Depeche Mode

Playing the Angels

Released 18-October-2005

#10

Hands down the biggest and best comeback of the year belongs to Depeche Mode. Playing the Angels, the eleventh album in the band’s 25 year career, is the second best Depeche Mode cd of this year (you’ll find out what I mean by that later). Don’t get me wrong, this truly is the second coming of Depeche Mode (or is it third?), it’s just that someone else managed to do it a little bit better.

Playing the Angels is unquestionably Depeche Mode’s best since 1990’s Violater and in my opinion, one of their best ever. From the opening wail and pulse of A Pain That I’m Used To to the final sonic deconstruction that is The Darkest Star’s gentle piano and swirling synthesizers, this is the Depeche Mode long-time fans have been waiting years for. The disc is good because it doesn’t try too hard, it doesn’t rest on the band’s previous laurels, and it certainly isn’t caught up in trying to incorporate the latest trends or musical revolutions. Rather, it fills a niche in the current music scene by providing a mature take on ‘80s Post Punk/New Wave analogue sound while meshing with today’s digital evolution. It takes a godfather to put together something like this and Depeche Mode succeeds at every turn.

The most wonderful aspect of Playing the Angels is that nothing is overdone. Older bands have a tendency to try too many tricks, add too many bells and whistles, and lose their focus and intensity. Either that or they barely even try. Playing the Angels is stuffed with intensity and finds its best moments in opener A Pain That I’m Used To, The Sinner in Me, and the first single Precious. Each song contains the signature Depeche Mode detached coolness courtesy of Martin Goore’s suave delivery and is fueled by buzzing, whirring, and ringing touches that add a subtle sophistication to the proceedings. This multi-layered approach, which grows on the listener with subsequent listens, is exactly the same technique which made DM key-note songs Personal Jesus and Enjoy the Silence from Violator so enjoyable at the time and allows them to continue to be today. The trio of songs that I mentioned from Playing the Angels, along with a few that are bound to sneak up on the listener as the disc becomes more familiar, are just as memorable and intricately produced as their predecessors and in my opinion, destined for similar longevity.

Like Duran Duran’s self-titled “Wedding Album,” which came out of nowhere in 1993 and is still pretty damn good today, Playing the Angles will stand out in the future as a late entry high water mark for Depeche Mode, a band that never seems to go away. As Martha Stewart would say, “And that’s a good thing!” So if nothing else, this album proves that even while the new crop of hipster bands pillage from the past, the past is not yet completely dead and buried. Rather, some, like Depeche Mode, are still standing just over their shoulders.