Depeche Mode

Playing the Angel

Reprise / WEA

Grade: A

Depeche Modians everywhere can stop holding their breath. Four years is a long time to wait, but Depeche Mode’s latest release, “Playing the Angel,” transcends time and space. Implicit with spiritual and sexual innuendo, the new album stays true to DM’s creed, characterized by an electronic sound that can only be described as Depeche Modian.

The first track on “Playing the Angel,” invites fans back to the darkness they remember, begging “give me a pain that I am used to.”

“A Pain that I’m Used to” is an instant head rush issuing synthesized sirens in the intro and groovy electronic beats alternating between soulful lyrics of the verses and explosions of guitar and tempo at the chorus.

Tracks like “A Pain that I’m Used to” and “the Sinner in Me” recall early eighties Depeche Mode electronica that undoubtedly influenced Nine Inch Nails.

The band’s approach becomes experimental on tracks like “Lilian” and “Precious,” the first single of the album.

Mingling styles from “Exciter” and “Violator,” songs like “Precious” combine Depeche Mode’s raw, synthesized electronic sound of the early eighties with their progressively computerized electronica of the nineties.

The album was produced by the original trio David Gahan, lead singer, Andrew Fletcher, writer and producer, and Martin Gore, writer and producer.

Gahan’s vocals continue to be a definitive staple of DM’s style on every track of “Playing the Angel.” Gore gets credit for all the lyrics except for the second track.

An unlikely choice for DM, the band successfully covers “John the Revelator,” a gospel song originally recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1931. Granted Gore altered the original words, DM maintains the catchy sound that identifies the song, while blending it seamlessly with their style.

Diehard fans will not be disappointed with this album. “Playing the Angel” will likely become another DM classic.

 

--By Sarah Deason, Staff Writer