool" and perhaps some peer would allow us a fleeting touch (one day, perhaps, I'll write a big article about the eighties, properly and from the inside))... the older ones will remember those little marches farted out by jammed synths and similar stuff (yes sure, some songs weren't even that bad)... I'm in a bad mood... for some time musically and politically such garbage has been circulating that one can only retreat to the corner of the classics... oh yes, right, we were talking about Depeche Mode... so given the reluctance, it wasn't easy for me to smile when a friend of mine showed up at my house with the CD to mooch dinner and cigarettes...
Even before putting it in the CD player, like a drunken and pensive Don Quixote (it's not always easy to insert this term in a sentence, but it sounds nice) I expressed all my repugnance for the group in question... so it might have been the alcohol or something else, but once the CD was put in the CD player, I shut up (which for some is really an event... like if Berlusconi were to say something sensible on TV even once)... with each track I got angrier because at the end of the CD I would have to admit someone was right (even more absurd than the previous thing)...
So, first impressions... it's a good album... oh yes sure, those expecting the usual little marches will be a bit disappointed... it's rough, dirty just right (probably the hard covers from various Manson types added a bit of spice)... so I forget (oops... "forget") that the album is by "THE WEAK FISH" and enjoy it a few more times... let's hope they don't use any of the tracks for phone company commercials or ham or any other product (see latest Rolling Stones)... otherwise, I'll be disgusted... but back to us... oh yes, right, I've already said everything (or maybe nothing) anyway (I don't write cmq or tvb or cvccvcvcgfg... let's go back to writing full words... screw whoever invented SMS)... if you've listened to it, maybe let me know if you liked it, but if you didn't, I don't give a damn (I hate being contradicted... and I'm always right because fundamentally I'm an idiot)!!!
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 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 Giordyboy
"PAIN AND SUFFERING IN VARIOUS TEMPOS" perfectly summarizes the album.
"Perhaps it’s one of the most beautiful Depeche Mode songs ever."
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.
