Playing the Angel

Their best since Violator and M4TM.

❤️

Love the album, Precious is in my top 10 favorite Depeche Mode songs.

This album starts off incredibly strong, and barely wavers till the finish. . "John the Revelator" just jams forward, with a great hook and melody. "Pain that I'm Used to" and "Sinner in Me" are two great standout tracks as well. "Precious" is vintage mode...the kind of song they could do in their sleep if they ever wanted to go into auto-pilot. "Suffer Well" is easily Dave Gahan's best songwriting contribution in his Depeche career. Both Martin vocal songs, "Macro" and Damaged People" are great, and the album rounds out nicely with "Darkest Star", a dark, apocalyptic sounding epic. This would prove to be Depeche's last album that is strong from start to finish.

Under rated brilliant song!

Precious alone is worth buying this album. This song reminds me of Violator days. Writing, vocals, layers of music genius.

This album is aboslutely AMAZING! Is it as perfect as 'Violator' or 'Songs of Faith and Devotion'? No, but that doesn't mean this album isn't perfect for a modern Depeche Mode album. Lyrics are amazing, the music is amazing! This album is just... amazing! While I still can't say it beats 'Violator' or 'Songs of Faith and Devotion', dare I say this, it's debatable to see if it's better than the 80's albums. But for now, I say Depeche Mode did an amazing job on this album!

I'm a post Violator Depeche Mode fan. Ultra was really the first record I loved and the two, for me, feel sequential. I like material scattered from other records yet Playing feels complete and epic.

There are three songs which I think are genius: "Precious", "Nothing's Impossible", and "Suffer Well". These songs are a deep mix between dark stuff from The Cure and the more modern synthesizers of Nine Inch Nails. It's a great emotional, inter-personal, and electronic sound that makes you think as well as feel (like all of their work). All of the songs on this collection are geared more for the older fans that have been there from the beginning (when one of Erasure's members was with them!). With every new Mode album, it's difficult to tell which direction they're headed. They led the future with the pop/sensual sounds from Violator, which adored them the most singles in 1990. Yet with the new album, they seem to be attempting a blend of old and new. In my opinion, it works with some songs, but not all. If you were never interested in DM's early experimental sounds, then download only those three aforementioned songs. On the other hand, if you've been a die-hard fan since the '70s and can appreciate more experimentation, the entire album just may be for you.

In my opinion, PTA is Depeche's most listener-friendly album since Violator and one of the best post-Wilder albums. For those complaining about "John The Revelator"'s poor lyrics, do note that it is an old folk song DM added only a few words to and turned into a full track. So take it as it is, a unique song, and move on.