Pain And Suffering In Various Tempos

A Brief Review of Depeche Mode's new album: Playing the Angel

You have to understand that I still consider myself a DM snob. I think that they hit their peak with Black Celebration, Music for the Masses and Violator. Songs of Faith and Devotion was interesting but a let down after Violator. Ultra was interesting but still along the same lines of SoFaD. Exciter was a huge disappointment. Frankly, when Alan Wilder left the band, it was a huge loss for them as the music is not as layered or complex as before. Lyrically, however, the band is still in form and in fact, gotten better.

After the last Cure album, I was prepared for a major disappointment. I am pleasantly surprised. There are some really good tunes on this CD but sadly, it fails to achieve the greatness achieved by Violator. In fact, this is the first album since Violator that in my mind features as many foot stomping songs as Violator. The band heads straight into the album with a foot stomping "A Pain that I'm Used to" that is sure to be popular at concerts. "John the Revelator" and "Precious" are the closest the band comes to the raucous atmosphere created by "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence" that fans have become accustomed to on the band's tours. Pleasant surprises come in the form of Dave Gahan's contributions. "Suffer Well," "I want it all" and "Nothing's impossible" are the tracks penned by Dave and are much better than his solo effort from 2003. He's learned well and the tracks do not stand out as being strange (which could not be said of contributions by Alan Wilder on the much older Construction Time Again.

If you are like me and were totally obsessed by Depeche Mode about 10-15 years ago, then I think you will be pleasantly surprised by this album. We might be much older now but there's still plenty to enjoy by this band. It will be released on October 19 here in the US and a tour starts shortly thereafter.