Playing the Angel is the first Depeche Mode album to feature writing contributions from lead singerDave Gahan.[4] He wrote the lyrics to "Suffer Well", "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible", while Christian Eigner and Andrew Phillpott wrote the music. Gahan is the lead singer on all songs except for the instrumental "Introspectre", andMartin Gore-sung tracks "Macro" and "Damaged People". Gahan also sings backing vocals on "Macro". Tracks recorded during thePlaying 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 forThe Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1. Other songs include "Free", which ended up on the "Precious" single and the Japanese version ofPlaying the Angel.
Lyrically, some of the themes that appear quite often are faith, sin, pain, and suffering. Gore said that the track "John The Revelator" talks about faith but claims that "It also denounces the belief in a god who punishes and damns".[5] Gahan explained that the origin of the track "Suffer Well" has to do with when a friend of his told him to "suffer well" (likely during his time as a substance abuser in the 1990s) and the line stuck with Gahan.[6] Another subject that Gore wrote about was his divorce from his wife. The track "Precious" was written about how Gore's children were coping with their parents' divorce. Gore stated that "[t]he song ends with the verse 'I know you've learned to trust / keep faith in both of us'. All of our songs, even the most depressive ones, contain hope".[7][failed verification]
Musically, the album has a much more raw and gritty sound than its predecessor. Gillian Telling ofRolling Stone described the album's sound as featuring "the band's classic blend ofsynth-pop beats, heavy guitar riffs and dark lyrics".[8] The album has been called a more organic record for using more analogue synths than digital ones. In addition, most of the soundscapes presented are harsher and groovier than the more mellowExciter. Producer Ben Hillier said that the verses on opening track "A Pain That I'm Used To" were extremely difficult to get right and Gore believed that the intro was also extremely difficult. According to Hillier, the choruses came together very well.[9][10] Gore also told Keyboard Magazine that he had been listening to a lot of gospel music and that it directly inspired the track "John The Revelator" though the track strays far from its inspiration. Hillier also recalled that the tracks "Suffer Well" and "The Sinner in Me" were massively changed from their original demos.[11] "Nothing's Impossible" was also massively changed from its demo and was transformed into one of the heaviest and more distorted songs on the album. The demo version of "Nothing's Impossible" appears on the deluxe edition ofSounds of the Universe.
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.
The album was released as aCopy ControlledCD and a deluxeSACD/DVD version (CD/DVD version in the United States) which includes the album on hybrid multi-channel SACD as the main disc and a bonusDVD featuring an exclusive studio performance of "Clean" (fromViolator), the video for "Precious", a photo gallery and a 5.1 mix of the album. There is also a documentary on the making of the album. All ten of the earlier Depeche Mode albums were re-released in similar format toPlaying 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, thoughPlaying the Angel's documentary is far less extensive and also shorter than the classic ones. The album was also released on vinyl as double LP housed in gatefold sleeve.
TheiTunes deluxe edition of the album has several bonuses, including another "bare" version of aViolator track, "Waiting for the Night", and the music video for "Precious". People who placed the album onpre-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 andTicketmaster.
Playing the Angel received generally positive reviews.E! Online andEntertainment Weekly gave the album high scores.Pitchfork gave the album a positive review, but criticized its lack of innovation. However, there are some negative reviews;Rolling Stone magazine rated the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, lower than the score received byExciter.Playing the Angel performed relatively well on several year-end lists such asQ magazine andPlaylouder. The album was ranked number 20 on E! Online's "Top 20 Albums of 2005" list and number 68 onWOXY's "Top 97 Albums of 2005". In a positive review,Pitchfork described the album as "one of those signature artifacts of the Adult Band: an album we hardly even need to review. Depeche Mode's core fans will flip for it; it's the best thing they've released in a long while".[22] TheRed Book version of the album is considered by numerous fans to bepoorly mastered,[23][24] relying on heavy compression to intentionally and artificially boost the output, especially when compared with the vinyl version that was mastered differently.[citation needed]
Playing the Angel debuted at number six on theUK Albums Chart, selling 32,505 copies in its first week.[25] In the United States, the album debuted at number seven on theBillboard 200 with first-week sales of 98,000 copies.[26] Both peak chart positions were improvements on the band's previous album,Exciter, which charted at number nine and eight, respectively, althoughExciter attained higher US first-week sales of 115,000 units.[26]Playing the Angel had sold 418,000 copies in the US as of November 2007.[27] By January 2007, the album had sold 1.6 million copies worldwide (excluding the US and Canada), according toEMI.[28]
The bonus DVD also includes a photo gallery. TheUMD release of the album contains the same material as the bonus DVD excluding the "5.1 and Stereo" mix of the album.
^"Top 100 Album 2006"(PDF) (in Spanish). Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 15 February 2010. Retrieved26 January 2014.
^De Luigi, Mario (January 2006)."Riscossa nazionale"(PDF).Musica e dischi (in Italian). p. 10. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 26 May 2015. Retrieved8 August 2020.
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