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Playing the Angel

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Untitled

Playing the Angel, released on 17 October 2005, is the eleventh full-length album by Depeche Mode. It was supported by the Touring the Angel tour.

The name "Playing the Angel" is taken from a lyric in the closing song "The Darkest Star". It is the third Depeche Mode album to get its name from a lyric in its album, the other two being Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward.

Overview

The album is the first of Depeche Mode's to feature Dave Gahan as co-writer: three of the tracks' ("Suffer Well", "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible").[1] Gahan wrote the lyrics to these songs, while Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott wrote the music. Gahan is the lead singer on all songs except for the instrumental "Introspectre", and Martin Gore-sung tracks "Macro" and "Damaged People". Gahan also sings backing vocals on "Macro", which was the first time he had sung backing on one of Gore's songs since Violator's "Sweetest Perfection".

The album has been called a more organic record for using more analog synths than digital ones. In addition, most of the soundscapes presented are harsher and groovier than the more mellow Exciter.

In mid-July 2005, the unfinished video for "Precious" was leaked online. It is believed to have been leaked through the website of the production team that helped make the video.

Tracks recorded during the Playing the Angel sessions that did not make the album include "Martyr", which was originally planned to be the lead single but was eventually deemed too poppy for the album and saved for their new The Best Of, Volume 1 album. Other songs include "Free," which ended up on the "Precious" single and the Japanese version of Playing the Angel.

The album was released as a standard CD and a deluxe SACD/DVD version (CD/DVD version in the U.S.) which includes the album on hybrid multi-channel SACD as the main disc and a bonus DVD featuring an exclusive studio performance of "Clean" (from Violator), the video for "Precious," a photo gallery and a 5.1 mix of the album. There's also a documentary on the making of the album. All ten of the earlier Depeche Mode albums were re-released in similar format to Playing the Angel, a CD/SACD hybrid (in the US simply a remastered CD) with a DVD featuring a 5.1 mix of each album and a documentary, though Playing the Angel's documentary is far less extensive and also shorter than the classic ones.

The iTunes deluxe edition of the album has several bonuses, including another "bare" version of a Violator track — "Waiting for the Night", and the music video for "Precious". People who placed the album on pre-order were eligible to participate in a ticket pre-sale for most Touring the Angel concerts – the first time such an offer was made by iTunes and Ticketmaster.

Reception

In the UK the album debuted at #6, and in the U.S. it debuted at #7 with sales of 98,000 copies.[2] Both peak chart positions are improvements on the band's previous effort, Exciter, which charted at #9 and #8, respectively, though Exciter's first week sales in the U.S. of 115,000 were greater.[2] With worldwide sales of 3.6 mil. copies, Playing the Angel is Mute Records' best selling album in the 2000s.

Track listing

All songs written by Martin Gore except where noted.

  1. "A Pain That I'm Used To" – 4:11
  2. "John the Revelator" – 3:42
  3. "Suffer Well" (Dave Gahan, Christian Eigner, Andrew Phillpott) – 3:49
  4. "The Sinner in Me" – 4:56
  5. "Precious" – 4:10
  6. "Macro" – 4:03
  7. "I Want It All" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott) – 6:09
  8. "Nothing's Impossible" (Gahan, Eigner, Phillpott) – 4:21
  9. "Introspectre" – 1:42
  10. "Damaged People" – 3:29
  11. "Lilian" – 4:49
  12. "The Darkest Star" – 6:55

Bonus tracks

  • "Free" – 5:11 (on the Japanese version of the album)
  • "Clean (Bare)" – 3:44 (on the DVD version of the album)
  • "Waiting for the Night (Bare)" (iTunes pre-order bonus track)

Reaction

Reviews have been mostly strong for Playing the Angel. E! Online and Entertainment Weekly gave the album high scores. Indie music website Pitchfork Media gave the album a positive review but criticized its lack of innovation. There are some negative reviews however - Rolling Stone magazine, historically unfriendly to Depeche Mode albums, gave the album a 2.5 out of 5, lower than the score received by Exciter.

The album was #20 on E! Online's top 20 albums of 2005 list and #68 on Woxy 97.7's top 97 albums of 2005.

The album is considered by numerous fans to be poorly mastered [1] [2], relying on heavy compression to intentionally and artificially boost the output. Due to the format's inherent characteristics, vinyl versions are unaffected by the perceived poor mastering of the CD versions.

Album art

The character on the album cover is a little creature called "Tubby Goth" (by the band) and "Mister Feathers" (by the label, the webmaster and the fans.) The cover design by Anton Corbijn is a tip of the hat to a famous still photograph of The Cure's Robert Smith circa "Boys Don't Cry".


Personnel

  • Dave Gahan – lead vocals (except "Macro" and "Damaged People"), backup vocals ("Macro")
  • Andy Fletcher – keyboards, bass
  • Martin Gore – keyboards, guitar, bass ("Suffer Well"), backup vocals, lead vocals ("Macro" and "Damaged People")
  • Ben Hillier – producer, mixer, engineer
  • Steve Fitzmaurice – mixer
  • Dave McCracken – programming, piano on "The Darkest Star" (miscredited to "I Want it All" in booklet)
  • Richard Morris – programming, engineer
  • Christian Eigner – drums, programming ("Suffer Well", "I Want It All," and "Nothing's Impossible")
  • Andrew Phillpott – programming ("Suffer Well", "I Want It All," and "Nothing's Impossible")

Chart positions

Chart (2005) Peak
position 		Certification Sales
Australian Albums Chart[3] 45
Argentina 30,000+
Austrian Albums Chart[4] 1 Platinum 30,000+
Belgium Albums Chart[5] 4
Brazil 10,000+
Canada 3 Gold 70,000+
Czech Albums Chart[6] 1
Danish Albums Chart[7] 1
Dutch Albums Chart[8] 11 Gold 25,000+
Finnish Albums Chart[9] 1 Gold 17,000+
French Albums Chart[10] 1 Platinum[11] 240,000+
German Albums Chart[12] 1 2x Platinum/Gold[13] 500,000+
Irish Albums Chart[14] 15
Italian Albums Chart[15] 1 x2 Platinum 225,000+
Mexico Gold 65,000+
Norwegian Albums Chart[16] 1
Portuguese Albums Chart[17] 1
Russian Albums Chart 3x Platinum 60,000+
Spanish Albums Chart[18] 2 Platinum 90,000+
Swedish Albums Chart[19] 1 x2 Platinum 65,000+
Swiss Albums Chart[20] 1 x2 Platinum 40,000+
UK Albums Chart[21] 6 Gold 120,000+
US Billboard 200[22] 7 Gold 550,000+
Europe Sales 1 Platinum 1,550,000+
Worldwide Sales Platinum+Gold 3,600,000+

References

  1. ^ Quan, Denise. "A Sobering Interview with Depeche Mode". CNN.com. May 13, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Whitmire, Margo. "Simpson Strikes Back: Ashlee Scores 2nd No. 1". billboard.com. October 26, 2005.
  3. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Australian chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  4. ^ "Discography Depeche Mode". AustrianCharts.at. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  5. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Belgium chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  6. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Czech chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  7. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Danish chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  8. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Dutch chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  9. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Finnish chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  10. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel French chart. Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  11. ^ "Depeche Mode Platinum certification". Infodisc.fr. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  12. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel German chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  13. ^ "Gold/Platin-Datenbank". MusikIndustrie.de. Retrieved 14 May 2009. Note: User must define 'Sie können nach Titel, Jahr oder Interpret suchen' search parameter as "Depeche Mode".
  14. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Irish chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  15. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Italian chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  16. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Norwegian chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  17. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Portuguese chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  18. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Spanish chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  19. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Swedish chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  20. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel Swiss chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  21. ^ "Depeche Mode Playing the Angel UK chart". Acharts.us. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  22. ^ "Depeche Mode > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
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