Sometimes it’s the unlikeliest of scenarios that can produce favourable results. I read some speculation within the last 18 months, that in the wake of Dave Gahan’s solo album, he was demanding songwriting credits on the next album, and the band were heading for a ‘crisis meeting.’ I was beginning to wonder if this was the end of the Mode, and would their last hurrah be the more diminished and ironically tepid, “Exciter”.
Thankfully it was not. They worked out a system by which Producer Ben Hillier chose the tracks, stuck to a more controlled environment under the strings of Hillier, and Playing the Angel is the resulting product, and blow me down if it isn’t the best thing they’ve done as a three-piece. The Mode always had the duties defined and demarcated. Martin Gore was the songwriter, Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher and Alan Wilder were the engine room, and David Gahan was the sex-symbol front-man that sang the songs. With Wilder’s departure, a greater
Playing the Angel from the outset surpasses those records with two major distinctions. 1) The most cohesive album since Violator. 2) It apologises for nothing and doesn’t shirk any responsibility. The whirrings that ended Exciter are lifted to give an almost seamless introduction to A Pain That I’m Used To, a brash self-effacing infectiousness that amalgamates the strengths of not only Violator, but work around Black Celebration era DM. John The Revelator has a Gospel Songs Of Faith And Devotional feel; Bluesy-electronica incarnation about St. John (reportedly responsible for Revelations) which works as brilliantly as I feel you and Personal Jesus ever did.
Suffer Well is also reminiscent of Classic DM, and one of three Gahan-penned tracks to make it on the album. It’s not the only track that wouldn’t be out of place in their back catalogue. Including the album opener and Suffer Well, Lillian, The Darkest Star also have that feel of the Speak and Spell/ A Broken Frame/ Construction Time/Black Celebration (i.e. the early Wilder era) that die-hard fans have probably been praying for ever since Violator. Gore may write the bulk of the material on showcase, but limits his lead vocals to Macrovision and Damaged People, and the former could certainly rival Goldfrapp’s early work for eerie seduction. His vibrato is worthy here.
This sense of brooding seduction is also apparent in I Want It All, another Gahan penned delight. Nothing’s Impossible has this sense of lurking sinisterly that fans of Depeche Mode at their darkest would crave, as does the Darkest Star, a tremendous closer to the album.Perhaps the most surprising thing of all, is in listening and noticing similarities from previous successful albums, Playing the Angel takes on an identity all it’s own.
This is undoubtedly their best record as a trio.
Craig Aston.
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